Duck's off

From late August until early October 2004 I was in the Philippines; 38 nights to be precise. On maybe half of those nights I ate here at the hotel, Camp John Hay Manor at Baguio City. The history of the location is interesting; it was established in 1903 by Theodore Roosevelt as a US Military base in a cool climate to provide an R&R base in the Philippines and it seems it was, during the entirety of the US occupation of the site, off limits to Filipinos. It was returned to the Philippine government in 1993. The camp is named after the US Secretary of Defence at the time it was established.

Would that all US Military bases were like this one. Because it was an R&R base it's geared toward, you guessed it, R&R. Golf courses (I've always thought that golf was an excellent way to spoil a nice walk in the park), a butterfly sanctuary, the cemetery of negativism[^] and some very nice walks. Along the road we travel from the hotel to TI there are two cemeteries; both fly the flags of The Philippines and of the United States and the inscriptions at the gates to both pay homage to the memory of deceased US and Filipino soldiers.

Anyway, I digress. I was here for 38 nights and ate at the hotel about half of those nights. The menu here tries to be cosmopolitan. They offer steaks, lamb chops, fish and chips, Chilean Sea Bass, Thai noodles etc etc. They also offer roast duck. I'm a sucker for duck; if it's on the menu that's the dish I want! So my first night I ask for roast duck. Negotiations with the chef; duck's off. Ok, I ordered lamb chops (my second favourite dish).

The following evening we went to Muoang Thai (absolutely the best restaurant in Baguio though that's not saying much.) The third evening I tried for the roast duck again. Sorry, duck's off.

As the weeks passed we ate at various restaurants here in Baguio; Central Park, a chinese restaurant where I tried, for the first time, chickens feet. Tasted much like spicy rubber to me I'll give em a try again when I'm in China. The Sizzling Plate, where steaks cost the equivalent of US$3 and are worth about that. On my second and subsequent times at the sizzling plate I ordered the boneless bangu - very tasty!

And during those weeks I also ate here at the hotel on and off. Every time I asked for roast duck and every time, you guessed it, duck's off.

On my final night, October 1 2004 I was eating here when a family walked in, were seated and perused the menu. The father asked for the duck! Sorry, duck's off. But what grabbed my interest was not so much the failure, once more, of duck, but the accent. This man was an Australian!!! It turns out he and his family are from Melbourne and we spent a very pleasant hour gossiping about AFL football (which game I normally have less interest in than an abscess) and, well, you get the gist.

Three or so months pass and I'm back here in Baguio (but not for long. I'm writing this in the hotel but I'll be posting it from the US - there's no internet here!). Once again I'm dining in the hotel and in walk two women (mother and daughter). They sit down and the daughter (she's an adult - don't get any ideas :-) ) orders some dish with blue cheese. This was on the Sunday night. Negotiations with the chef - sorry, blue cheese is off! Seeing a pattern here? Tonight, Tuesday night and they're back and once again the daughter wants blue cheese. Sorry, blue cheese is off. I couldn't resist; I went over and related the tale of the duck!

Oh, and they were Australians. On Sunday I admit I spent an hour earwigging them. Not that I was interested in what they were talking about; merely that it was such a pleasure after 2 years of living in the US to hear Australian accents again!