Sab-atan II, Two Snouts

Sab-atan II, Dangwa Bus Station, Baguio City.
(Everybody knows that Dangwa is across the public market and predates the Center Mall, right?)

Sab-atan in the rain. Sigh, wishful thinking. (Photo by FP)

HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit graced our Sab-atan lunch with their presence, escorted by their ever-loyal chronicler, the Nashman. For Fritson and us girls, the fine company of the dawgs and the Nashman were the highlight of the meal.

Fritson with the Dawgs (Photo by FP)

We got 8 chewy pieces of lechon kawali on a bed of vegetable scraps (some of which were brown around the edges), sitting in a gelatinous cornstarchy sauce.

Lechon with gulay and Rice (Photo by FP)

Bonus pieces of pork in the vegetables (Photo by FP)

The rice toppings came with free soup in a lovely melanin -- er, MELAMINE bowl. The soup was so saturated with instant boullion cubes, we were reminded of suspension antibiotics. Nevertheless, we have to say the food was edible.

In a word: appetizing. (Photo by PP)

We found the prices for the rice toppings to be reasonable in Sab-atan II, ranging from 85-95PHP. The lechon rice is 85PHP. (But you get more for 65PHP in Cathy's.) A pale pilsen is 40PHP. Extra rice is 20PHP, and fried rice is 25PHP.

Lechon Ampalaya Rice (Photo by: FP)

Sab-atan II's ampalaya lechon rice was a lot better than the regular lechon rice, and a fair deal at 85PHP. No matter how delicious a restaurant's lechon rice variations are, however, we reserve our ratings in each place for 'D'Original Thing.

(Photo by FP)

Fritson sadly proclaimed that pork had seen better days and our guests of honor agreed. We decided to give Sab-atan II's lechon rice 1 snout + the benefit of the doubt-snout = 2 snouts. (Maybe the cook was just having a bad day?)

Fritson and the Dawgs rate Sab-atan II (Photo by FP)

So what's to like at Sab-atan II? The joint is just dripping with o-ten-tic kordi koboy ambience, and we are suckers for that sort of thing.

P with o-ten-tic koboy in the background (Photo by FP)

ETHNOGRAPHIC NOTE: To tell people not to worry, you are koboy, is to raise their expectations of you and your threshold for pain, dugyot-ness, alcohol, and your ability to work hard and laugh harder. The higher your tolerance for pain, alcohol, filth, and back-breaking work of the rustic mountain living kind, the better. The lower your threshold for laughter and fun, so much the better. To be called koboy in these mountains, especially in Benguet, is to be given a compliment of the highest order. It's almost like knighthood but better because you don't have to wash up and dress for the part.

Fritson and the Dawgs. Note Miner and Koboy meeting in the background (Photo by:PP)

Instead of sating your hankering for lechon rice here, you're better off soaking up the ambience in Sab-atan II while sipping a satisfying cup of Benguet brew and tucking into a wonderfully creamy, almost-too-decadent-to-be-koboy slice of egg pie. Now THAT is good stuff!

(Photo by PP)