Lunch at the Hippocrates Center in the Philippines called The Farm
At last my wife and I made that lunch date happen at The Farm in Batangas City but with my mother in law. It was quite a long but pleasant drive and adequate directions were given by the operator when my wife asked for directions.
After a more than 2 hour drive from Marikina we arrived in The Farm near the city of Lipa. We were a little late, past 12 noon so we parked and immediately went straight for the restaurant. It used to be called 85/15 stressing that they served 85% raw and 15% cooked.
I must warn you that I’m writing this review from the point of view of a raw foodist. I’m currently following the Wai Diet, majority raw fruit and add some raw fish and some raw eggs. Mono meals at that. I usually only eat 1 food item at a time. I don’t combine them. I have no problems with other approaches, I’m not religious, nor am I a fundamentalist. I’m open minded. I’m the kind of guy who just does whatever works. The Farm at San Benito subscribes to the mostly raw and vegan philosophy. There is no raw meat or raw eggs here.
Back to the lunch at The Farm. We chose a great spot at the edge of an open air balcony. Big forest trees out there, view of the mountain, a coconut tree being harvested of its fruits, a man chopping away while at the top. Some Indian tourists were there and it seemed it was the first time they saw a coconut man.
We had a reservation and had the set lunch of the day. It started with a soup and salad bar that was all you can eat. The red beet soup was cooked, there was sauerkraut, radish & carrot in vinegar, there were fenugreek sprouts, sunflower sprouts and of course salad greens, some other stuff I forgot what they were, they had tomatoes… oh nightshades, not for me, I’m an eczematic person, nightshades don’t agree with me.
Then came the set meal, all presented gorgeously, my wife loves these expensive looking presentations. An appetizer with some raw cracker like creation and mushrooms. I trust the mushrooms are safe. Then there was the main meal with a dividing line where the waiter said this half is raw and this half is cooked. Then came dessert, presented like pie. Sweet. Oh I couldn’t finish it. Too sweet and already too many food combinations for me. Remember I’m a raw foodist used to mono meals, my tummy isn’t used to this much combinations.
Did I tell you you could order the same foods as much as you want? All you can eat? All you can eat main course and all you can eat soup and salad bar. My wife ordered another main course set for the picture taking and she and her mother ate it all.
Somehow my wife didn’t seem to have enough yet and proceeded to order a la cart for a fruit with chocolate fondue and mango-coconut smoothie, a chocolote smoothie. Talk about pigging out on healthy food. Then she ordered some take out munch food. I don’t know what that is, I don’t eat “munch food”.
The food was great. Too much combination for me. But perfect for the transitionist. The usual rich people have lunch and dinners in several opulent courses. At least this is 85/15. But left on your own, the uneducated might pick too much cooked food. Or pig out. Or get a tummy ache from combining too many foods.
The restaurant 85/15 in the Farm at San Benito gets 5 stars if you are vegan. I’ll tell you about our tour of the place in another blog post.