going vegetarian in cagayan de oro: Pili-an Cafe and Restaurant

I'm SO behind a lot of posts but I'm still alive, yes. Just drowning in a ton of work and because I'm saving for a laptop for blogging and everything right now so yaaayyy! Soon! The posts will come in droves the SOONEST, late into this year. Or early next year. I have a ton of posts to catch up on including a quick trip to Taipei I had last week for something and another one I had to Davao for close friends' wedding there from a month or more ago or so. 

Anyway, let me preface this one by saying I've had a long history with being vegetarian. I am mostly pescetarian and I don't think I can ever go full vegan because honey is heavenly in my salads, smoothies and some juices. But if I ever do go vegan successfully...hmn...I guess I can always live on coconut nectar, stevia and other plant-based sweetener alternates. I can't say where this history with the obsession with being vegeterian of mine started but I remember being a Carrie Underwood fan during American Idol. She's vegetarian, probably vegan now, so I learned, idolised her then and still now and therefore wanted to go the same way. I never followed other American Idol seasons as faithfully as I've ever had Season 4 with her, Bo Bice and more on it since. Anyway, on a more serious note, I've later realized that I've always wanted to be vegetarian for health, primarily, and environmental purposes.

Aside from wanting to be vegetarian for good health and the environment, I'm also an avid fan of clean skin care and beauty products particularly from those of Human Heart Nature. So since this is mostly my case now, or MY LIFE now, I've recently decided to just go and be pescetarian->90% vegetarian. Hmn, I think I'm about done with being a yoyo dieter. 

And onto the point of this post: Pili-An Cafe and Restaurant. I've been frequenting this place after every payday at work as of late. Nothing else comes close as a favorite right after it, here, in downtown Cagayan de Oro City. The other vegan restaurant I'm curious about, Buen Provecho, is in the uptown and quite far from here. I haven't been uptown in sooo long a time although it's my favorite place to shoot photos for this blog for with friends. Err...among other crazy activities I get myself and friends into when our free times jive with each others'.  

Pili-an Cafe and Restaurant offers a lot of fun things and when I mean 'a lot', I mean A LOT. For one, it's a cafe where you can get sikwate or tsokolate (local or homemade hot chocolate) and suman (local sticky rice dessert and/or snack) while just hanging out and watching the world pass by outside the window on any random day of the week. Just watch out when they're closed for whatever reason like rest day of their staff. Then they're just inaccessible for that day. This does not happen often though, thankfully.

Two, it's a restaurant, of course. You can get both vegetarian and vegan food here. Below are my favorites from them and those they offer in their menu.

The huge bowl of Veggie Bibimbap is HEAVEN. I've had this twice now. The most recent just being last week because the last payday was last week. Their Fresh Tomato Herbed pasta is also really super good. If vegan, you can just opt without the bread.

It's not THAT clear but this is their menu. I have other things I'm curious about from this one too so I may as well try some of these some other time...SOON. I predict I'll be more frequent here anyway. (Sometimes, I just wish there were more vegetarian and vegan haunts around here but there really aren't much so...)

And three (lastly), they are also a mart of sorts where you can get something like this vegetarian snack. It's the vegetarian version of the chicharon (cracklings frequently made of pork or pork rinds). 

My other favorites to get there are a bottle of laing (a local Bicol-area vegetable-only, coconut milk-based dish) in mild spicy variant and I'm still thinking of getting their soy sauce-like dip of sorts. A bottle is Php 150 so good luck to my budget this week and next week...hmn... They also have muffins-cookies hybrid that I like: Mookies. A box is now 145 Php or so but trust me when I say it's worth it because it is! These are really good, heaven-sent protein-, energy-heavy not-so-tiny, tasty things!

For more about them, you may check to their facebook page here: Pili-an Cafe and Restaurant.

Their Limketkai Mall-Robinsons Shopping Center branch used to be my go-to for late lunches way back. They served 3 kinds of rice toppings, all three use brown rice. Plus they're really not that heavy on the pockets compared to when eating at fast food restaurants here. But last week, I found out they had just closed. I guess the rent there is really high now so they couldn't afford to keep said branch. This is the saddest for me because I frequent that branch as it's quite close to my current workplace.

I predict I'll be here again sometime next week, maybe over the weekend. Friday is payday at work, after all! Yay!

dusty pink, maroon and the emmy's

vest top, what a girl wants ph. slip dress, vintage. heels, zalora. bangles, vintage and souvenir shop.

This is what I wore to dinner out to a pretty affordable vegetarian cafe and/or restaurant with the best girl friend last Saturday. In the previous posts, the top is a sort of asymmetrical vest but I was able to make it work as a tied-top this way last Saturday and today so it's all good. It's really good to have versatile pieces in the wardrobe so outfits are kept fresh even without having to shop constantly for all things new.

The cafe we went to is the one in Centerpoint Arcade and that which is owned by a lady who has been vegan for 15 years. It's name? Pili-an Cafe. Vegetarian/vegan restaurants are frequently expensive btu this one is not. It's most likely because a lot of the ingredients of the things they serve there are locally sourced. The friend and I shared the PIKA plate which consisted of vegetarian meat barbecue, a tofu burger/sandwich sliced times four, sweet potato (camote/kamote in our local language) fries and vegetarian chicharon (cracklings) priced at 280 Php. If you're a duo or trio of small eaters, this should be enough to fill you when in said cafe. It was enough for us and there were just a couple of us there for the dinner date. 280 Php is basically 5-6 USD when converted so yes, the things on the menu are indeed accessible price-wise. A lot of the things on their menu are interesting to me as a struggling vegetarian/vegan (I'm mostly pescetarian...) so I'm definitely going back there pretty soon. Other than food prepared in their kitchen and served in the cafe, they also have other things for sale like cookies at 65 Php a bag. The cookies are really good, they're pretty addicting. Other vegetarian/vegan cookies usually cost 300+ Php. They also have locally made basket woven bags, baskets and others. There's also virgin coconut oil at 180 Php a bottle I've been thinking of getting soon since the ones on drugstores here cost 20 Php more. The latter also doesn't come off pure or authentic, seems they add other things to the coconut oil they stock at Watsons and/or Mercury Drug. When it comes to these things, it's always best to buy the most local and the most limited in stocks. At least you're sure the oil is made from young coconuts and is purely virgin coconut oil this way. The only drawback we experienced in the cafe is that the ordered food took some time to be done and served. But this is not such a pressing matter as it assures you that the food is prepared fresh and clean in the cafe's kitchen since they make them the moment you give the server your orders. ....and next time I'm going back there, I am trying their all day breakfast just out of sheer curiosity of the corned vegetarian meat meal... Yep.

The Emmy's was last Sunday night, US time and Monday morning here. There were no channels, however, that aired it from what I've gathered channel surfing the contents of our basic cable package. I was able to watch the red carpet when it re-aired on E!News Asia yesterday (Tuesday), though. I kept tabs of the main awarding event on Twitter since I was too lazy to attempt getting hold of a live stream. I'm a huge television buff---well, I mean, I lessened my television watching lately but I'm still one regardless---and I watch a few things from American television like Brooklyn Nine Nine (season 5 is coming out! Yes! And Diva channel is airing it here, and I think, so is Jack TV!), HBO's Big Little Lies and Westworld so I was euphoric to find Big Little Lies nominated 16 times and winning most of their nominations at the Emmy's. Westworld did not get wins where they're nominated but as long as Big Little Lies made it there and gained recognition as good television content, I'm good. I don't watch the other big titles so I'm not so affected by the other results the same way others were. The Emmy's and the Grammy's seem to be the only American awards shows I'm into lately. There're so many things wrong with the Oscars and even the Golden Globes for me to keep tabs on both constantly. At least from the Emmy's I'd found new (to me) television series to check out like American Crime, Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale (it won best drama), and British series, Black Mirror. I'm curious about those. The Crown and FX's The Americans seem to have a lot of fans on Oh No They Didn't too. Anyway, moving on, I didn't mind Stranger Things not winning any of the nominations they had, I'm not a fan of the show nor have I seen an episode of it. I'm also glad HBO let Game of Thrones sit this one out. Actually, the thing is that the magic of Game of Thrones has gone, for me, after season 2 so I've abandoned that already since. My honest opinion is that Big Little Lies deserved all that they got out of the Emmy's. What I'm disappointed about, however, is Brooklyn Nine Nine not getting any nominations. This was more disappointing to me than Westworld not winning anything that awards night. 

In other rather everyday news, rain has been a constant as of late in the afternoons. There seems to be a low pressure area hovering around the islands. It's not really as major a concern as the hurricanes devastating the Caribbean Islands as of this moment so we're pretty much alright, still. It's the rainy season, however, so here's to everyone taking care not to get too flooded, wet and such.