The Best of Baguio Food with Erwan Heussaff

- In this episode, we're going
to show you some

of our favorite bites in the city,

from a whole pig snout

to blood sausage,
to Bakareta,

the perfect bowl of soup,
and other Igorot dishes.

I just want to smash this.

So tighten your belt buckles
and fasten your seatbelts

as we take a road trip
to Baguio.

But first, let's start
from the beginning.

Baguio's one
of the most famous cities

in the Philippines.

It's dubbed the
"Summer Capital of the Country"

and is a gateway into Benguet
and the Mountain Province.

It is by no means
off the beaten path.

I used to pass
through it mostly

to explore the Cordilleran
mountain range

and the breathtaking beauty
of the area.

But more recently,
I've lingered in the city

and found a side of it
that I never really saw before.

Amongst its fast development,
there's an unmistakable

rhythm here,
one that begs you

to slow down
and pay attention.

Even though it probably
looks very different

than it did 20 years ago,
there's a sense

of nostalgia in the air—

attention that pulls it
between the highly urbanized sensor

that it is and the groundness
of its history.

The food we will eat
and the people

you will meet today are probably
the best representation

of that.

Baguio's a really strange city.

It feels like it almost
shouldn't be where it is.

I mean,
you're in the Central Baguio,

it's really busy.

Lots of traffic nowadays,
lots of restaurants,

kind of feels like a city
that you'd find

anywhere else
in the Philippines.

What makes it really special
is that it's really built

on a mountain.

Once you go a bit further out
from the Baguio City Central,

you find places like this
that are literally built

on a cliff, and more
and more businesses

now are branching out
into these kind

of lesser known areas,
lesser densely populated areas

and you get beautiful views.

And finally, it starts
really feeling

like a special mountain town.

And it does have kind
of like this allure and magic

that is hard to find
anywhere else in the Philippines.

No wonder why so many people
beside it call this place home.

And yeah, it's a strange one.

You'll really want
to climb when you come

to the Philippines.