“We all eat, we all live.” Yet, there’s a saying that “man does not live by bread alone”. Thus, herein, we’re talking about food not just for our body but likewise for our soul. And as the Greek taverna that ‘Lemon and Olives’ is, its premise might as well be a promise, a philosophical promise by that of a Greek physician, Hippocrates ~ “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” True enough, it felt like I needed medicine, a nourishing treatment, the kind of food that’ll feed my senses… The heavy traffic we went through on the way to ‘Lemon and Olives’ took its toll on my age~ by that I mean, my age-related unwarranted “piqued reason” due to peak season congestion, bypass roads and all… my wearing-thin patience circulated around battlefields of bottlenecks and blockages, until reaching our destination, ‘Lemon and Olives’. Like some sort of a battlefield infirmary apparently tending to those infected with hunger and cravings “falling in line”, it served us a dose of intangible sustenance. Thus, make that “in fair, merry” where my battle-scarred indulgence and sufferance were (likewise) fairly and merrily treated with “age” ~ not that “time-consuming” thing that seems to have further aged our being ~ it’s something which might as well stand for Artful Gastronomic Experience. A visual feast of nourishing treats. Resuscitated, my heart pumped with gusto! It revived my appetite for laidback creativity cooked with easygoing ingredients.
As soon as we got at ‘Lemon and Olives’, it felt like tripping over a therapeutic oasis. Treatment was rather ironic as it was off-the-wall and literally on the wall. Medicine is for “most of sick” (people) but “mosaic” was for me and “photo therapy” was another… The self-diagnosis on my being “just sick” of suspicions and misgivings on the art scene over chronic controversies, acute entitlements and infectious factionalism that has plagued Baguio’s creative well-being has been prescribed with “3 male-IGrams” (“IGrammable personalities”) of “bye-you-just-sick” by “Mosaic Artists, MD” err ‘MB’, the Mighty Bhutens. Three idiosyncratic individuals typical of the happy-go-lucky psyche of artists, evident in their “OCD” which they seem to personify a more positive meaning to it, Outward Character and Disposition. Whereas, a healthful prescription for them would be to not be consumed by the factional system. That’ll be good “maintenance” for them. May their mosaic artistry be limited to the cracks and fissures in their artworks, not in their “frame of mind and interpretation” on/of (as well as on/off) work and relation cracks and puzzlement. Though from the looks, the visuals and the results seen from their “love test” at Lemon and Olives, they’re mighty alright… MIght(y) BHUTEnaman kung ganun!
“Saying cheese” for a photo on the other hand (or mouth) is some means to validate something worth smiling about. Nothing cheesy about our next featured artist though, even if he apparently hasn’t said “cheese” for a while as if he’s allergic to it. Within today’s digital world, electronic/computer technology and online apps, Jason Asiong, a film photographer, is an “APP” on his own, an Artist-Photographer Par-excellence. He’s also a darkroom operator who seems to be as still as the subjects of his captured moments. Nonetheless, a picture is worth a thousand words as the saying goes. And so J’AS SOoN AS IONG oras na niya magsalita, he uttered a few lines seemingly telling us to rather let his displayed photos do the talking… Either he needs a chill pill, a time capsule for his “aging approach” on photography or a shot of “his story”, it’s “still and all” a restorative prescription for an impressive storytelling. Apparently, from a man of few words, a thousand milligrams of sanative (sana all) psychoanalyses were prescribed. “Say cheese!”
Now say feta cheese… What about feta cheese? The Greek salad for a starter was the “green light” (or go signal) to ease the “table spread congestion”. The kind of “traffic” you wouldn’t mind enduring, “fresh and light” (pun, fun and pan intended). If Baguio’s long weekend likewise meant long queues that stretched to traffic crawls heading to a “filling station”, this is the kinda “food crawl” that fuels you to go… Gastro is “gas through” (“gas-up through”) a resto such as ‘Lemon and Olives’ to rather satiate not just your cravings but likewise nourish your senses. Much like their menu, the whole place is like a gallery of what will feed your eyes with a feast of visual fillings as well as feelings. It’s instagrammable as the young generation calls it. Let’s creatively call it the “cool ‘n’ artsy layover” as it’s where “culinary and art” is laid out. A roadside gastronomic lay-by worth your stopover.
Lemon and Olives’ participation in this year’s Ibagiw’s “Gastro X Creative Food Crawl” (and as fittingly curated by local artist Clinton Aniversario) is an ARTiculate collaboration which could be “called love voracious”. They’ve lived up to being an “art cafe/resto” wherein guests and patrons get to be “voracious” in every possible “culinary artsy” sense in “full-filling” their sensory faculties… Creatively so, it creates an impression. ‘Lemon and Olives’ likewise elevated their apron into a multifunctional getup for that of a chef and artist. On that occasional collab, into their culinary mix were Cordilleran ingredients and dishes innovatively fused with their Greek culinary background. And nonetheless “innovatively” indeed, it’s nothing less than how that translates in Greek, “kainotomos” which sounds like “kain utmost” (“eat utmost”)… To do that is a fusion in itself, to+do, “todo” that! (All that)… Lamon na! Indeed an innovative fusion of artful elements that’ll satisfy your creative spirit and all that… There’s enough flavARTful options and “ARTromatic” must-tries and must-haves for all. And all shall live and happy they’ll leave. With reason to come back, “VV” isn’t ‘Vice Versa’ but for “Victual Visuals”. Traffic or not, let’s lamon and all live.
