MANILA, Philippines - Viaje del Sol or The Way of the Sun is a wonderland of awesome natural vistas, healing hot springs, artisan workshops, lush gardens, water sports, charming vestiges of Spanish colonial culture and gratifying Southern Tagalog cuisine. A playground for itchy feet and a haven for foodies, the destinations reward visitors who venture here with heartwarming hospitality in a bucolic ambience.

Viaje del Sol consists of unique tourist spots in Laguna, Quezon and Batangas. Along the way, we tried out a couple of the region?s little treasures.

Casa Rap

A café, greenhouse, organic garden and a shop, Casa Rap?s charm lies in its rustic country look made eclectic by the individual style of Emma Alday, a former nun-counselor turned restaurateur and her sister, Sonia Alampay.

The café is an assemblage of live tree trunks as architectural supports, exposed roughhewn wood beams, open rafters, and wooden floors made from architectural salvages, softened by foliage.

Alday and Alampay were active in environmental advocacy and wanted to set up a nature clearing house to tackle the aggravating pollution in their hometown, San Jose, Batangas. A few years ago, Alday was forced to slow down after two pituitary tumor operations. With the cooperation of her siblings, Alday established Casa Rap.

?Everything just fitted into our foundation?s original plan of setting up a clearing house,? Alday said. ?But it had to be self-sustaining so it couldn?t just be an office. We built a house with a dormitory, kitchen and mini-art gallery, a convenient store for the residents across the highway, and put four small tables for breakfast and snacks.?

?We did not want it to look like an ordinary bus-stop destination or a boring information office. We wanted to develop a place where one could feel and touch the beautiful partnership of God and man in taking care of nature. The garden was meant to serve our needs. Vegetable and flowering plants were grown side by side with a bit of landscaping for us to enjoy even while harvesting for our meals.?

Casa Rap is derived from the Batangas expression kasarap, which means truly scrumptious.

The greenhouse café is shrouded with different flowering vines that bloom on different seasons.

Visitors are amazed by the healthy vegetables that are grown in recycled containers, the vine-covered small prayer room on the bridge way, the backyard odorless piggery, tables and benches recycled from driftwood, and architectural fragments and aquariums made from windshields of abandoned trucks.

The menu was inspired by childhood memories of their mother?s cooking, a combination of viands served in fiestas or daily fare from Ibaan and San Jose.

?Except for kaldereta (beef or goat meat) and lengua, most of the dishes are uncomplicated like ginataan, sinigang, adobo, boiled or raw edible fern, fresh vegetable salad, and kinilaw na isda,? says Alday.

Seasonal produce

The meals begin with comforting squash or corn soup which, in the olden days, was boiled for several hours for a thick texture. The salads change according to the seasonal produce. It includes surprise elements such as macopa, duhat, balimbing, guava, dragon fruit, yakon, young okra, sigadillas, miniature wild cucumbers and edible flowers. Guests are encouraged to eat brown or red rice with their viands.

In Southern Tagalog cuisine, beef and goat reign supreme. The other popular dishes are ginataang sugpo and tilapia, pork adobo, longganisang hubad, the signature tapa, halo-halo, lomi, crispy ukoy and spinach. The suman sa lihiya is served as little cube, topped with creamy coconut jam and accompanied by a robust local chocolate.

For munchies, the ukoy is highly recommended. Made from grated cassava instead of shrimps with lots of chopped chives and occasional garlic, it is deep fried by spoonfuls until it is incredibly crispy.

For those with lactose intolerance, the halo-halo uses coconut sherbet instead of milk and crushed ice. It is a medley of cubed and sweetened saba, camote, langka, pinipig, cream of corn, homemade purple yam jam. For the halo-halo special, guests are offered teaspoonfuls of lambanog (rice wine) to pour over the ice cream that gives a little kick.

In environmental or organic gardening workshops, Casa Rap serves its meals bento-style for students and tour groups on a limited budget. The viands are always placed on separate containers so that the flavors don?t mix and get soggy. You can get bottomless rice or pandan iced tea.

?We wanted fun dining not fine dining to fit into the Batangas lifestyle,? says Alday. ?We didn?t want a fast-food restaurant. This is a slow-food café for people who do not hurry, worry and will take the time to smell the flowers.?

(Located 20 minutes away from the San Fernando Airbase. For details, call Emma at (043) 7262873 or 0916-2126685)

Pillar?s Plants and Novelties

In 1992, Emilio Pilar, first vice president of Philippine National Bank, was suffering from hypertension. His doctor advised him to take up a hobby for therapy. The collective urge captured him in his student days. He began collecting antique lamps that cost P10. In real terms today, they would fetch at least P5,000.

He then discovered a common theme among the few objects he had gathered and decided to follow it. As an antidote to stress, collecting was Pilar?s source of rejuvenation and well-being. Eventually, he set up Pillar?s Plants and Novelties in Lucena City, Quezon, which is a good place to source antiques and tropical plants in the Via del Sol route.

Aside from tropical foliage, the place showcases furniture from the Southern Tagalog region, famous for their elemental designs, thus making them easy to blend with modern pieces.

Pilar says that furniture from the north and south are more decorative. Serious collectors come to the store to get furniture made of fine molave, cultivated in Batangas. Most of the important pieces are functional.

The streamlined narra and balayong tables are still the most salable because they become the anchor pieces in a room.

Their fancy tables are characteristic of the styles found in Donsol, Quezon. A table from Donsol features lion?s claws holding onto the ball of the joinery. Period three-seaters and ambassador chairs are also popular.

Aside from functional pieces, Pilar also collects items that are linked to human pleasures such as anything connected to eating and cooking such as stone grinders and table accessories that are used when visitors spend the night at their bed-and-breakfast cottages or shop for antiques.

Experiencing local hospitality, visitors are served with the classic suman and bibingka. The galapong is produced from the authentic stone grinder and steamed using the native utensils.

The Southern Tagalog version of the bibingka has toasted top with a soft inside. Instead of salted red eggs, it is sprinkled with niyog na alangan or shredded coconut that is neither young nor mature.

Pilar also takes pride in their suman which are prepared the old-fashioned way. The rice cakes are washed down with cold lemongrass or ginger tea.

Sweeter, smaller

For a full meal, the place offers tinolang manok, sinigang na tulingan and local shrimps. The tinolang manok or chicken soup is flavored with lemongrass instead of the traditional ginger. The cook uses papayang Tagalog or tiny green papaya which is sweeter and firmer.

The tulingan is a smaller version of tuna that is sautéed and flattened until it is so tender that you can even eat the bones and not get a prickly throat. It is spiced up with paho or small tarty mangoes with tomatoes.

Sweeter and smaller than the common varieties, the local shrimps are sourced from the rivers. They are cooked with coconut water and young coconut meat, spiced with ginger and garlic. A salad of pako or seaweeds with carabao cheese from Lumban, Laguna, balances the flavors.

To go with the ambience, the food is presented in a thematic table setting. Some of the plates were made in Spain and brought by the illustrados. Others are heirloom pieces from the Carnival Era.

The centerpiece is a simple but abundant profusion of flowers from the garden. Here lies the appeal of Pillar Plants and Novelties, which serves as a lively articulation of our culture.

(The main showroom is at 2497 Gulang-gulang, Lucena City, Quezon; tel. (042) 7105753; Kusina Salud branch, call 0915-3737851)