Southerner Chef Kevin Mize brought the regional American Southern cooking he grew up with to Baguio as he chose to live in the Philippines yet. Ozark is a city in Arkansas. What is notable about Southern food? It is labelled comfort food, also known as soul food. Southern cuisine comes from a mix of old world cooking (such as African American, English, Scottish, Irish, German, French, and Native American, Cajun, Creole, Caribbean). At Ozark, Chef Kevin puts his own twist to the classics.
The Ozark menu consists of pulled chicken or pork, meat loaf, pork chop, grilled rib eye steak, fried chicken with biscuits, and sidings that you can choose from among coleslaw, New Orleans dirty rice with liver, house made fries, mac and cheese, fried green tomatoes, etc.. Desserts are so interesting. I tried at least the durian cheesecake (something with a local twist), dark beer cheesecake and what I liked best, the New Orleans bread pudding – very dense with good bread and the right sweetness.
Ozark Diner is located at a residential area at the back of the St. Louis University in Pacdal. Ambiance is modern and quite low key for a diner.
Brining is one technique Chef Kevin uses for his chicken. Caught him preparing black eyed peas (the exact utong we have) and I was curious how it would taste like as the Ozark signature siding. He adds ham hock to his black eyed peas, which makes no resemblance at all to the local utong with bagnet because we put an exclamation point to the dish with a dash of fish paste..
I had pork chop. It was a little drier than I expected. I regret not trying the meatloaf coz I read rave reviews about it. I have a definite restaurant list whenever I travel to Baguio. Ozark now makes that list.
Bye for now, I have a trip to catch, I’m leaving for yet another FoodPrints shoot. Enjoy your weekend, dearies!
FoodPrints Ozark Diner BTS.
Ozark Diner 2 Bear’s Trail corner, Bareng Drive, Baguio, 2600 Benguet, Philippines
Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2015
