Ilocos Delicacies

Ilocos region is a popular destination among local and foreign travelers alike. With the wide range of activities to do and sights to see, it's the destination where Mom and Dad and Kuya and Ate will all enjoy.
But, and this is the big BUT, there's one Ilocos factor that every traveler in any age and from any place will enjoy: the food. Although it isn't the food capital of the Philippines (it's arguably Pampanga), Ilocos deserves its rightful place in the list of local destinations for foodies.
So when you take a trip to the historic region that is Ilocos, make sure you try out and take home the following delicacies:

Bagnet
  Choice pork belly boiled and then deep-fried repeatedly results to the crispy, tasty and cholesterol-laden bagnet of Ilocos. Perfect for eating with rice and condiments (vinegar and soy sauce with calamansi and chili please), or simply chewing bite pieces off a large chunk, the bagnet is sinfully good you wouldn't apologize to anyone for the guilty pleasure.

Pinakbet
To balance off all the fat and unhealthy calories that enter your body because of the famous Ilocos bagnet, order a serving of their equally famous dish pinakbet. It's a vegetable dish that's a mixture of local ingredients such as eggplant, okra, tomatoes, stringbeans and squash. Sauteed in onion and garlic and seasoned with local fish sauce for a perfect marriage of tastes, it is best eaten with steamed rice and a pinch of bagoong (shrimp paste) with every spoonful.

Empanada
 Ah, the Ilocos empanada. It's interestingly more delicious when eaten in one of the hole-in-the-wall vendors in the old streets of Vigan, but nevertheless exploding with flavor anywhere else you take it. I have no idea how they make it so tasty by just combining green papaya, mongo and egg, and then enveloping it in a crust made of rice flour, but it sure is the perfect mix especially if dipped in special sukang Iloko. There's nothing more to say but "Try it!"

Bibingka
The only sweet one among all the salty food items popular in Ilocos, the Ilocos bibingka is a whole lot different from what you probably know of. Unlike the kakanin from the southern parts of Luzon, the Ilocos bibingka has a finer texture, but is similarly made of rice. It is sweet and its feel is closest to tikoy. The best places to get your fix of authentic Ilocos bibingka are the towns of Bantay and Vigan in Ilocos Sur.

Vigan longanisa
Just like the Ilocos bibingka, the longanisa is uniquely Vigan. It is absent of the sweetness that characterizes the typical Pinoy longanisa, and instead is garlicky and salty, perfect for, what else but sukang Iloko, fried rice and sunny side up eggs. When you stay in an Ilocos hotel, make sure that it serves Vigan longanisa for breakfast

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