MANILA, Philippines - Does Baguio still have any secrets? The city seems too small, too cramped, too popular to harbor any lingering mystique. Just to be sure, SIM asked 30 Baguio denizens, among them poet/anthropologist Padmapani Perez and artist Kawayan de Guia, what they believe guests still need to know about this cozy city that remains a favorite summer destination:

THE BEST EATS

1) Vegetable lasagna at Little John?s (Camp John Hay)

2) Sayote salad at Kubong Sawali (Military Cut Off)

3) Camaron con hamon at Star Café (Session Road) and Pata Tim at Rose Bowl (Harrison Road)

4) Samlok at Luisa?s Café (Session Road) (don?t ask)

5) Garlic longganisa at Session Delights (Session Road)

6) Pepperoni and mushroom pizza at Pizza Volante (the old Session Theater)

7) Pinikpikan at Café by the Ruins (in front of City Hall) and at Ebai?s Café, Narda?s (Upper Session Road)

8) Beef steak ala pobre at PNKY (Leonard Wood Road)

9) Stuffed tofu at Mandarin Restaurant (Session Road)

10) Cheeseburger at Bruno?s (Session Road). Some say this reminds them of the burgers served at the old Camp John Hay

THE BEST RESTAURANTS

1) Café by the Ruins: celebrating 20 years of ?Feeding Souls and Pleasing Palates?

2) Oh My Gulay (Vocas, La Azotea Building, Session Road)

3) Hamada?s (Baguio Country Club)

4) Forest House (Loakan Road): the best breakfast view

5) The Gang of Six (Rose Bowl, Mandarin Restaurant, Luisa?s Café, Session Delights, Sunshine Lunch and Star Café): the old post-war Chinese restaurants

6) Mario?s (Upper Session Road)

7) Le Soufflé (Camp John Hay)

8) The Backpacker?s Delight (cheap but filling): Cathy?s on Carantes Street; Jack?s in four locations in Baguio and nearby La Trinidad, Benguet; Good Taste near Dangwa Bus station (Magsaysay Road); Tabligan?s (Scout Barrio); and Balajadia Restaurant at Slaughterhouse Compound (Magsaysay Ave.)

9) Bliss Café at Munsayac Inn (Leonard Wood Road), Ebai?s Café at Narda?s and Azotea Greens at La Azotea Building (Session Road) for vegetarians.

10) Rito?s (Marcos Highway)

THE BEST COFFEE

1) Session Delights. Many were disappointed that the favorite media haunt, Dainty?s, closed at the end of the millennium because they served coffee that kept your head buzzing for hours. But the son of Ah Kong was wise enough to retain the coffeemaker.

2) Vocas. Artist Kigao Rosimo says this is the only French-press-your-own-coffee shop in town

3) Café by the Ruins. Served with cardamom and tira-tira stick

4) Visco?s (Session Road)

5) Cordillera Coffee at SM City Baguio

6) Zola (Session Road)

7) Pizza Volante (Session Road)

8) Luisa?s Cafe

9) Star Café

10) Fritzi Daoey?s shop near Easter School (Guisad Road)

BEST HANGOUTS AND SIGHTS TO SEE

1) Go Fast Bikeshop (Legarda Road) if you want to go mountain biking all over the untrod trails

2) St. Scholastica?s Healing Garden, near the Korean restaurant Wood Nymph (Military Cut Off). ?We go there every other week for our meditation,? says writer and Zen Buddhist Baboo Mondoñedo. ?Sister Alice (one of the Catholic nuns in charge of the garden) has an herb for everything, including beauty herbs.?

3) Maryknoll?s Cosmic Journey (Campo Sioco Road) for ecological pilgrimage, as well as the Jesuit Villa above Lourdes Grotto. Just follow the road and you?ll reach the retreat house that gives you a view of the city and the serenity you can?t find anywhere else. Also join the Eco-Trail at Busol Watershed with journalist Ramon Dacawi and the other members of the Timpuyog ti Iit (The Covenant of the Broomstick). Contact Dacawi at the Public Information Office of the Baguio City Hall.

5) The Laperal House (Leonard Wood). People passing by there, especially on foggy nights, are reminded of the house of the Addams Family but the interiors are a masterpiece of pre-war interior design and artistry.

6) Gano?s workshop at Twin Peaks and the house of Kidlat Tahimik and Katrin de Guia near the Tuding border. Gano is an Ifugao woodcarver who shifted to rocks, particularly river rocks, at Camp 1 on Kennon Road. His rock objects include life-size people playing drums and looking literally stoned. Kidlat Tahimik?s house by the cliff was razed almost 10 years ago. Wife Katrin, an anthropologist and champion of unschooled artists like Gano, rebuilt the house, guided by Kidlat?s ?Bathala Na? architecture. This is where son, Kawayan de Guia, has his workshop and where some of the Baguio artists jam the unholy hours away.

7) Asin Village holds many secrets. Look for the houses of Peter Pinder, National Artist BenCab, Ifugao woodcarver and environmentalist Lopez Nauyac. We go to Asin for the Ifugao Woodcarvers? Village where we see saluting Indians, Igorots and many wooden delights. Although this is worth the half-hour trip, if you stray farther, you will see the soon-to-be museum of BenCab and the house of Peter Pinder where you see his fiberglass creations like that political chess set as well as the paintings of his twin daughters and the Viking dolls of his son. The Asin Sulfur Spring is also there to ease away your weariness.

8) The secret caves along Kennon Road.

9) Mt. Cabuyao, otherwise known as Mt. Sto. Tomas, the mountain with the Mickey Mouse ears

10) The Baguio fog. ?You can?t bottle it,? says Baguio writer Joy Muller.