Why Simple Meals in Baguio Can Make Ordinary Days Feel Special

Lunch today was nothing special and that's what makes it special.

I live in Baguio City since birth and if there’s one thing I’ve learned here, it’s that simple meals just hit differently. The weather alone already makes you want something warm and comforting, not too heavy and not too complicated. So today’s lunch was just rice, sautéed Baguio beans, and some fruit on the side.

Baguio beans are one of those vegetables you don’t really think much about until they’re on your plate. You see them all the time in the market. They're green, fresh, stacked in baskets like they belong there. They’re common, affordable, and honestly kind of underrated. But when they’re cooked right, they don’t need much. A little oil, onions, maybe garlic, and they’re already good to go. My daughter loves it more than the Watwat ( That's a kind of meet we eat here and that's another story for another time).

Fun fact: Even though we call them Baguio beans, they don’t always come from Baguio City. The name mostly comes from the type of beans that grow well in cool areas like Baguio and the Cordilleras, so that’s why people recognize them as “Baguio beans".

I didn’t cook anything fancy today. No special recipe, no effort to impress anyone. Just a quick stir-fry and rice. The kind of meal you make when you’re hungry but also tired and yes I'm always tired so these simple food saves me all the time when I just want to eat and move on with my day. Still, when I finally sat down to eat, I realized how nice it felt.

Sometimes we forget that not every meal has to be exciting. We see so much food content online that even lunch feels like it needs to be a production. But meals like this remind me that food is first meant to nourish, not perform.as a Filipino, rice and vegetables have done that job for generations, long before anyone thought of taking photos of their plates.

Living in Baguio also makes simple food feel more connected. Baguio beans here don’t feel random. They feel local. Like they belong. There’s something comforting about eating food that grows well in the place you live in. It makes meals feel grounded, like they’re part of your environment and not just something you picked up out of convenience.

I’ve noticed that on days when life feels a bit much, I naturally lean toward food like this. Nothing oily, nothing heavy, nothing that requires thinking. Just something familiar. There’s comfort in knowing exactly what you’re eating and how it’s going to taste.

After finishing the beans and rice, I had some fruit. Not as dessert, just something fresh to end the meal. Also, I needed to finish the fruit we bought before new year before they perish.

This lunch won’t be memorable in any big way. Tomorrow I might forget exactly how it tasted. But moments like this add up. They make up the quiet rhythm of daily life, the kind we don’t usually talk about but rely on more than we realize.

Today was just another day in Baguio. Just another lunch. Just Baguio beans and rice.

Photos are all mine. The first one is edited using CollageArt.