It was raining in Baguio City and we wanted a bowl of piping hot bulalo (beef shank soup). We know there are a lot of eateries hawking bulalo in the city so there really was no challenge in finding one. And staying at the Paragon Hotel & Suites near Burnham Park, we easily found one such eatery, what surprised us though, was that besides bulalo, they also have pigar-pigar, a Pangasinan dish, on their menu!

The name of the restaurant is St. Martin Breadhouse Bulaluhan. Alright, there’s really no bread in sight, but that was alright—we wanted our bulalo with a steaming cup of white rice. Apparently, their original branch is located at Umingan in Pangasinan, and they do have a bakery in that particular eatery. That explains the mystery name, and the pigar-pigar.

ST. MARTIN BULALUHAN’S NO-FRILLS INTERIORS

As with most food joints we visit, St. Martin’s has nothing fancy up its sleeve. The eatery is open-aired, with simple green and yellow painted walls and varnished heavy wooden chairs and tables. They have readily cooked food, carinderia-style, and I was hoping they’d have fried tortang talong (eggplant omelet), which I bet would go well with the pigar-pigar. No such luck though.

THE BAGUIO BULALUHAN ON SUNNIER WEATHER

On the menu posted along their walls, along with the single-serve bulalo and pigar-pigar, we saw knuckles, which I assume to be pork knuckles in nilaga soup, and papaitan. We would’ve tried them too, but I don’t think we can finish everything. So, bulalo and pigar-pigar it was.

Serving time was very quick, the bulalo, of course, is already pre-cooked, but the pigar-pigar still has to be fried, I think. The two was served to us hot, which was perfect with Baguio’s chilly weather.

BAGUIO PIGAR-PIGAR WITH RICE ~ PHP80.00

Pigar-pigar, is a streetfood common in Pangasinan. We tried it before at Great Taste Pigar-Pigar, one of the more famous restaurant serving the dish in Dagupan, and we really liked it. The meat, stir-fried and served with a few strips of leafy greens and onions, is made from carabeef.

BAGUIO BULALO WITH RICE ~ PHP90.00

And so was St. Martin’s pigar-pigar. It has that rich flavor that can only be achieved from carabeef but has none of the funky taste—it was prepared quite well. Instead of the usual cabbage leaves, they use sitsaro (snow peas), which was actually quite fine. Their bulalo was also superb, the meat was very tender and the broth, supremely delicious. Unlike most bulalo though, it has no veggies in it.

Rainy Baguio weather and hot bulalo, plus a bonus dish of pigar-pigar. Heaven.

St. Martin Breadhouse Bulaluhan
Address: 20 Otek Street cor. Benjamin Salvosa Drive, Baguio City
Contact Number:
Open Hours: Open 24 Hours Everyday
GPS Coordinates Map: 16.412544, 120.592451

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