Pasalubong Ideas from Baguio – The Good, The Bad

First of all, I hope you all had a MERRY CHRISTMAS! Have a Blessed New Year everyone! 🙂

If you’ve been following my other blogs, especially my personal blog Just Another Pixel, you’d know that I just got home from a 5-day Luzon vacation. We’ve dined and bought a lot of goodies or pasalubong from our 4 destinations (yes, 4 destinations in 5 days! :D) and I’ll be writing about them in the coming days so make sure you keep posted for that.

To start, let me show you some of the goodies we brought home with us from Baguio. Some were really good and worth giving away; the rest, ugh. Read on for my Baguio pasalubong recommendations.

 

The Bad 🙁

Lina’s Chewy Milky Balls are too milky for me in a not so good way. The texture is also weird that I didn’t even finish one piece. Ken also didn’t like it at all. It tasted more of coconut (unpleasantly), even the texture or the chewiness.

Lina’s Chewy Choco Balls may look yummy in that photo, but they weren’t good at all. Well, at least for me. Again, just like the milky balls, the texture is way too weird and I barely tasted any chocolate. I think it’s just food coloring. 😐

I actually bought 2 variants of Jamber’s Lengua de Gato – chocolate and strawberry-flavored. I had high hopes that they’ll be good, but they were a big disappointment. First, they weren’t even crunchy. They were too soft and chewy. I want my lengua de gato a li’l crunchy, just like the ones from Pines Maid.

(The Good after the jump!)

 

 

The Good 😉

Now, on to my favorite / recommended pasalubong from Baguio!

Sundot Kulangot from Baguio – some may be turned off by the name of this very popular food from Baguio. But, it’s actually a smaller calamay packed in small thin shells. How it’s eaten – by using a finger to scoop up the calamay (made of glutinous rice) – is where the name was derived from.

I don’t really enjoy this as much as the calamay because it’s too small. But, I know a lot of people who enjoy this delicacy from Baguio.

Pines Maid Choco Flakes – one of my favorite goodies from Baguio! I love the crispy flakes and the flavors. If you ask me, Pines Maid makes the best pasalubong and goodies in Baguio.

Lina’s Ube Crinkles – I’m not a fan of Lina’s after I tasted their chewy choco and milky balls, but their flavored crinkles is kinda acceptable for my taste. I’m not a fan of Ube 😀 but I enjoyed this. I also liked Lina’s Pandan Crinkles, though the pandan flavor was barely there.

Baguio Paradise Peanut Brittle – I love the chunky peanuts and the caramelized sugar isn’t too sweet. If I only knew, I would’ve gotten more of this to give away as pasalubong to friends.

I also love MC Baguio Special Peanut Brittle, one of the more popular brands in Baguio. The peanuts are already chopped and the brittle itself is really on the sweet side.

Pines Maid Lengua de Gato is also one of my favorite pasalubong from Baguio! It’s crunchy and the taste makes me crave for more. In fact, I’m reaching for a piece while typing this.

Aubrey Rose Choco Mallows from Baguio is also on top of my list. Very generously chocolatey. 🙂

All the goodies before this sentence can be bought for 3-6 containers for Php 100. Most of the Pines Maid goodies are 3 for Php 100 ’cause they’re good. 🙂

Nothing beats freshly-picked strawberries! We picked these up ourselves at Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad. They cost Php 300 per kilo if you pick them yourself since you can select which ones you like, and also for those you’d eat while picking that won’t be weighed, and those you’d “accidentally” smash or destroy. 😀

If you prefer to buy the already packed strawberries, they usually cost Php 100-200 per pack. Make sure you haggle. We only paid Php 300 for a kilo and 1/4 of strawberries that we picked and Php 100 for 3/4 kilo of packed strawberries. 😀

Most of the strawberries we picked were already ripe, the rest are still green. My mother used them for her strawberry sinigang, and I’ll be sharing our recipe here! I used the ripe strawberries for our salad on Noche Buena. Keep posted for the recipes.

For vegetables and fruits, make sure you buy from stores or sellers at Strawberry Farm. They offer them for really cheap prices compared to stores at the Baguio market.

Ahhh… seedless Sagada oranges from Baguio. I so freaking love them! I can’t remember the price exactly, but I think we got around 8-10 for Php 200. They’re sweet and oh-so-good! There are a lot of sellers at the Strawberry Farm so make sure you haggle to get the best deal! 🙂

Of course, broccoli from Baguio. They sell broccoli for Php 40 per kilo! We asked here at our local market in Malabon and they cost Php 100-120 per kilo. Gosh. 😀

These lettuce are HUGE! We bought them for Php 25 per kilo in Baguio! Beat that! Again, we asked at our local market here and they’re selling lettuce for Php 60-70 a kilo. What a price difference, eh?

My mom bought 3 kilos each of lettuce and broccoli. We had to use the broccoli immediately ’cause they were already turning yellow. 😀

Make sure you also buy baby potatoes here because they sell them cheap, too. Too bad I wasn’t around when my mom was buying veggies, ’cause she didn’t think she’ll use them.

We went to Good Shepherd in Baguio to buy other favorites like their Ube Jam. You can buy these for Php 140 for the 12 oz bottle (pictured above) and Php 250 for 24 oz. I super love it! I love the consistency, the texture and, of course, the taste!

Good Shepherd jams and goodies are a li’l more expensive because you are actually donating for their cause (sending kids to school) when you buy their products.

We also bought Mango Jam (Php 95 for 8oz bottle) and Blueberry Jam (Php 160 for 12oz bottle). They have other fruit jams available, including Orange Marmalade, Santol Preserved, Strawberry Jam (we’ve had too much strawberries so we skipped this) and Guava Jelly.

Oohh, I love honey. I use it a lot to sweeten what I cook. I don’t use sugar as much anymore ’cause honey just makes everything taste better and with just the right amount of sweetness. Anyway, we bought this bottle for Php 250. We already haggled so we thought that it was a bargain considering we got to take off Php 70 from its original price. After a few minutes though, someone offered us a bottle for Php 200. 😀 So, make sure you haggle, haggle, haggle!

I love, love these strawberry and blueberry wines from Baguio. Some of the sellers say they’re pretty strong, but for a heavy occasional drinker like me, it’s just okay. I love, love, love the blueberry wine! If we didn’t have too much baggage already, I would’ve bought a box of these wines to keep and give away. 🙂

As of this writing, all the broccoli and strawberries are gone. Waaahh! I want more! And I so love the wine! I hope you’ll find my list Baguio pasalubong ideas useful when you visit the summer capital of the Philippines (in case you haven’t).

I so miss Baguio! In fact, when we came back here, we were kinda irritable because it was so humid or warm here back in Manila. I so miss Baguio. It was really cold during our last night over there that my brother and I wanted to purchase sometatuajeand other cigars being sold at the market just to beat the cold. But, I so miss the climate over there. I wish I could stay a li’l longer. *sigh*

Anyway, we can go back anytime to Baguio. I can’t wait! 😀

What are your favorite pasalubong from Baguio?

Share them at the comments section.