Going to new places would never be complete without sampling the local cuisine. In Alica, there were very few establishments and a lot of food stalls in every corner but we never try them except for this one place, a bus stop over, we had our dinner before heading back to Manila.
Tapioca requested to his dad to cook dishes he missed a lot like tinumis and igado. I failed to take pictures of the igado and also the longganisa that looked like meat balls (which was really really tasty) we had for brunch the other day. And on our last day, my camera was back in action.
We had this pancit for breakfast. The noodles looked like pancit canton but it's not. It's a local pancit in Isabela and I like how they cooked it. Saucy with lots of crunchy veggies. The sauce was perfect to dip some bread into.
For our lunch, we had tinumis. It's an Ilocano version of dinuguan but it's more oily and sour. More oily because they put too much cooking oil plus the oil from the pork's fat. More sour because they use two sour ingredients. Vinegar and tamarind soup base. In our family, my father was the only one who knows how to cook dinuguan. But my father can't do the cooking anymore and nobody knows or even dare to cook dinuguan because we are all afraid of handling blood and uncertain how it should be handle properly. When I saw them preparing the ingredients for tinumis, I attentively watched and learned how to create this wonderful dish.
They started by cooking the pork on its own fat.
Then prepare the pork's blood by adding some vinegar.
Once the meat render its fat, add more cooking oil.
I think they put a bottle of oil on it.
Then add some minced garlic and onions.
Add the pork's blood using a strainer
to prevent whole blood from getting into the mixture.
Then add some green chili fingers
Last but not the least, add a pack of the tamarind soup base.
And of course, salt and pepper to taste.
That was as simple as the lifestyle of the people in Alicia. No frills, plain and simple and uncomplicated. And what I liked most about this town was the friendly and generous neighbors who gave away coconuts for free! But you have to pick it yourself. There is certainly nothing like this in Manila.
. . . jellybean enjoying her free buko juice
We spent most of the afternoon driving on his dad's scooter visiting friends and relatives he haven't seen in years. Then, we went to his uncle's farm to get a glimpse of the countryside of the town.
. . . fighting cocks
there's more of them here . . .
. . . the biggest fish pond I've ever seen
striked a pose . . .
. . . jellybean with the mother pigs a.k.a sows
That was all the sight seeing we did. We also went to the nearby towns but there was nothing much to see. Tapioca and I just enjoyed the fresh and non polluted breeze while riding the scooter. We left the province with recharged batteries and ready to get back from our customary daily living in the city.
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Who says cupcakes don't blush? Well, they do at Blushing Cupcakes Cafe. I mean, not literally but it just so happened that they named it blushing cupcakes. The mini cakes/cupcakes looked adorable and comes in different flavors too. The concept is not new. This has been done by Red Velvet in the US and here in Manila the most popular of them all, Cupcakes by Sonja's in Serendra.
