Piolo, burnay, empanada, pizza and JAVA

What do you think they have in common? Well, I happen to experience them all in Ilocandia some weeks ago.

Here's Piolo, our calesa. Going to Vigan would not be complete without having a calesa ride, with your friendly mamang kutsero who’s willing to show you places in and out of their heritage village. You would see ancestral homes of famous people during the Spanish era, like Padre Burgos. The house of the Crisologo’s and of course Chavit’s Baluarte. It was also my first time to see how a burnay jars is being done. Burnay jars, locally known as tapayan or banga, was used for storage of water, rice grains, basi (their local wine made of sugarcane) and condiments like salt and bagoong (fish paste). It is also used in the fermentation of vinegar (their sukang Iloco or suka Baket), perfect sawsawan for their empanada and ukoy. Yum!

If you happen to crave Italian food while in Ilocos, you can spot this quaint café located just in front Paoay Church, the Herencia Café. They serve local varieties of pizza like pinakbet, dinardaraan (dinuguan), bagnet etc. The pizza tastes ok, it doesn’t really taste like pinakbet or dinuguan but rather it is like a vegetable or meat lover pizza from a famous pizza brand. I’m just intrigued.

While in Laoag city, Java hotel is the place to stay to be, this Balinese type hotel is just simply great. The whole structure reminds me of a big bahay kubo, the hotel reception and lobby is open air, hotel amenities like swimming pool and gym is also available plus it has wi-fi connection everywhere.

This is not my first time to travel in Ilocandia, but I got to experience new stuffs what this region has to offer. Try it too!