By Abigail Javellana
The Chef is back home for more authentic Southeast Asian Cuisine!
We’re revisiting Chef’s Home, one of our favorite restaurants in Baguio featuring Southeast Asian specialties. And they have a new location–the chef’s wife’s uncle’s old sari-sari store that was turned into a restaurant.
Chef Alvin Emuang, who is of Malaysian descent, was the former executive chef of Accor Group of Hotels in Thailand. He started off selling turo-turo dishes to taxi and jeepney drivers. He was discovered after his food was photographed by Ompong Tan, a photographer based in Baguio, and spread on social media.
We previously featured it in 2012: THE CHEF’S HOME in Baguio – A Must Eat!
Here’s what we liked and what’s new at Chef’s Home…
CHEF’S HOME BAGUIO
Gina and Alvin Emuang’s Food Place
13 Outlook Drive corner Romulo Drive, Baguio City
Mobile: +63 916 444-5756
Facebook: Chefs Home Baguio
Opening hours: 11.00am – 2.30pm and 6.00-8.30pm
Closed on Sundays. Cash Only.
Related Blog Post: THE CHEF’S HOME in Baguio – A Must Eat!
Chef’s Home moved to its new location at Outlook corner Romulo Drives near The Mansion. You can park your car along the street.
The ambiance is quite homey and simple. The restaurant is a bit small, so make sure to get there early before the crowd arrives.
The original white board menu has become the trademark for his resto.
Pickled Fruits and Vegetables
Complimentary pickled papaya, radish, and sayote using cane vinegar.
Crispy Papaya Salad (P280)
For starters, we recommend Chef Alvin’s special crispy papaya salad served in a unique manner by frying the fruit in a basket shape then topping it with a colorful array of fresh vegetables.
It’s very refreshing and mildly spicy, with Baguio beans, tomatoes, garlic, peanuts, and dried prawns in a fresh lime base.
(Tip: If you don’t like it crispy you can opt to order the original fresh version. If you’re allergic to either dried prawns or peanuts, the chef would gladly remove them for you.)
Murtabak (P280)
Chef’s version of murtabak filled with dried beef curry, onions, potatoes. Wrapped in egg (like an omelet) and unleavened bread.
Best eaten with red pickled onions.
Pad Thai (P320)
Rice noodle dish famous in Thailand. One of our personal favorites and comes with a huge fried king prawn. The savory noodles are fried along with Thai tamarind sauce, prawns, beancurd, raddish, peanuts, bean sprouts, and chives and wrapped in an omelette.
Pepper and Garlic Prawns (P850)
Fresh prawns from the north deep fried separately then stir fried with pepper garlic sauce. Their fresh prawns and fish have no seasoning so you can really taste how fresh they are.
Tamarind Sauce Seabass (P160 per 100 grams *market price)
Crispy deboned fillet with their own version of Malaysian tamarind sauce.
We liked that it wasn’t greasy. The outside batter is very thin and crunchy with the fish still soft on the inside. To keep it fresh, the whole fish is deboned on the spot and only upon order.
Whole Braised Pork Pata (P950)
Chef’s latest creation from Malaysia. Whole braised pork pata, which is quite similar to the Pinoy adobo and Chinese patatim.
The pork is braised for 6 hours and is so tender, the meat easily falls off the bone. It’s then cooked with Malaysian soy sauce and cane vinegar, and enhanced with sesame and garlic.
You can take home pickled fruits and vegetables for a different kind of pasalubong.
Overall, we still love Chef’s Home in its new location!
The dishes are quite authentic, from the imported ingredients down to the cooking method. Chef Alvin isn’t a fan of altering the dish to suit the Filipino taste, so he sticks to his Southeast Asian recipes.
Order the Pad Thai, Crispy Papaya Salad, and Murtabak.
It’s by far the best Southeast Asian restaurant in Baguio, a must-try on your next visit!
CHEF’S HOME BAGUIO
Gina and Alvin Emuang’s Food Place
13 Outlook Drive corner Romulo Drive, Baguio City
Mobile: +63 916 444-5756
Facebook: Chefs Home Baguio
Opening hours: 11.00am – 2.30pm and 6.00-8.30pm
Closed on Sundays. Cash Only
Awesome Baguio 2016 Series:
– CHAYA: Still the Best Japanese Restaurant in Baguio! (Revisited 2016)
– GOOD TASTE: Best Budget-friendly Restaurant in Baguio! (A Review)
– CHEF’S HOME: The Chef is Back Home in Baguio! (Revisited 2016)
Live an Awesome Life,
Team Our Awesome Planet
Disclosure: Our experience was courtesy of Chef’s Home. We wrote this article with our biases, opinions, and insights.
P.S. The whole restaurant is dedicated to his lovely wife.
The food is kinda expensive for a place like Baguio 🙁
As an Asian, we not only love to eat, at times we love to eat. There are something within our DNA that motivates us to travel far, disregard inconvenience and might even venture in areas we have not been. However, there are simply too much delicious food in Asia and too little time and too little stomach to fulfil the crave.
Chef’ Home not only fusion all the best Asian cuisine in one place or one but also creatively put together the right ingredients to tingle our tastebuds, bring a whole new meaning in eating.
I appreciate Chef Alvin who is both a great Chef that do not put himself within boundaries of creativity and also an ethical businessman who provides quality food with quality ingredient. He is generous in providing fresh and pricey ingredient that makes his customers willing to order and come back again. His humble little restaurant can be describe with four Mandarin words, “卧虎藏龙” One can never thought that even in Baguio there’s such a wonderful restaurant, truly a highlight of this small beautiful city.
If ever I return to Baguio, nothing will stop me from visiting Chef’s Home.