If You Happen to Be in Manila on December 15th...

you'd be crazy to miss this event at Salcedo Market:

ILOCOS NORTE COMES TO SALCEDO MARKET

The Salcedo Community Market and the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte will host an Ilocos food and crafts fair on December 15, 2007, showcasing the finest fresh produce, specialty food items, and indigenous crafts from the Ilocos region.

The day-long event is entitled 'Panaggapas: The Ilocano Harvest'. (Panaggapas - 'harvest season', in the local language - is the traditional highlight of the year's efforts, when the farmers give thanks for the blessings they have received and rest after another year of work.)

The festival is the first time the Salcedo Community Market - Manila's most popular weekend market - will host a fair of regional Filipino specialty food items and traditional crafts. Specialty items on sale will include popular Ilocos food products such as garlic, shallots, cornick, linga (sesame seeds), miki, and tupig, basi (sugarcane wine), and sukang Iloco (sugarcane vinegar) - all of which will be on sale from 7am to 4pm.

Other items on sale will include Ilocano delicacies such as bagnet, empanada, and longganiza (sausage). Among the non-food items are woven textiles; traditional Abel Iloko (woven cotton fabrics), in the form of blankets, runners, and napkins; and handcrafted baskets and mats that are known for their tight, intricate weaves. Keep any eye out also for dried tobacco leaves - a traditional household insect repellant and garden pesticide.

The festival will also include a cooking demonstration of traditional Ilocos food by authentic cooks brought in specially for the event, as well as representatives from the province's hotels and resorts.

Comments

[raine]

will surely be there. we frequent salcedo market on lazy sunday mornings for there's plenty of stuff there for everyone's taste....:-)

[marc medina]

The Ilocos Norte Festival is on a December 15, Saturday, by the way, not Sunday....

[raine]

yep, noted. thanks.:-)

[Burnt Lumpia]

Wow, it looks like it's going to be a great event. I wish I lived in the Phils so I could check it out. Is this an annual event?

[pilinut]

Thanks for posting that! I will unfortunately miss the market by a week, but I will make sure that mother stocks up on the longganiza, sukang iloko, and anything else that looks good. . .

Not to mention marc medina's enseimada (vbg), of which there is but one left in my California freezer.

[Jay P]

thank for the heads up. i brought my whole family and they enjoyed the experience thoroughly.

their empanadas were amaaaaazing.

crunchy piping hot with the soft egg and longganisa inside.

its a shame they werent selling the jars though.

were you there? i saw a big white man with an SLR and wondered if i should thank him. ;)

thanks again!

[robyn]

Jay P - we were indeed there, though I'm not sure Dave would appreciate being described as a 'big' white man. Unless by 'big' you meant 'tall'. ;-)

pilinut - we have some Medina ensaimada in our near future. :-)

[pilinut]

Thank you again for the heads-up. Mother went to the market on my behalf, and has around a kilo of Ilocano longganiza waiting for hubby and me when we arrive Friday night. It will be a tough call on Saturday morning--wolf down the longganiza first, or head to the Salcedo Market straight away!

Since you have ensaimada in your near future, are you meeting up with any lechons, too? I'm expecting a really good one to show up at Sunday dinner. I'd be happy to share my lechon sources with you if you ever want them.

[Robyn]

pilinut - enjoy your longganiza! We're also expecting to come eye to eye with a lechon on Sunday. The PhI is a fine (and fattening) place to spend Xmas. :-)

[jay p]

big as in six feet plus- not rotund ;)

would tall and strapping be a more accurate description? :D

[Robyn]

Jay - I don't know about accurate, but surely preferred. ;-0
But Dave's not 6 ft ... so maybe it was another big white man with an SLR!