ILOCOS SUR:

Epic Encounters

Brace yourself for this journey through the north where surprises run endlessly.

words by Vic Sevilla
images by Magsy Magbanua

hen one is traveling in the hope of stumbling upon a host of delightful discoveries, it’s best to take the off-the-beaten path, rather than the route tried and tested. Such was my recent trip to Ilocos Sur, the province that still holds a handful of surprises to those who aren’t yet jaded or weary.

A HOME BY THE BEACH

Our exploits started in a seaside town known as Santiago. Like a mermaid, Vitalis White Sands sits close to the water, its feet lapped by the waters of Sabang Beach. “Vitalis White Sands is compact and cozy. Its close proximity to the beach gives guests plenty of opportunity to enjoy the sand and sea,” says Dennis Doroja, the hotel’s friendly general manager (who is also general manager of Vitalis Villas).

With only 27 rooms, Vitalis White Sands has a charm akin to the the intimate air of a small country lodging. Still following the Santorini color scheme, the rooms offer either a view of the ocean or the mountains of Santiago. Guests can avail of the various water sports activities. But the world-weary traveler can just lounge in the chair, bake in the sun and sip a cocktail.

Vitalis White Sands has plenty to offer in terms of food. We stuffed ourselves with inihaw na buntot (a hefty portion of grilled tuna tail), ensaladang talong (eggplant salad), the classic KBL (short for kamatis, bagoong and lasona, or shallots), crispy pata, and laing. The star of the table, however, was Macario Grill’s version of Boodle Fight (a bamboo bed brimming with such goodies as grilled chicken, liempo, squid, boiled sweet potato tops, sinigang na malaga served in a caldero, and pinakbet).

OCEANUS, KING OF THE SEA(FOOD)

Located along the shores of Sabang Beach in Santiago, Oceanus restaurant is already luring gourmands and seafood lovers from as far as Manila. Designed like a casual Mediterranean Café, customers can walk in and enjoy the purer flavors of country cooking.

At the helm of developing the restaurant’s menu is chef Chester delos Reyes Velas, the master of Oceanus’ kitchen. Today, Chef Velas wields his culinary powers to create a menu founded on the freshest ingredients that Santiago and the nearby environs produce. He sources his shrimps and crabs from Candon City (from the owner’s own farm), and nearly all the vegetables are supplied by local growers. Thus, he throws into the grill whatever the local fisherman brings to the restaurant: malaga, catfish and mussels. During summer he buys maritangtang (sea urchin) and scrambles it in egg. He also uses a local chili called siling duwag (which translates to “cowardly chili”; this variety isn’t armed with the fiery bite of its bolder cousins). He skews these with oyster mushroom and grills them until the skin is charred just right to draw out the sweetness from the chili and the mushrooms.

“Strict vegetarians and vegans will love this,” he assures. I find this vegetarian treat to be best eaten dunked in a vinegar sauce. He also makes use of sukang Iloco to make the barbecue marinade. Those with an appetite for the quaint flavors of traditional Ilocano dishes should sample miki niladdit, a soupy noodle dish made with egg noodles made in Abra. Later, even some of the liqueur tasted familiar but not: Lemongrass Mojito, Sago Fizz, Gin at Gata, and Whiskey Tamarind Sour.

CRADLE of CULINARY TRAINING

South of Santiago is another town that has been dubbed as the “Tobacco Capital of the Philippines,” having been the largest producer of a Virginia-type tobacco once. The town is also acknowledged for making the heaviest and largest kalamay in the world. But now, thanks to the partnership between TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) and AHMGI (Artstream Hospitality Management Group, Inc.), Candon is also fast becoming a center for culinary education in the Ilocos Region.

AHMGI, a highly-regarded property management group, was invited last year by TESDA to teach its programs at the Candon City Culinary Arts Academy Foundation. “The collaboration actually started during the time of congressman Eric Singson who wanted to provide opportunities for education and employment to his constituents in the 2nd district of Ilocos Sur. So now that it’s congresswoman Kristine Meehan who’s in the position, she wanted to continue the programs,” said chef Marie Astrid Serrano, the group director of AHMGI Properties.

Chef Serrano, along with the other culinary experts of AHMGI, all help educate students, housewives, retirees, indigenous peoples and even government employees on the many aspects of the culinary trade. “We’ve been teaching Cookery, and recently we’ve been given the NTTC certificates, which puts us on an assessor level. So we will be including Commercial Cooking in the program. We will be the only one in Ilocos Sur to have the NC3 level certification,” adds Chef Serrano.

Through the collaboration, AHMGI has been able to provide employment for some of the graduates of the program. Some of the scholars of the school are now gainfully employed in some of the AHMGI properties which include Vitalis White Sands and Vitalis Villas in Santiago, Hotel Luna and Hotel Luna Annex in Vigan City, Le Monet Hotel in Baguio City, and Rembrandt Hotel in Quezon City.

WEAVING A STORY

Centuries ago, the much-vaunted inabel from Ilocos was highly-prized as a sail for the mast for the galleon ships that plied the long oceanic route between Acapulco and Manila. The demand for the fabric was so great that many Ilocano families turned to weaving. Among them was the family of Corazon Agosto of Santiago. Sadly, when the Japanese forces came to Ilocos, they abruptly put an end to the weaving industry. That signaled the decline and near death of the fabric and the art of weaving it.

Today, in a small corner of Santiago, Agosto, who is already in her mid-70s, continues to work the loom using the know-how she has learned from her grandmother and mother. “A long time ago, we made the cotton threads ourselves. My father used to plant cotton in the hills of Santiago. When the cotton balls had been harvested, they were spun into threads, and treated with rice starch (almirol) and honeycomb to make the strands more resilient. Then, we fed them into the looms for weaving,” tells Agosto.

Along with 13 weavers who work the looms tirelessly, Agosto continues to weave inabel of great beauty. She follows traditional design patterns such as dinapat (where the motifs are repeated throughout the fabric), pinilian (the motifs are repeated alternately with spaces in between), and binakol (with eye-catching psychedelic geometric patterns). She also produces inabel fabrics for barong Tagalog where two narrow patterns lie parallel to each other in front.

While the task of making inabel is a long and tedious one, Agosto doesn’t see herself retiring any time soon. For her, the practice of weaving inabel isn’t just a source of livelihood but a bind linking past to the present.

PAST PERSISTS IN SYQUIA MANSION

At the corner of Quirino and Liberation Boulevard near Crisologo St. stands an imposing bahay na bato. Formerly an ayuntamiento (a town council), the Syquia Mansion in Vigan was built in 1830. It was the dowry by the parents of Doña Estefania Angco when she married Don Gregorio Syquia. He was a merchant who who traded in añel, the indigo ink used in the manufacture of Chinese porcelain. At that time, only families of the very rich can afford plates lined or decorated with añel because the ink, also called royal blue, was a prized commodity. These plates were also bartered in upland provinces like Abra, Baguio and Bontoc, for gold nuggets. In that way, Don Gregorio acquired wealth of untold vastness.

In the ante sala hung paintings by Pedro Respall. He was Juan Luna’s understudy who was the only person given permission by the artist to reproduce his paintings. When the Augustinian priests in Vigan requested Respall to paint murals on the ceilings of their churches, Don Gregorio commissioned the artist to recreate Juan Luna’s award-winning masterpieces, namely, “Spoliarium”, “El Pacto de Sangre”, and “Pueblos y Reyes”.

In a corner of the sala mayor is a portrait by National Artist Fernando Amorsolo of the couple that inherited the house: Elpidio Quirino, the sixth president of the Philippine Republic, and Doña Alicia Syquia, Don Gregorio’s granddaughter. Sadly, during the liberation of Manila, Doña Alicia, along with their children Armando, Norma and Fe Angela, were killed, as they fled their home in Malate during the Battle of Manila Bay. Tomas and Victoria survived. When Elpidio became president in 1948, it was Vicky who served as Malacañang’s hostess and First Lady to her father.

On a round table in front of Vicky’s portrait sits a couple of brass vases with dragon reliefs. When Quirino assumed power as president, one of his first executive orders were to clothe, feed and ship back the Japanese prisoners of war. Having lived through the horrors of war, he chose to be compassionate rather than exact revenge for the death his wife and three of his children. When Emperor Hirohito found out about Quirino’s compassionate gesture, he gave President Quirino the matching vases, with the seal of the emperor at the bottom, as tokens of Japan’s gratitude and friendship.

ROOTED TO THE PAST BUT LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

The provincial government of Ilocos Sur knows only too well that Vigan’s burgeoning tourism industry owes much to the relics of its past. Every year, hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to the heritage city of Vigan to walk along the cobblestones of Calle Crisologo and marvel at the centuries-old houses, such as the Syquia Mansion.

Said Ilocos Sur vice governor Jeremias “Jerry” Singson, “The provincial government, particularly the city government, is doing everything to preserve and conserve the heritage because that’s the only asset that we have. That’s why we meet with the caretakers of these heritage village for a united effort to protect our heritage.”

The provincial government also conducts meetings and seminars on how to deal with foreign and local tourists for business owners, the vice governor added, “(We involve) even the smallest businesses in Vigan, like the ice cream vendors; we talk to them. We tell them to smile (at) and talk to tourists. We know that once these visitors leave Vigan, they will be talking about not just of the place, but also of the people. That is how we wish to be known: a friendly heritage city.”

REPURPOSING THE TIME-HONORED

At the end of Calle Crisologo, where the street opens to the expansive Plaza Burgos, there stands a white handsome edifice that reflects the grace of a bygone era. Built nearly a hundred and fifty years ago by Don Agrifino Singson and Doña Benita Encarnacion, the mansion is known today as the Vigan Plaza Hotel. The hotel’s operations manager, Ana Mari Terry, tells us that in constructing the hotel, nothing has been changed in the original architectural design of the house. Inside, the Old World ambience lives on in the classic details. In the suite rooms, guests are given handmade slippers woven from water hyacinth stalks by artisanal manufacturers from the town of Caoayan.

The food takes much from traditional cooking techniques and ingredients endemic to Ilocos Sur. At the hotel’s Café Bigaa, head cook Jasper Julian Alinio introduced us to Vigan Sampler which cradles the five specialty dishes that have made Ilocano cuisine famous: bagnet, Vigan longganisa, pinakbet, sinanglaw and igado. We also tried the Rosangis Pasta, a mound of spaghetti topped with sautéed “rosangis” which is baby clams freshly harvested from the estuaries of Caoayan, and the Bagnet Sisig Quesadilla. As if these weren’t enough, pastry chef Jezza May Alvaro brought out a slice of crunchy Sans Rival and a rich sampling of her Brazo Cheesecake.

POTENT FLAVORS

At first glance, Calle Encarnacion seemed innocuous enough. But once you hit Casa Lourdes, things get a lot livelier. At night, this grand residence that has seen centuries comes alive as beer aficionados and gourmands troop to Calle Brewery to have a sampling of what is touted as the best craft beer and some of the best tapas and bar chows. At the bar, I chatted with Kyle Ayson, one of Calle Brewery’s food and beverage service staff.

“Calle Brewery produces five types that have been named, humorously enough, after the attributes of some of our national heroes. These have been especially created by brew masters Joey and Marco Viray,” he said. The selection includes Salakot ni Diego (blonde ale), Espada ni Lapu-Lapu (wheat ale), Canyon ni Panday (pale ale), Bigote ni Antonio (Indian pale ale), and Kabayo ni Gabriela (sweet stout). To sample the flavors designed by chefs Robby Goco and Chester Velas, we sat down and devoured a veritable feast. We had Beef Short Ribs Dinosaur that fell off the bone, served with side dishes. The Smoked Meats is a platter of Sausage Hotlinks, Beef Burnt Ends, Smoked Pork Belly and Smoked Chicken.

COFFEE, TEA, OR MORE?

The arrival of youngbloods in Vigan’s restaurant scene is largely responsible for the brisk changes in the city’s dining culture. For sure, Joshua and Jhesley Anne Homo, the young owners of 1995 Studio Café are contributing their own creativity to that transformation. Jhesley put every effort in creating a menu that puts together a mix of Asian and Italian cuisines. The café’s bestsellers are the 1995 Specialty Pizza topped with veggies, pepperoni and ham; and the pastas, Spanish Sardines and Garlic, Shrimp Alfredo, Creamy Tuna, and Asian Oriental. She has also put some delightful twists on some old-time treats, like the Calzones ala Vigan, which is fried and folded pizza that has a stuffing of longganisa, eggs and papaya.

The coffee and milk tea concoctions are another strong attraction at 1995 Studio Café. Joshua’s innovations include the popular Okinawa Brown Sugar Milk Tea which is a tall, cool drink with a rich brown sugary taste, with a hint of caramel. Try the Masso if you’re in the mood for a little adventure. It’s a fusion of macha tea and espresso coffee.

VIGAN FAVORITE

Just as ubiquitous as pinakbet, dinengdeng and bagnet are two staples in the Ilocano merienda fare: empanada and okoy. For that, go to Irene’s small eatery in Calle Encarnacion. The restaurant was established in 2004, but Irene Fortuna Santos learned how to make empanada and okoy when she was just a tiny wisp of a girl.

“I was taught how to make the empanada dough by my grandmother when I was still very young,” Irene recalled. Her grandmother worked on a small table using firewood stove, everything done by hand. “My brother peeled the papaya, while my sister and I sliced the onions.”

For Holy Week, because people refrain from eating meat, her mother introduced empanadas filled with crab meat. Later, her mother introduced another variation: empanadas filled with minced Vigan longganisa. Irene herself decided to add more variations by creating empanadas with fillings of bagnet, bangus, chicken, beef and tuna. To this repertoire, she also added okoy, crispy thin patties made with minuscule freshwater shrimps. She said, “For the batter, I also use rice flour from the market, not the instant mix which can be bought in the grocery stores. That way, my okoy does not sag but remain crispy long after frying.”

THE FUTURE RISES

Just outside the enclave of the old colonial mansions, a new hotel has risen, the Safari Hotel. Safari Hotel opened on December 2017 and has been in operation for nearly two years already, said Jason Famorca, the hotel’s operations manager. It has 21 guest rooms rooms in villas named after big game animals in Africa, such as the Zebra Villa, Tiger Villa, and the Elephant Building. Under construction is the Giraffe Building, designed to be taller than the others to house more luxurious suites. On the other side of the clubhouse is the hotel’s Italian restaurant called Dario. Here, chef Robert Pepito served us the specialties of the house: Calabrese Pizza smothered in black olives, bell pepper and spicy salami, and the creamy Mushroom Porcini Pasta.

Those who want to have a closer encounter with wildlife can go to Vigan’s famed Baluarte Zoo. Spread approximately on an 80-hectare property, the animal sanctuary offers an interactive experience with free-roaming animals. There are also a variety of bird species from the Philippines, Africa and elsewhere. Clearly, Ilocos Sur is on a crossroads between tradition and further progress. But what makes it unique is that it remains rooted to traditions that have shaped its past while strongly clasping the future towards progress.