Eating at Farmer’s Daughter Restaurant would always give me that authentic, homey, Cordilleran feeling. Recently opened, it is already getting special place in the tummies of locals and highland visitors and making exemplary ratings among online cuisine and travel sites.

Location:	Tam-awan, Longlong, Baguio City, Philippines (just beside the entrance of Tam-awan Village).
Dining Hours:	9:00AM-8:00PM
Contacts:	Telephone: (074) 661 4384 Facebook Page: Farmer’s Daughter Official
How To Get There:	Just hail a cab along the Central Business District of Baguio; do not forget to tell the driver that it is just beside the Tam-awan Village entrance.

You might be wondering why a restaurant has found a place in this non-cuisine travel blog. Well, it could easily be justified that it is probably the only restaurant in Baguio City that exclusively offers pure authentic Cordilleran dishes in a rustic, homey, traditional environment. There are no non-Cordilleran dishes in their menu; a Cordilleran diner would likely notice that the dishes are of Ibaloi cuisine. Some of their offerings are featured below.

This table appendage confounds diners of its purpose; been there myself (LOL). Oh, I won’t divulge the secret behind this seemingly nonsensical portion of this certain table. Ask them when you get there and you will learn a bit about the Cordilleran architecture.

Update: the knob has been stolen by some restaurant client.

Ba-o

Coconut shells are traditionally used by Cordillerans in many ways. One of its use is seen in their dining table as soup bowls. An advantage of this over its plastic, ceramic, or metal counterpart is that when you hold it you will never get burned when the content is hot.

The foods…

So, let Farmer’s Daughter introduce you to some Cordilleran authentic foods. The following are but some of the entrees in their menu.

Kindot jen baboy

One of the basics in Cordillera in cooking meat is grilling. The word kindot came from Ibaloi term, meaning ‘grilled’; thus, kindot jen baboy is grilled pork (image below courtesy of Farmer’s Daughter Facebook Page).

Pinuneg

You should not miss this “bloody, yummy” Pinuneg when you order. A more popular cousin of this dish throughout the archipelago is the pork blood stew [dinuguan]. Unlike the dinuguan, pinuneg [blood sausage] ingredients are stuffed inside a cleaned large intestine of a pig, a technique also being practiced in Europe and many parts of the world (image below courtesy of Farmer’s Daughter Facebook Page).

To those who have never tried eating a raw watercress as a salad, this is a good place to try. The fresh watercress salad they offer is seasoned with herbs and spices.

Pising Tan Kinuday

It’s not you’re your typical lowland ginataang gabi, it is boiled taro stalks and leaves with bits of smoked pork meat.

Pak-pako

While some parts of the country only use fern as a decorative plant, some species are actually edible. Both Ilocanos and Cordillerans are knowledgeable of this and the term commonly used are pako, pak-pako, or pak-paku. This edible fern is commonly used as a side salad like how it is served in Farmer’s Daughter (image below courtesy of Farmer’s Daughter Facebook Page).

Kinuday

Kinuday is basically an Ibaloi etag (smoked meat) devoid of salt when processing. In a traditional Cordilleran home, wat-wat (large meat portions given during cañao) are usually pierced with an iron (bamboo or wood are also used), smoked above the traditional cooking fireplace for weeks to months (first image below courtesy of Farmer’s Daughter Facebook Page).

Mix-Mix (Tinadtad)

From its name alone, you know that this is a mix of the meats they are serving: kinuday, pinuneg, kindot, and innards (image below courtesy of Farmer’s Daughter Facebook Page).

There are more delicacies they offer such as Dinakdakan, Kindot Jen Bangus, ampalaya salad, Shanghai Kinuday lumpia, paytoy, and pita among others. They have also included cakes in the menu. The menu is quite pocket friendly. With its cheap prices, you get to taste unique Cordilleran delicacy in a homey, rustic environment. By the way, like in a western home, they use non-fat fresh milk in their brewed coffee.