Coffee in a tearoom

Saturday, May 14, 2011

WE were still in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, we've just come down from the mountains and were craving for a steaming mug of coffee and some snacks. But being strangers and not knowing where else to go, we headed back to where we ate lunch on our way to the Tagoloan Pilgrimage, two days before.

Lunch two days before was at the Le Cafe French Bistro along Fortich Street in front of the city plaza beside Allied Bank. A very quaint cafe that had a disappearing waitress. (Life is so laidback in Malaybalay, waitresses here do not hover around you. They even leave you with the whole cafe yours for the taking...).

But as we were approaching I noticed something else beneath the stairs right beside the French bistro.

Ashley's Tearoom n' Gifts, the hanged shingle says. A tearoom? This must be English!

Kublai, Mecai, our driver-cum-Kublai's welder Rey, and I decided to try this one out instead.

Inside, there was nobody. Like n-o-b-o-d-y.

Inside too where knickknacks and crockery and cutlery for sale. Deja vu... wasn't it just two days before when we had a whole cafe for the taking? Now we had a tearoom and gift shop for the taking.

"Ayooooo!" We called out several times. We even went toward the back door, that was only then when we were finally heard and a lady attendant went out to get our orders.

Coffee for all and...

We checked out their refrigerated display rack and drooled over their pastries. Knowing that the four of us were not so inclined toward pastries but needing some sustenance, we just opted to get the most sinful-looking of them all and share. One "Death by Chocolate" and one "Mocha Mousse".

Death and the mousse conquered us. All four of us couldn't even consume them. We did give it our damnedest best. Death overpowered us. Haha!
But it was a cool place to hang out in, with a glass window giving you a street-level view of the goings-on outside.

The tinted glass and muted lights inside gives you a sense of quiet. Outside, under the stairs, is a dustry tin mailbox. Quaint. It was past 3 p.m. when we were ready to leave, by then Malaybalay's afternoon rain has drenched the streets and soothed the scorching midday sun. We felt so English, then. Except that we had coffee.

And oh, we got the same menu as that one in Le Cafe. Apparently the choice is how you want to imbibe your food and drinks, as Englishmen or French.