I don't usually find going to fancy restaurants appealing, but for this place, I'd make an exception.
I was intrigued by the instaggramable bus displayed on the highway, it looked much like one of those 80's restaurants where you could order and go.
But the place was actually more aesthetic than I thought:
Incandescent light bulbs. Authentic cedar floors. Wooden chairs and tables. Tents. Giant white umbrellas. Iron plates. Retro utensils. Flowerpots and Napkin holders laden with nitty witty sayings.
The whole place just screams instagrammable, just enough to intrigue everyone living a bourgeoisie lifestyle. It is the perfect place to chill after malling at MOADTO Strip or going on a roadtrip around Bohol.
What about the food?
Well, the food was slightly too pricy for my taste. But I guess the bill was justified since I was not only paying for the food but also the ambience of the place and the aesthetics.
My family and I ordered carbonara pasta, chicken and beef pita rolls, a cordon bleu, and several drinks. I ordered butter beer because aside from having heard so much about it during my religious Harry Potter phase, I just was in a mood for something new.
And well… I found butter beer weird. A person could literally taste the butter and beer in the same glass, and if you are into that kind of fetish then I guess you should try it yourself.
The cordon bleu was probably the best among the dishes we ordered. The pita rolls were a wee dry, and the carbonara pasta was... well, a typical carbonara pasta. My brothers liked it well enough to finish the whole plate, but I guess I could not make a decent comment on it since I’m not that really into carbonara in the first place.
My grandma had a plate of chicken pita rolls.
She is the type of person who is wary around new food, but I brought her along anyway so she could experience new plates than her usual back home. Since her arthritic break out, she has been keeping a long ass list of criteria for all her potential meals.
She can’t eat anything with the following: pork, beef, veal or any red meat, mung beans, summer squash, eggplants, okra, cheese, tuna, shellfish, tilapia, burot-burot, legumes and the list goes on. This is the reason why all of us back home have been perpetually subscribed to chicken adobo, fried chicken, fried fish, scrambled or boiled eggs, pancit canton and the like.
I agree that the cholesterol, sodium and sugar-laden food doesn’t really scream healthy and all the more especially that diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis runs in my family, but it is the most accessible and convenient menu for now, especially since everyone in the house is way too busy to cook.
It would be nice of course to have enough time to go to the farmer’s market and buy fresh produce. How I wish I could allocate hours chopping and preparing vegetables for lunch, but with all the teaching-related paperwork I have to check and the rest of my hustler schedule, I just couldn't find time to squeeze in healthy cooking.
That's why after paydays, I take my family out once in a while and treat them to dinner. It's a good break for all of us back home and it also serves as a morale booster on my part to be able to reward my family from time to time. It makes me happy seeing them happy and them trying out new things 😊.
La Vara Restaurant is as instagrammable as it comes and it is especially great for tourists and road trip buddies, but it's most especially fun with family using money earned from a whole month hustle. You should try it for yourself!
Roxanne Marie is the twenty-year-old something who calls herself the Protean Creator.
She is a chemical engineer by profession, pole-dancer and blogger by passion and frustration, and lastly, a life enthusiast. She is on a mission to rediscover her truth through the messy iterative process of learning, relearning and unlearning. Currently, she works as a science and research instructor in her hometown, Tagbilaran City, all the while documenting her misadventures, reflections and shenanigans as a working-class millennial here on Hive.
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