02.20.08
Sonya’s Garden Part 2
While I’m waiting for my cookies to come out of the oven, I think I’ll continue my post for Sonya’s Garden. As I mentioned previously, she had nice little walkways and places to sit and recline and just plain relax there. 
Among the plants were a few of these.
Anybody know what this plant is? I don’t think I’ve ever seen these before. They don’t quite look like summer squash. I wish I had asked there what that plant was.
Anyway, I want to go back to our little visit to Sonya’s Restaurant. When we first got there, there was a lady who met us near the parking lot and took us to the restaurant. She even seated us. After we sat down, and I ran around admiring the restrooms, we wondered when the menus were gonna come. Instead of menus, we were served water, and then some orange juice, and then some salad with several condiments arrived at our table. Hmmm. Okay, we’ll this is interesting, let’s just dig in. And we did. After we polished off our plates, there was still no menu to be seen. We started looking around and it looked like most people were already eating. Then more food started to show up. This time is was pasta and another round of condiments, sauces, garnishes, etc. Oh, okay, so in we dig, mixing up our own choices of sauces and condiments. The pasta was actually very good! The condiments consisted of Italian-style dishes with lots of herbs with a few condiments with a Filipino flare like fried salmon strips.
Okay, so now we’re starting to get the hint that there is just one menu in the restaurant, and everyone is eating the same thing. A du jour type thing. The odd thing was that we didn’t know it was going to be du Jour. We didn’t see any signs when we arrived what the du jour was. When the lady seated us, we had no idea how much the meal would cost. . . So jokes started to run along our table. My dad starts teasing and chuckling and asking us how much money we had on us cuz who knew how much this was going to be, ha! We were wondering if the pasta was just an appetizer or the main meal. I didn’t know whether to pig out on the pasta or leave some room. The next thing that came out was a cup of hot water with a “sprig” in it. We all looked at each other and started asking, is this tea? Or what? My dad said that maybe we could wash our hands in it, ha ha ha! And then what, I said? Drink it? Ha ha ha! Then we decided that the “cup” was too small for hand washing, it must be tea. So we drank it and it was good! I started looking around to see what else was on other people’s tables, and my dad told me, “Marla, just relax. When the bill comes, you’ll know it’s over.” Ha ha ha! Well, the bill didn’t come out just yet. The next thing that arrived was a very nice chocolate cake. Why I didn’t take pictures of the food, I’ll never know. I wish now that I did. The cake was moist and yummy. I figured that must be it, but no, the Filipino touch came out–fried wrapped bananas and baked sweet potatoes. Yummm. What a nice topper. Finally, I wondered “who is Sonya?” I hope she’s not some foreigner making a killing on Filipino stuff. And just as luck would have it, a Filipino woman came out asking if all was all right. I asked her, “Are you Sonya?” She replied, “Yes, I am.” “Oooohhh!” Came the response from the rest of us at the table. We had a nice chat with her. She told us a bit about her bed and breakfast. Invited us to walk around her garden. She was a lovely lady. I had to ask her if it was okay to take a picture with her. Here she is next to me with her hand in her right pocket.
I don’t know what I did with the flyer she gave us which explained all the services and fees for her bed and breakfast, but it looked like a nice place to come back to. They even gave various types of massages. This is actually the first place I saw Tuina massage offered. Also, much of the food that is served at her place is grown fresh right on her property. A view of part of her nursery could be seen just outside the window of the bathroom lounge. This is part of what can be seen.
By the way, her lettuce tasted sweet and could easily be eaten without salad dressing. Also, since we had the opportunity to speak with Sonya, I asked what the sprigs were in our tea. It was tarragon. Ah! I’m gonna have to look for fresh tarragon now and make that tea here. I liked it. I had not thought to make tarragon tea. Aside from that, there was also a popular Filipino singer dining there while we were. We didn’t know who he was, but our driver knew. Plus there were media people interviewing him, so we figured he must be someone. And that was it. After lunch we bought some goodies at her bakery and strolled through her garden, then headed home. So we missed Taal, but we made it to Sonya’s Garden.
Well that’s about it for that, and my cookies are done now!
Toodles!
Marlakins
