Farmer's Daughter (Baguio City): An Internationally-Recognized Restaurant Serving Cordilleran Food

I’m doing a Baguio City Food Trip 2022 series this month. Check out the installments so far: Chef’s Home | GoodTaste Cafe and Restaurant

I’ve visited Baguio several times already. But honestly, I haven’t explored Cordilleran cuisine yet. I’ve tried Pinikpikan* (a Cordilleran chicken soup dish) and Kinuday (smoked meat) but that’s barely scratching the surface. To the uninitiated, the Cordilleras (officially Cordillera Administrative Region or CAR) is a landlocked, mountainous region in northern Luzon. It has 6 provinces, which includes Benguet where Baguio is located.

Anyway, I made sure that I get to try Cordilleran food in our last visit. So we went to Farmer’s Daughter, a restaurant that serves authentic Cordilleran cuisine. In 2021, it was listed in the Essence of Asia, “a collection of restaurants that represent authenticity, culinary culture and community focus” by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

The Farmer’s Daughter is housed in a structure with an architecture inspired by a traditional Igorot (a Filipino ethnic group in the Cordilleras) house, as you can see in the photo above. It has wooden interior and furnitures, giving a homey and rustic vibe.

Homey and rustic vibes at Farmer’s Daughter

Let’s now talk about the food, starting with the vegetables. We tried the Pak-pako Salad or river fern salad with tomatoes and cucumbers mixed in vinaigrette. The veggies are fresh and crisp, and the dressing has a citrusy taste.

Even though there is an abundance of vegetables in the Cordilleras, the locals still love to eat meat that’s boiled, grilled, or smoked. You can try these meat delicacies at Farmer’s Daughter. We had their Kinuday jen Baboy (stir-fried smoked pork meat), which has a nice smoky taste and a crunch coming from the vegetables.

We also tried their Dinakdakan (charred pork ear, snout, and tongue dressed with pig’s brain and spices) which is the North’s version of Sisig. It’s sour, spicy, delightfully chewy, and also smoky. It also has a crunch coming from the onions and ginger. It’s the perfect pulutan (snack eaten with drinks).

The idea of boiled pork leg and beans sounded good to me, so I tried Sed-dih tan Butil. It has a nice earthiness from the beans, soft meat and skin, and crunch from the veggies, swimming in a comforting broth.

If you’re adventurous, you can try a famous Cordilleran delicacy—the Pinuneg (sautéed blood sausage). It’s like Dinuguan (Filipino blood stew) in sausage form. It has a chunky texture.

But if you wish to be on the safe side, you can just go for the Kindot jen Baboy (grilled pork). You can never go wrong a pork that’s perfectly grilled!

Every dish we tried is delicious. I never thought that Cordilleran food will be this good. So if you’re in Baguio, be more adventurous and try Cordilleran cuisine at Farmer’s Daughter. I highly recommend this restaurant to you.

PS While you’re in the area, visit Tam-Awan Village, which is a minute walk away. It’s a venue for art and cultural activities, which is visited by many tourists.

*Pinikpikan, the Cordilleran chicken soup dish, is probably the Cordilleran version of Tinola. When prepared in the most traditional way, the live chicken is gently beaten (“pikpik”) to death to keep the blood inside, making this dish controversial. But modern recipes just use chicken slaughtered in a normal way.

Address: Long Long Benguet Rd., Baguio City, Benguet, Philippines | Operating Hours: Monday, 10AM-4:30PM; Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday, 9:30AM-4:30PM; Wednesday, 9:30AM-3:30PM; Saturday & Sunday, 10AM-5PM | Facebook