Van Gogh Rice (photo by RUDY LIWANAG)

Walk up the avenue of a quiet compound in Sikatuna Village, Quezon City and let your curiosity drive you to an amazing experience. While eagerness gets the best of visitors, there is still a tinge of uncertainty, a half-hearted hesitation towards the mysterious.

Once ushered into the place, a warm and cozy nook opens up and embraces you in total calmness - a space entirely made for solace, an escape from the rough pace of urban living.

It started with a diagnosis and ended up with a creation. Van Gogh is Bipolar, a unique and cozy  restaurant, is actually a product of somebody’s malady. The name, as it suggests, has something to do with the owner’s condition. He needed to do something to deal with his circumstance. “When I was diagnosed, I told myself perhaps there was another way to deal with it aside from taking the usual medication. So I created this place because I wanted to have my own sanctuary,” owner Jethro Rafael shares.

To make up for the necessity to control mood levels, Rafael looked for food that can deal with episodes and balance them by releasing happy hormones. “The food that is being served here has something to do with mood alteration,” Rafael says. By chemically releasing hormones like dopamine, serotonin, and epinephrine, one is relieved from depression, fatigue, stress, and all sorts of bad moods.

The experience begins with some house rules, basically, a list of things observed to keep the diner polite and calm. It’s a self-service place where you make your own tea and fix the dishes, but the chores are welcome as it adds to the humbling experience.

Start off by making tea, a task that sets the mood for a liberating night. The choices of organic herbs like Spanish Plum, Mango, and Guyabano jacked up with mint induces a soothing spectrum of positive states - happy chills and calmness.

The meal begins with the savory taste of a hot turkey soup, which wakes taste buds and relaxes an empty stomach. The consistency of the turkey meat and the banana chips gives texture to the dish; the fresh basil leaves gives a refreshing flavor to even out the taste.

The appetizer is where the fun really starts. Choosing between two famous rock icons Sting and Axl Rose (both bipolar) is a perfect way to get started. Sting’s Hot Cherry Potato  is a meal of extra spicy toasted cherry potatoes with fresh herbs while Axl Rose’s Egg Shot is basically what it sounds – an egg shot with a choice of honey mustard or black sauce.

The main course is a White House party with US presidents such as Clinton, Roosevelt, and Lincoln (all with bipolar conditions). President Clinton is referred to as  a grilled Aussie Lamb chop with meat that is surprisingly tender with the flavor kept inside it. President Roosevelt on the other hand, is a grilled Norwegian salmon belly where the tender texture of the cuts makes up for a sumptuous bite evenly complemented by the juicy fish meat. Apparently, salmon is a good source of omega-3, a heart-friendly and mood inducing agent.

The name of President Lincoln belongs to a turkey, a healthy serving of turkey meat, and choiced fruits stuffed inside a hollowed orange peel. The turkey draws its flavor from the fresh fruits keeping the meal sweet and light but is equally as fulfilling.

All three meals are served with Van Gogh Rice, black mountain rice topped with mango, tomatoes, corn, and homemade banana chips. The rice by itself is savory already and further enhanced by the sweet taste of the fruits.

Mel Gibson’s darkest sin, by the way, is his also being bipolar. Get a shot of Jägermeister with German dark chocolate, dried walnuts and almonds, mixed  with wild honey. It’s quick and it’s good. The equally strong flavors of the German dark and the Jäger complement each other. The nuts add a texture that spreads the melted chocolate across the palate. It quickly awakens the senses from the heavy meal, a great way to end the experience.

Ideas painted, thoughts framed, and dreams poured into every teacup – these are what the restaurant shares. “The mind of a bipolar person can’t filter; it takes in everything all at once. If a normal brain can shoot 24 frames per second, a bipolar can possibly register one million frames per second,” Rafael says.

Perhaps being bipolar is not a disorder, it might be a gift. Either way, in this space, they “celebrate imperfections and embrace flaws and weaknesses.” Van Gogh is Bipolar is located at 154 Maginhawa Street, Sikatuna Village, Quezon City.