Burger joint that draws inspiration from Panagbenga

March 22, 2020 Community Billboard

A burger joint that partly draws inspiration from the flowers of Panagbenga opened its door at a new last March 8.

Blaqk St. Bistro’s new home will be near the two biggest universities here, the Saint Louis University and University of Baguio, where one could savor La Rosa burger that will go along side it’s more famous sister, the Black St burger.

Bert Ceralde said that La Rosa is a new offering of Blaqk that turned just a year old during the biggest festivity here, the Baguio Flower Festival, which, unfortunately was cancelled due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) situation.

La Rosa has a pinkish bun, thanks to its most important ingredient, petals of pink roses. “It is less fragrant than the red variety of the flower, so we chose it for our bun,” said Ceralde, who first showcased the burger during the 24th staging of the Pangbenga last year at his old hole near the main gate of SLU also on the same road, but about a hundred meters away from its new location.

Ceralde said that the bun drew inspiration from the time of the year, February, which is both the season of love and blossoming of flowers or the Panagbenga.

The bun that wedges a chicken patty, as well as lettuce, tomato, apple, cheese and homemade dressing, is practically colored pink with sprinkles of sesame seeds.

Now pink joins black in the joint’s offering. The name was taken from its black bun which has been the regular feature of the joint, whose owner was first a seaman before turning to culinary arts.

The buns are black thanks to the reactivated charcoal which is one of its main ingredients. Ceralde believes in the healing powers and even cleansing powers of reactivated charcoal that could heal various diseases like gout, kidney, pulmonary and even heart diseases.

Ceralde in his menu said that activated charcoal “is a potent natural treatment used to trap toxins and chemicals in the body, allowing them to be flushed out so the body doesn’t reabsorb them.”

Bamboos and coconut shells are the best materials for it. Pane dolce burger, meanwhile, is a dark chocolate bun with a chunk of tuna. Prices of the offering are P175 for black, while P165 is the cost of pink and dark chocolate sandwiches.

Most of Blaqk’s ingredients are homemade, prepared mostly by Ceralde like the ciabata bread for its Club House grill sandwich, blaqk brioche bun for the double decker Blaqk burger, pretzel bun for the Brooklyn drive burger and Manhattan burger and bagel for the Miami drive burger, among others.

Blaqk also offers pasta like carbonara, pesto made from homemade pasta. It’s most unique offering is pasta al Negro, with its freshly made charcoal activated pasta, thus its color black.

Then there is the pizza negra, of course its dough is dark, again from activated charcoal. Ceralde also offers a variety of sauces and vinegars, which are used to enhance the flavour of his offerings.

Homemade vinegars are made from a variety of fruits like apple, blueberry and raspberry pulp, among others that “has undergone fermentation to form our health-promoting probiotes and enzymes giving it significantly less sugar and fewer calories.”

Blaqk has also spicy salsas and hot sauce that has no preservatives so it helps in promoting healthiness.

BLACK, PINK OR DARK BROWN. Burgers from Blaqk St. Bistro offers burgers that either have black, pink or dark chocolate buns. It is either Black St. burger with its famous black bun, la rosa burger or pink bun burger or a dark chocolate bun for pane dolce burger. La Rosa burger has just turned a year old as this bread made of pink roses is becoming a favorite at the burger joint.

Pigeon Lobien/ABN