After our climb in Mt. Talamitam, we decided to have a late lunch in Tagaytay, despite the quite heavy traffic from Alfonso to Mendez crossing. Having tried more than 10 bulalo specialties in the area, I still like to explore other options, so we stopped at MerBen Canteen after a friend recommended it.
MerBen Canteen is beside Bulalo Point, and has more individual dining huts for privacy. Parking is not a problem, with a blue guard assisting their customers on their open space at the right side. Its signage has a large "Tapsilog" written on it, but I haven't seen other customers ordering it. Perhaps their tapsilog is more popular in early mornings, while bulalo is their bestseller on lunch onwards.
They have two sizes of bulalo, the small one good for 2-3 persons at Php 350/serving, while the large one for 4-5 persons cost Php 400/serving. With 3 teenage boys and myself hungry from a 3.5 hours trek, we ordered the bigger portion size, which I think is also more practical.
A platter of steamed rice for 4-5 persons is insufficient to our appetite, so we ordered 2 more cups of rice. A 1.5 Lt bottle of soda here costs Php 80, and we ordered one with plenty of tube ice to go with it. By the end part of our meal, I scooped the heavenly-but-deadly "utak" or osso buco filling, leaving a hole on that hip bone below.
We left with full and happy tummies, taking our excess bulalo home. MerBen's even added extra bulalo soup stock on our take home dish, for an extra mile. Later that night, it was consumed as "pulutan" or appetizer with a brandy. It is flavorful and also value-for-money at its price.
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