CASA SAN PABLO NATIVE COOKING CLASS
 
At the Casa San Pablo Native Cooking Class, you will learn how to prepare and cook favorite Laguna dishes such as Adobong Manok sa Gata (Chicken Adobo Cooked in Coconut Milk), Kulawo (Eggplant Salad in Roasted Coconut Milk) or Ginataang Hipon (Freshwater Shrimps in Thick Coconut Sauce).
 
Classes are completely hands-on, encouraging you to practice rural Filipino cooking techniques. Our instructors are native kusineras who carry the tradition of coconut plantation cooking passed on to them from generations of old San Pablo families. These kusineras are our living treasures. They will introduce you to Laguna cuisine and explain the three delicious dishes you will be cooking. They will also be taking you through the classic way of preparing coconut milk, which is the base of most traditional San Pablo dishes. On some tours, they will also show you where the fresh ingredients like hipon, coconut, and vegetables to be used in the dishes are found.
 
Our kusineras will present a cooking demonstration and provide tasting samples. At your personal cooking station, styled after the native batalan, the kusineras will guide you through the recipe step-by-step as you cook the dish.
 
At the end of the class, a delicious meal, which will include the dishes you have prepared, will be set up for lunch at our cozy dining room overlooking our gardens.
 
Staying at Casa San Pablo will be an equally special treat. It is a quaint country inn nestled within a family compound. Boots Alcantara, an avid art collector and hobbyist, and his wife, An Mercado Alcantara, a writer and magazine editor, are the innkeepers. They create a cozy home atmosphere for guests and are committed to preserving the best of San Pablo life.
 
You may also spend the rest of your stay trying out the other culinary destinations in the Viaje del Sol route. Patis & Tito Café run by couturier Patis Tesoro and her husband Tito is just 15 minutes away from Casa San Pablo. You may also try Café Lago right on the shoreline of Sampaloc Lake, run by environmentalist and old time San Pablo resident Mandy Mariño. You could also have a taste of bistro cooking at Sulyap, a restored turn-of-the-century house some ten minutes away. If you care to go on a bit of a longer drive, try lunch at Ugu Bigyan’s Potter Garden. He prepares Filipino dishes with Thai-Vietnamese influences (prior reservation necessary).
 
We look forward to welcoming you to Casa San Pablo, where you will learn and experience the culinary pleasure of Laguna cuisine.