THIS week, we are back at the table at Rosebowl after much table hopping (Wait till I get to Via Mare in UP Diliman), haha. It is here that Arlene confirmed that her brother indeed has inclinations to film, though he is professionally trained for something else. He also manages the Rosebowl in La Union.
According to mother mine, she shares Balaoan roots with the Rosebowl proprietors. She also remembers the other restaurant at which Art Nang worked when he was young. It was called Rice Bowl. It was a fixture of Old Baguio, as were Session Cafe, Dainty, Sunshine Lunch, Star Cafe. If you're my age and grew up in Baguio, you'll also remember Taimong Restaurant and Sky View.
Rice Bowl was a fixture of my own youth, too. It used to be where Kentucky Fried Chicken now is, on the first floor of the newish DBP Building at the corner of Session Road and Perfecto Street.
For a time, there was a bank there too, am forgetting its name, just that I had an account there. And before that, there were these noisy toy arcades, really noisy ones. Like that one in SM called Quantum, Mayor Ernesto Bueno of old had those noisy arcades on Perfecto closed down because of mothers who complained that children were spending way too much time in them.
Anyway, my parents frequented Rice Bowl. My sibs and I, some. Though we ate a lot of food from there that was brought home. My Mother remembers Rice Bowl's owner Lee Lai, and his famous chess table where there was always a game going on.
More from inside Rice Bowl next week.