THE COUPLE only wanted to provide healthy meals for their family; they ended up serving wholesome food to a wide array of customers.

These days, while Ramon ?Chito? Zabarte tends the family?s organic farm, his wife Rosario ?Chato? Robias-Zabarte whips up healthy and unique dishes for motorists who drop by to buy their fresh lettuce harvest at Tuy, Batangas.

One could say that La Tienda de Tuy started out as an accidental venture. People who came to the Zabarte farm to buy organic lettuce in the early morning needed a shady place while waiting for their vegetable order, so Chito built them a small shed out of indigenous materials. A short while after, the customers started asking for some coffee. Chato served them some barako, from Batangas? native coffee beans. The customers? orders later expanded to something they could chew on, and Chato prepared them anything she could find in her kitchen. Before anyone knew it, La Tienda had become a restaurant frequented by other customers apart from the regular lettuce buyers.

Chato, who learned cooking from her mother and who credited her gourmet palate to a brief work stint in a hotel, started her business by serving sandwiches. ?But people kept asking for other recipes, and I would say ?yes,? even if I hadn?t thought of any just yet,? she said.

Among her offerings were whole wheat bread drizzled with home-made garlic dressing on which reposed layers of fresh organic lettuce and slices of skinless chicken breasts cooked in her own recipe of balsamic vinegar, and topped with parmesan cheese.

But instead of packing in the fillings on the bread, she would serve them separately, ?for some personal reasons,? Chato explained. ?When I order a sandwich in a restaurant, I would ask that the filling be served on the side because I find them too much to bite. I put a little filling on the bread and then I bite. It is also a simpler way of eating food and digesting it better.?

Aside from chicken, Chato also uses cold cuts and lean meats low in salt, naturally smoked, with no artificial flavoring, coloring and no monosodium glutamate, she stressed.

Sandwiches of beef pastrami, Canadian back bacon, maple smoked ham, black forest ham, and skinless chicken breast are priced reasonably as well.

From sandwiches, Chato ventured into pasta dishes that are personally taste-tested and approved by the Zabarte children. There?s their Puttanesca Classic, topped with fresh tomato pesto sauce, olives, capers, fish flakes, and olive oil; Garlic Pasta, a delicate mélange of lightly browned garlic, canola and olive oil, and parmesan cheese; and Pasta Negra topped with calamari and sautéed in its own ink.

There are also rice meals that use the healthier brown or red rice that Chato partners with grilled chicken, fillet of dory, tilapia stuffed with lemon grass, and the balsamic chicken meal.

But what?s a meal without desserts ? healthy desserts, that is? To make sure of that, Chato uses only whole wheat flour and brown sugar, muscovado or even black strap molasses as sweeteners. She has also replaced butter with vegetable or olive oil which, she says, ?has zero transfats and cholesterol.? She can thus advertise her cakes as being a healthy indulgence as they are high-fiber.

As for drinks, Chato offers La Tienda?s customers with a bottomless serving of lemon grass (tanglad) tea for only P15.

Despite the demand, the couple isn?t thinking of expanding the restaurant just yet. ?We?ll let things take their own course,? Chito said, although Chato is more specific about her plans: ?I intend to expand the menu to complete the food pyramid,? she said.

However things turn out, the Zabarte couple is determined to help people lead a healthier lifestyle through gourmet dishes that La Tienda sells at very affordable prices. ?

La Tienda de Tuy is located at Km 102, Bgy. Guinhawa, Tuy, Batangas. Visit their website at www.haciendazabarte.multiply.com. Call Chato T. Zabarte at 0916-3977898, or e-mail chatozabarte@yahoo.com.