The Lucky Cook: Filipino recipes of a househusband

Travel: VIGAN

The last stop in our Ilocos trip was City of Vigan , the capital of Ilocos Sur. It is a World Heritage Site in that it is one of the few Hispanic towns left in the Philippines, and is well known for its cobblestone streets, and a unique architecture that fuses Philippine and Oriental building designs and construction, with colonial European architecture. Baluarte We first visited Baluarte, a mini-zoo that was owned by Gov. Chavit Singson. You can visit this place for free. You can check...

Our first destination in Vigan City was Baluarte, a mini-zoo located in Salindeg where visitors can see a variety of animals (including tigers and ostriches). It is also a popular venue for special events such as seminars and conferences. This is owned by Gov. Singson which you can visit for free. Entrance is totally free and you can roam this beautiful zoo without spending a centavo. don't forget to take photo's with the governor and his tigers This zoo was made for the people of...

My recipe for today is simple, sumptuous, savory and sulit (affordable). Pork binagoongan is simply pork cooked in shrimp paste. This is a native Filipino dish that most of my kababayan loves to eat. Tender pork cuts that was cured by the salty shrimp paste and hot chili fingers. You must prepare a plenty amount of rice when this is your ulam for the day. Shrimp paste are widely used in Filipino cuisine, it is most often used as flavor enhancer for vegetables, meats and seafoods. It's mostly...

Last week my wife and I dine in at Tajimaya Charcoal Grill. It is located in SM Mall of Asia in Pasay. This Japanese restaurant offers yakiniku style of dining. "Yakiniku" is a Japanese word that means "grilled meat". This Japanese style of cooking bite-sized meat, seafood and vegetables over charcoal. The customers will order different types of raw meat and veggies which are brought to the table with built in grill. Most of their ingredients were from Japan. The grill was...

You can never go wrong with Lechon! This is what most Filipino's say when eating lechon. Even foreigner's and tourist loves to eat this indulging piece of pork meat cooked slowly in charcoal. With its crispy skin your mouth will burst in every bite and with its tender meat you will never stop to eat. This recipe was very simple all you just need is to have lechon. Lechon Paksiw is lechon meat cooked in lechon sauce with a kick of vinegar and some spices. It is very easy to cook and you can prepare...

US? No, we're here in Laoag. This American boulevard inspired restaurant is located in the beautiful city of Laoag. Macy's Diner offers a wide variety of food from traditional Filipino dishes and American favorites. The bar was designed just like the usual food stores in the US. You will see road signage and the traditional tables and chairs. We ordered humungous clubhouse sandwich and longsilog but we forgot to take some pictures because we're already hungry that time. Here are some other...

Laoag is our second stop for a 3D/2N Ilocos escapade. It was a 2 hour bus ride from Pagudpud to reach the city. At 10 AM we checked in at our hotel first which is La Ellana Hotel, it is located among the busy street of the city. You will find many cheap hotels along these street. Before going to Paoay Church we opted to take lunch first at Saramsam Cafe. You can check our dining experience here To reach Paoay Church you will need to ride a trike and tell the driver to drop you...

Saramsam Ylocano Restaurant is an authentic Ilocano restaurant that is located in Laoag, Ilocos Norte. Most of their dishes are fusion of traditional Ilocano and Italian cuisine. The place was like an old traditional house with antic furniture. This restaurant is well-known for its dishes like dinuguan and pinakbet pizza, poqui-poqui and the famoust bagnet. Here's what we got. dinuguan pizza and bagnet Dinuguan pizza was a usual pizza topped with dinuguan (pork blood stew) and bagnet was...