Patricia Aleckzandra | FoodFindsAsia
When your love for arts, crafts and food collide, where would you go? If you haven’t found your safe haven yet, here is a perfect place for you. In the heart of a small, quiet village in Lipa City stands a café built from pure passion for crafts. This café has given its fellow dreamers (their valued customers) a reason to come back again and again. We give you the hidden gem of Lipa, Dreamland Arts and Crafts Café by Indie Green Culture.
Upon arriving at the cafe, you will be greeted by – what looked like – an old big house with a big parking lot which housed another food spot. When you enter the cafe, you will be transported to a whole new world, a world where dreamers will surely enjoy. But both exterior and interior is decorated with the Indie Green Culture touch – customized, crafty and beautifully done.
Self-confessed salvager and owner Miss Phoebe, or known as tsang, sees to it that the café will always be full of crafty and hippie iconic pieces you would not dare to miss. With her awesome ability to turn scrap into something wonderfully beautiful and useful, she has decorated the café with hand-made dream catchers, personalized and self-painted boards, and even turned unused sewing machines to tables. The café is perfect for everybody regardless of age, gender, status of the heart and more, who seek for a place to relax and contemplate.
But the café is not just all looks. Their dishes are also delectable as well! The menu, which is mostly family heirloom recipes, have special personal touches of the couple-slash-owner of the café. It was such a delight for us that we got the chance to try some of the dishes they are proud off.
Good food is a right, not a privilege. That means people should be served good food. At Dreamland Arts and Crafts Café, they serve it with love to ensure goodness in it. Try, for example, one of the best chicken wrap I have tasted so far. Their Goodness ‘inna Wrap (P150) is simply good. You will definitely love the veggies and the tender chicken meat wrapped in whole wheat tortilla plus the oozing melted cheddar and their customized squashy mayo inside. The dish is sided with fresh cheesy potato wedges.
Another good something to satisfy your taste buds is their Indie Buffalo Wings (P180). It is not too sweet but a bit spicy yet the buffalo wings tasted like how your uncle would marinate it in your barbecue night out. This delish dish is also partnered with their signature potato wedges and their home-made squashy mayo. Yes, squashy because it is made from squash which is really healthy and good for you (we all know that right?)
Bread, rice… and to complete the carbs, we also had pasta. The cafe’s Dreamy Pasta serves different types of pasta dishes. We tried their Cheesy Baked Mac ‘inna Big Cup (P150) served with healthy malunggay garlic bread. This dish is one of their heirloom dishes in their menu. Perfect for people who wanted to just savor something cheesy and creamy at the same time. Yum!
A perfect meal would not be complete without something to quench our thirst. We tried two drinks that is delicious and healthy put in one. Their Indie Minty Pinomansi and Indie Minty Strawberry is a perfect match! Try them out, or you can pick their detox water which really works wonders.
The passion of Dreamland Arts and Crafts Café is not just about their healthy and heavy food, or their craft-filled interior and exterior decoration. It is deeply rooted from their idea that dreamers should love the indie green culture. Indie means being yourself and not following what is in trending, green is to indicate that people should always love mother Earth, and culture to remind us that Indie Green Culture is not just a brand but an advocacy which we encourage you to join!
Passionate. A word that will truly define the cafe, the owners, their staff, or their fellow dreamers. The cafe is not just a food stop but something more than it. It is made out of a dream, honed with extreme love and passion, and now is a reality. So what are you waiting for? Head over to this special place and be a dreamer as well! We know we are now.
Photos by: Yuriel Ramilo
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