imbaliktad soup

Beef imbaliktad with soup. Right, it's imbaliktad. And yes, it is, and it has, soup. Imbaliktad is usually dry--beef (or carabeef, or goat) tender loin, innards, tripe, cut into strips and sautéed in garlic, onions, ginger, peppercorns and then stir-fried briefly and quickly, pour in some pespes/pinespes ("intestine juice") for it's truly Ilokano bitter flavor, stir it a few times more,  and it's done. The meat should be tender,...

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kinirog a kappi, stir-fried river crabs

Kinirog a kappi. Kappi. Or kippi (as some folks in Ilocos Norte call it). Or agatol or akasit (as we call it in Nueva Vizcaya). River or freshwater crabs, or crablets for that matter because these are small crabs compared to say, the humungous rasa (mudcrab). As a child in our place, a farming community, we used to catch agatols in creeks, streams, ponds and my mother would kirog (stir-fry) it with just salt. It's so good with a vinegar...

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katuday dinengdeng

Dinengdeng with katuday flowers. Katuday is perfect for a salad, blanched and tossed with bugguong, kamatis and lasona/sibuyas, it's a perfect appetizer of sort. And it's mostly known and used for as a flower vegetable. But it can be also made into a hearty dinengdeng along with other greens. Yes, although some may not relish its distinct but mild bitter-sweetness, a dinengdeng-gourmand will just simply adore katuday in his bugguong-charmed...

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kaliente, boiled beef skin ceviche

Kaliente made in Tuguegarao City. Kaliente or simply naanger a lalat (ti baka wenno nuang) is a popular pulutan (finger food) in the Ilocos region and elsewhere. It's cow's or carabao's skin boiled for hours until sticky tender and then made into a kind of kilawen or ceviche: garnished with vinegar or calamansi, salt, chopped onions, minced ginger, and if available, mashed with some of the cow's brain for a creamy texture and more tasty...

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octopus salad

Kurita salad at its crawling and sucking best. Like squid, octopus (kurita, pugita), besides being a good catch for a delicious kurita adobo and other sumptous dishes, is also a perfect specimen for a good salad dish or a kind of a ceviche (a sort of kilawen-like delicacy). I pick medium and or small size octopi for my salad, preferably the smaller ones, babies, if I chance upon them fresh in the wet market, some still alive from Aparri...

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pinapaitan, the really bitter original innards stew

Really bitter Ilokano pinapaitan, its broth/soup thickened not with fat but with  pespes boiled for hours. Pinapaitan  is solely and authentic – even exotic – Ilokano dish. Loved by any true-blue Ilokano there is, specially those bred in the away (farm, country sides) or promdi (from the province) in any Ilocos place, native and even those so-called "Ilokanized".  Well, some Ilokanos shun it, but it’s...

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