Fresh Food from Refreshers

First Published at My Food Notebook
Republished with their permission

On our way home from Tagaytay a couple of weeks ago, we stopped by Refreshers for lunch. It's a very cozy and welcoming rest stop for that long trek home. They offer a wide variety of soups, hot and cold sandwiches, pasta, pizza, and a whole lot more.

Refreshers Burger (Php275)

Tagaytay Longganiza (Php240)

Low Calorie Cheesecake

The signature lemonade, which they specially marked a must try, is something quite unique. It's ice blended and has a distinct flavor of fresh mint making it a wonderfully refreshing drink.

Signature Lemonade (Php85)

Refreshers is also a great place to buy pasalubong items for friends and family or simply some fresh organic produce for that home cooked gourmet meal you've been planning.

"Refreshers, The Gourmet Diner along Km. 52 Aguinaldo Highway in Silang, Cavite, started out of an idea that fresh produce be made more conveniently accessible to its market as ready-to-eat items. The Refreshers menu offers a sumptuous serving of what grows most abundant in the Gourmet farm - organically grown lettuce transformed into a wide variety of salads freshly prepared in tamper-proof packs, cold & hot sandwiches, pasta & pizza and Refreshers Signature Cooler made from a special blend of herbs and lemonade, a drink everyone must try. Refreshers also has a sundries store where Gourmet products such as coffee, tea, pasta sauces, salad dressings, dips, potted herbs and organic produce abound. Truly, Refreshers is Gourmet's gateway to healthy living - a place where eating healthy is living well."

http://www.gourmet.com.ph/refresher-cafe/cafe

Taal Vista P2,888 nett. promo

In addition to the earlier low priced package offered by Taal Vista Hotel, the Hotel is offering its superior rooms at Php2,888 nett. No free breakfast for two at this price though.

Promo is not applicable on legal or non-working holidays and peak days.

For 2010 promo rates click: http://tagaytayridge.blogspot.com/2010/02/taal-vista-hotel-getaway-specials.html

Royale Tagaytay Country Club

I had lunch two weeks ago at Royale Tagaytay Country Club with is part of the Royale Tagaytay Estates. Royale Tagaytay Estates is a subdivision project located in Amadeo, Cavite. This made getting there a bit confusing, because while the place is called Royale Tagayatay, it is actually not located in Tagaytay City but in the neighboring municipality of Amadeo, Cavite. "Tagaytay" is used in the name to promote sales of the of the subdivision project.

The buffet lunch was very interesting with a wide variety of food choices, including a salad bar, a barbecue section, a Mongolian grill section and a noodle station. The food itself, is pretty good.



Unfortunately, the Club House is starting to look a little bit rundown, and there were plenty of flies in the buffet area, so the ambiance is not so great. The subdivision behind it does not appear to be heavily populated yet, which probably makes it hard to maintain the Country Club properly.

There is a nine hole golf course behind the country club, which is members only.

A recent addition to the Country Club is a new five room accommodation, open to the public, and the rates are about half those you would pay in a hotel or bed and breakfast in Tagaytay City itself, so it may be a decent choice if you are looking for low cost accommodations in the area.

Taal Vista Hotel Promotion

Taal Vista Hotel is offering discounted rates till end of the 2009.

(click the image to enlarge)

For 2010 promo rates click: http://tagaytayridge.blogspot.com/2010/02/taal-vista-hotel-getaway-specials.html

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Tawilis

Tawilis is a popular delicacy offered in many restaurants in Tagaytay City. What is a Tawilis? It is a freshwater sardine.

From Wikipedia:

Sardinella tawilis (sometimes obscurely referred to as the freshwater sardinella) is a freshwater sardine found exclusively in the Philippines. It is unique in that it is the only member of the family Clupeidae that is known to exist entirely in freshwater. Locally, they are known in Filipino as tawilis.

Tawilis populations are found only in a single lake on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Taal Lake, a large body of water in the province of Batangas that used to be the caldera of an ancient volcano. Before recent history, the lake was but an extension of the entirely-marine Balayan Bay. A major eruption in the 16th century essentially sealed the lake from the sea, eventually leading to its waters becoming non-saline. Sardinella tawilis is believed to be one of a few formerly-marine species trapped within the lake that have evolved into purely freshwater species.