Ilocos Longanisa Longanisa is a pork dish consisting of ground pork marinated in seasoning and wrapped in dried pig intestines. Due to the cultural and environmental differences in every region of the Philippines, there are a lot of variety and style of cooking when it comes to longanisa. Since we are focusing a lot of foods from the Northern Philippines, the Ilocos Longanisa. Longanisa is a pork dish that resembles the Spanish Chorizo and Sausages. The Ilocos Longanisa is spiced with sugar, soy, salt, pepper and lots of garlic. It is strongly flavored with garlic as Ilocos Garlic is so aromatic and flavorful. Cooking it is easy, you just boil it with little water until the oil and the caramel comes out and fry it until the skin becomes leathery. Best served with rice. Also, we usually remove the excess oil and make the caramel the flavor of our fried rice to pair up with the cooked longanisa.
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Ilocos Longanisa

Longanisa is a pork dish consisting of ground pork marinated in seasoning and wrapped in dried pig intestines. Due to the cultural and environmental differences in every region of the Philippines, there are a lot of variety and style of cooking when it comes to longanisa. Since we are focusing a lot of foods from the Northern Philippines, the Ilocos Longanisa. Longanisa is a pork dish that resembles the Spanish Chorizo and Sausages.

The Ilocos Longanisa is spiced with sugar, soy, salt, pepper and lots of garlic. It is strongly flavored with garlic as Ilocos Garlic is so aromatic and flavorful.

Cooking it is easy, you just boil it with little water until the oil and the caramel comes out and fry it until the skin becomes leathery. Best served with rice. Also, we usually remove the excess oil and make the caramel the flavor of our fried rice to pair up with the cooked longanisa.

By your dust, and by the dust of all the generations, I promise to continue, I promise to preserve! The jungle may advance, the bombs may fall again―but while I live, you live―and this dear city of our affections shall rise again―if only in my song! To remember and to sing: that is my vocation…

Bitoy Camacho

A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino by Nick Joaquin

Nota Bene: In comparing Bitoy Camacho’s entrance in the play, I could deduce that like Ibarra is Rizal’s eye and mind in Noli, Bitoy is Nick Joaquin’s eye and mind in the play. The last words of Bitoy’s line will ring a bell: that is my vocation. And the majority of Joaquin’s literary work is about Manila. That’s just for me because I have real “Portrait” in full.

The Sunshine City and the Capitol

Laoag City is the capital of the Province of Ilocos Norte. The name of the city was derived from the Ilocano word meaning, light or bright, earning it the monicker, The Sunshine City.

The City actually sits on junction of the sea and the River, thus it can only be reached through the bridge built to connect San Nicolas and Laoag City. Actually San Nicolas was once part of Laoag City.

The first thing that you see in the City is the City Plaza and the imposing Provincial Capitol of Ilocos Norte. Designed in the Neoclassical Style and houses the provincial government of Ilocos Norte.

One interesting thing in the capitol building is the bust of Rizal with an eagle above it and a Filipina (judging from her dress) holding a quill while looking up to Rizal and the eagle as if she is looking for something. Looks like some Manifest Destiny symbolism, but that’s for me.

The Ideal Theater, designed during the 1930’s is a very good type of building in the streamlined Art Deco, a variant of Art Deco employing lesser ornamentations but with with more lines reminiscent of machinery or ships. The façade of the theater was flanked by two massive pillars between vertical bands. The theater is the first building that Pablo Antonio designed and is also the same building that launched his career as an architect. It was due to his design for the Ideal Theater that Nicanor Reyes commissioned him as the architect of FEU in Morayta.

Cine Ideal, one of the oldest movie houses in the Philippines, was established in 1912 by the Roces Family. The theater started on a wooden building in Avenida Rizal but due to the immense and growing popularity of the movie theaters back then, it was rebuilt in concrete with the Art Deco building by Pablo Antonio. It played Japanese movies during the World War II. It survived the 1945 Liberation of Manila during World War II and was immediately opened after the war. Due to the boom of the Cinema during the 1950’s to 1960’s it was expanded to cater growing clientele. It suffered steady decline during the 1970’s, when the major movie houses shifted out of Avenida Rizal and was eventually demolished in the later part of 1970s to give way to a shopping mall.

During its heydays, Idea was popular for showing only movies from the MGM production house, as its competitors also show movies from only one Hollywood Production House.

Source: arkitektura.ph

Vigan Royal Bibingka Another popular rice dessert from Ilocos, but take note Bibingka is found throughout the Philippines in different ingredients and variations. The bibingka in Ilocos has Glutinous Rice (Malagkit) Flour , milk, eggs and butter as the ingredients baked in oven (traditionally firewood ovens) and topped with grated cheese. When I was young, Royal Bibingka was served whole with you manually slicing it into pizza like pieces. That was until someone had the idea of preparing them in muffin pans. That lessened the hassle of slicing the very sticky dessert manually as it sticks to the knife. It was a big hit. Bibingka is a famous pasalubong of people who came from Ilocos to Metro Manila and the best bibingka shops are located along the Manila North Road. Among the many sellers of the treat, my favorite is the Marsha’s Delicacies.
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Vigan Royal Bibingka

Another popular rice dessert from Ilocos, but take note Bibingka is found throughout the Philippines in different ingredients and variations. The bibingka in Ilocos has Glutinous Rice (Malagkit) Flour , milk, eggs and butter as the ingredients baked in oven (traditionally firewood ovens) and topped with grated cheese.

When I was young, Royal Bibingka was served whole with you manually slicing it into pizza like pieces. That was until someone had the idea of preparing them in muffin pans. That lessened the hassle of slicing the very sticky dessert manually as it sticks to the knife. It was a big hit. Bibingka is a famous pasalubong of people who came from Ilocos to Metro Manila and the best bibingka shops are located along the Manila North Road. Among the many sellers of the treat, my favorite is the Marsha’s Delicacies.

Rural Landscapes

Nothing beats hitting the Rural Landscapes when escaping the congestion and the concrete chaos that is an Urban Jungle. Such a treat for weary urban roamers like you and me. Internet is very limited in the rural areas so be sure to enjoy an internet deprived moment when traveling in the provinces.

Some photos of greens to sooth our weary eyes.

Edgar Ketchum Bourne, the Mission Style and the Bureau of Science Building. The Burnham Plan of Manila was drawn 1905, might as well it took years to implement the first phase of the plan fully but the Americans already started building Manila according to their needs and imperial ambitions as early as they had the Treaty of Paris. One of the first Architects that the Americans sent to the Philippines is Edgar Bourne. Taking note that the Spanish inspired Architecture is already rooted deeply into the Philippines, Edgar Bourne designed the first American Colonial Buildings in the Philippines with a style readily imported from Americas: Mission Style. The Mission style is a style from American States that was once part of Spanish America. Carrying with them the technology of the concrete, the first buildings of the American Era looked like a continuation of the Spanish Inspired buildings, while fulfilling the Manifest Destiny of the US. A perfect example of buildings of this type is the Bureau of Science building in  Manila. Bureau of Science is the precursor of what is now the Department of Science and Technology. It was housed in what is now part of UP Manila Campus.The building did not survive the war. One striking feature of the building is the twin mirador towers at the center of the facade. Aside from that, the building features Spanish Roof Tiles, Arched entries and plain walls, all elements of the mission style that was so prevalent in California. Mission style is also present in the PNU buildings in Taft Avenue. As the mission style is derived from the Spanish territories of California and Florida, it was readily applicable to the Tropical Philippine Setting dute to the wideness of courtyards and the effectivity of arched windows to ventilation. Edgar Bourne will go on to design more pre-Burnham Buildings in Manila such as the first Manila City Hall after they went out of Ayuntamiento, the Manila Ice Plant and some piers of the port of Manila. As soon as the Burnham Plan was accepted by the Philippine Commission, he got replaced by William Parsons, who gave the transition of Architecture to the Spanish-Neoclassic hybrid to the Neoclassical works exemplified by Arellano, Mapua and Toledo.
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Edgar Ketchum Bourne, the Mission Style and the Bureau of Science Building.

The Burnham Plan of Manila was drawn 1905, might as well it took years to implement the first phase of the plan fully but the Americans already started building Manila according to their needs and imperial ambitions as early as they had the Treaty of Paris.

One of the first Architects that the Americans sent to the Philippines is Edgar Bourne. Taking note that the Spanish inspired Architecture is already rooted deeply into the Philippines, Edgar Bourne designed the first American Colonial Buildings in the Philippines with a style readily imported from Americas: Mission Style. The Mission style is a style from American States that was once part of Spanish America.

Carrying with them the technology of the concrete, the first buildings of the American Era looked like a continuation of the Spanish Inspired buildings, while fulfilling the Manifest Destiny of the US. A perfect example of buildings of this type is the Bureau of Science building in  Manila. Bureau of Science is the precursor of what is now the Department of Science and Technology. It was housed in what is now part of UP Manila Campus.The building did not survive the war.

One striking feature of the building is the twin mirador towers at the center of the facade. Aside from that, the building features Spanish Roof Tiles, Arched entries and plain walls, all elements of the mission style that was so prevalent in California.

Mission style is also present in the PNU buildings in Taft Avenue. As the mission style is derived from the Spanish territories of California and Florida, it was readily applicable to the Tropical Philippine Setting dute to the wideness of courtyards and the effectivity of arched windows to ventilation.

Edgar Bourne will go on to design more pre-Burnham Buildings in Manila such as the first Manila City Hall after they went out of Ayuntamiento, the Manila Ice Plant and some piers of the port of Manila. As soon as the Burnham Plan was accepted by the Philippine Commission, he got replaced by William Parsons, who gave the transition of Architecture to the Spanish-Neoclassic hybrid to the Neoclassical works exemplified by Arellano, Mapua and Toledo.

Source: arkitektura.ph