T for Two

Four years.

It's been four years since I was a bride. Then I turned into a wife. And now a mother of two.

I'm guessing my almost five months of absence in the blog world is already an indication of how hectic work life has been. Hubby and I have just been shuttling in and out of the house to work, sleep, eat, work again. This was why I wanted to celebrate our wedding anniversary by going out of town.

I took a leave on our anniversary date and after we dropped off our eldest at school, we took off for Tagaytay. I made reservations at T-house, a quiet, little boutique hotel nestled at the Tagaytay Ridge. If you took the Sta. Rosa road like we did, take a left and you'll see T-house on your left in less than 5 minutes, of driving that is. If you pass by a church, the Ina ng Laging Saklolo, you've missed it. The church and T-house are literally next door neighbors.

I made reservations for lunch -- for two. You could say it was simply serendipitous that since hubby has been recently on a healthy-eating streak, T-house was the perfect choice. We usually celebrate our anniversary at hotel or restaurant buffets because of hubby's insatiable appetite but this year was different. (Although I did bring my Mandarin GCs for a possible buffet dinner too, in case he got hungry later on. Haha.)

So off we went to Tagaytay. To set the mood, hubby was playing some songs from his ipod, songs which were played and sung during our wedding ceremony and reception. Awww.

Fortunately, the traffic was light that day at SLEX and in about an hour and 15 minutes, we arrived at T-house. It was everything the website said it would be. Once you enter, you would want to stay the entire day, or even overnight. Birds were twittering, fountains a-gurgling, the T-house staff moving about -- unhurriedly gardening and spreading out new table cloths for the outdoor tables. It was I like I died and went to stress-free heaven. A momentary escape from the endless clicking of keyboards, tooting of horns and neverending meetings. I've been kidding my officemates recently that my life has become a series of meetings, peppered with oculars and events. Even my gym instructor and massage therapist have been a cause of stress because they've been constantly calling and texting me to book a schedule with them. Talk about pressure.

But back to my Zen moment.

Happily, and slowly walking -- gliding is more like it -- through the Zen-inspired pathways, looking above at the fruit bearing trees where T-house gets the harvest for making their own fruit jams, I was living in the moment of tranquility. Darn, I can live like this!

The sofas at the reception area

The dining area - al fresco on the 2nd floor and indoor on the ground level

Entry to the dining room

It was a late lunch so hubby and I went straight to the dining room which was, unlike city restaurants, uncluttered and relaxing. You'd really think time was suddenly slower than usual so you could enjoy your meals properly. Bite, taste, chew, savor. It was like the movie Ratatouille's lead character, Remy the Rat, delightfully relishing every flavor and texture of the food he ate versus my daily "I-just-need-to-eat-now-so-I-can-meet-a-deadline" kind of lunch.

We had two different set lunches so that hubby and I could poke each other's food and taste more for our first visit. In our excitement, or maybe due to hunger, we weren't able to take photos of the first part of the meal, the soup. T-house usually serves four kinds, although one of the flavors, Broccoli and Almond was not available so I had a double dose of the Carrot and Coriander soup. My hubby is not a big fan of mushrooms, except perhaps for Mushroom burger, so I finished his mushroom soup as well. He liked his tomato soup so much that I only managed to grab half a spoon just to taste it.

Next was the salad. I must say I loved the smokey flavor of the grilled vegetables, laced with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Hubby's salad was sweeter, with slivers of dried mangoes and cubes of kesong puti (white cheese).

T-house salad on top, grilled vegetable salad bottom

I was busy taking photos outside the dining area when the main course arrived so I wasn't able to take a picture of hubby's rack of ribs before he dove into the perfectly mashed potatoes. I have very bad photos of my own meal, a fillet of mahi-mahi with a sauce whose name I forgot that camouflaged slices of mushroom and capsicum. Yey! More mushroom for me! Somewhere between tasting hubby's dish and finishing my own, I actually felt full already. Imagine that. Ready for my dessert!

The mahi-mahi. I warned you it was a bad photo. :-P

And there it was, two shot glasses filled with mango and green tea panna cotta.

Mango Panna Cotta & Green Tea Panna Cotta

Banana-langka crumble

Knowing me, I would've finished both flavors as well as hubby's banana-langka crumble which was piping hot enough for the sweetness to slither its way from my tiny spoon to my tongue. Oooh. But alas, I wasn't able to finish dessert. Perhaps the peace I was imbibing from my surroundings was enough to satisfy me. The food had served its purpose of nourishing me. Yet my soul was the one who was yearning for more. A tiny voice was nagging me as our car exited T-house's driveway -- "Do I really need to go back to work tomorrow?"

That's me and hubby with our unica hija, Iya.
Behind us is T-house's display case of homemade fruit jams, bagoong and cookies.

In the car, I was already conniving with hubby to spend New Year's Eve at T-house so I could get the total T-house experience. I gave myself a mental note: Must reserve soon, because December is usually fully booked.

Since Tagaytay weddings have become popular, I would recommend T-house either as a preparation venue for the bridal party and/or where you can have your honeymoon. Complete with a spa, T-house is really the venue that will help you relax as you go through your last minute wedding preps.

You might even want to consider giving away T-house goodies -- fruit jams or cookies or even the treats from the spa like soaps, scrubs, even mosquito repellants.

I wasn't able to inquire whether the next door neighbor (Ina ng Laging Saklolo) accepts weddings, but if they do, you can at least be sure that the bride or groom won't be late for the ceremony. :-)


T House
3195 Calamba Road, Tagaytay City
(046) 4830011, (046) 4830012
0922-8THouse, 09163684918, 09289409954
www.THouseTagaytay.com