SECOND STOP: Palaisdaan, Tayabas
Hungry from the trip, we stop at Palaisdaan for lunch. This is locatedbetween Lucban and the town proper of Tayabas. The restaurant serves native cuisine with the special touch of Quezon, the gata (coconut milksauce), in some of its popular dishes.

We enter the restaurant through an arch where a veil of pink-tasseled vines cascade down to almost eye-level.

Beyond the arch are nipa huts on bamboo rafts floating on a man-made lagoon that sprawls around the property. Inside each hut is a bamboo table with benches on the side. We choose one near the pavilion and excitedly pick our favorites from the menu.

While waiting for the food, we notice the lagoon teeming with tilapia which we will be feasting on in a while.

I reminisce about this place where many years ago my parents and I brought my two boys after viewing the colorful Pahiyas Festival. In those days, the festival was not as popular as it is now and you can move around Lucban easily to take pictures of the award-winning houses. And the hut on a raft where we had lunch can be manipulated with poles around the lagoon by my boys until I got sea sick. Now things have changed, both the festival and the restaurant have become very popular. In May, Lucban is overflowing with people and the rafts in Palaisdaan are no longer mobile.
Finally, lunch is ready. We are given plates made of woven vines lined with banana leaf but with no spoon and fork. But, of course, this is kamayan style so off we go to wash our hands. Lunch is Sinugno or grilled tilapia in creamy gata with mustasa (I think this is mustard) leaves, susô again in gata (that’s our local escargot) which we suck on to get the meat inside and tender inihaw na baboy (grilled pork). Our beverage is fresh buko (young coconut) juice which we drink straight from the nut. Our dessert is pilipit, originally a rice-based Quezon delicacy twisted to a figure 8 topped with crispy caramelized sugar. The pilipit we bought from an ambulant vendor who frequents the restaurant has been modified – it was mixed with squash to make it fluffier and lighter. It was a really delicious treat to end a finger-licking good meal.

We walk off the heaviness around our middles by taking a quick tour of the quaint hotel perched by the lagoon.

Feeling a bit lighter after viewing the rooms, we hop into the car and head to our next destination.

First stop: Kamay ni Hesus, Lucban
Third stop: Queen Margarette Hotel, Lucena City

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