I haven't posted anything yet about my travel and food adventures during my 4 days stay in Lingayen, Pangasinan, my first plan is to post in different topics and according to schedules in my blog, but you see here that travel and food are always together and whenever we travel, we always eat and try new food in a place were we are first timers. Here is my collection of my food adventures in Pangasinan, although not a food tour of some sort, but it serves as a teaser for me on what are the popular ones and specialty in Pangasinan, there are lots of food in Pangasinan and my stay is kinda short and I want to go back there again just to roam around and eat new food. Thanks to Vanj Padilla for inviting to their 1st Pangasinan Digital ICT Congress, it was an honor to be one of the speaker of the ICT congress.
Here's my foodie adventure
First welcome food- Breakfast in Capitol Resort
This is our 1st meal after we arrive, a nice breakfast at Capitol Resort in Lingayen, Pangasinan, I tried tasting the dried and fried espada fish and the Alaminos longganisa. The longganisa have a weird appearance because there's toothpicks on it that serves as a lock to the longganisa, they used that stick instead of a thread that normally we have in the grocery.
Trying the street foods
Street food are the joys of eating for me, I love to eat street foods!But before I eat one, I make sure that it is clean and free from germs. I checked on the street vendors by the beach in Lingayen, and our student tour guide told us that it is clean and all vendors who are present by the beach have permits from the local office of the mayor.
Here's my first try of a street food in Lingayen, the Chicken meat in a stick
The smell is yummy, and the concept of using the vinegar as your dip is yummy also, but then I got disappointed that the taste is not okay, I mean..the chicken is cooked but not that crispy, then I realized that the flour used for breading the chicken cooked so fast and not the entire chicken inside it. I was expecting a crunchy chicken on a stick.
Now this is the Bitso Bitso, I only hear the word Bitso in some folk song, and then our blogger friend Orlee told me that in Manila they call it Carioca, then after I taste and ate one piece in a stick, I told them that it tastes like Pilipit and Maruya. Its just a dough fried on a stick with sugar......in other words..its like a doughnut ball on a stick. I enjoyed eating this bitso bisto, bought it from a roaming vendor carrying this in a bilao.
Lingayen Gulf
I'm here at the Lingayen Gulf, one of the famous and longest shorelines here in our country, the gulf is popular as Gen. McArthur made his historic landing here during World War 2, after his famous word "I shall return!" meaning that he will back to our country to help us defeat the invading Japanese empire.
Dinner in Capitol Resort
I forgot to snap a photo of our food at Capitol Resort, it was a BBQ and Sinigang na Bangus night. I was with Vince and blogger friends, and JV of Inquirer.net and Coy of Globe. After the meal , Vanj and her team and also friends from the local office gave a short guided night tour around the Capital and inside the Captiol building.
Wet, boneless and dried fish
The wet market in Dagupan city reminds me of that Taboan market in Cebu City. Here in a wet market in Dagupan City, they sell all kinds of dried fish and boneless bangus fish in low prices, I just can't believe that a boneless bangus is priced as low as P45. and one plastic bag of espada fish is around P200. Also a popular product here is the bagoong. I saw lots of Manilenos shopping around and hoarding lots of dried fish, bangus and bagoong.
Tuyo, grab all you can
boneless Bangus
fresh Bangus fish
Puto in Dagupan City
They say that the most yummiest puto is here in Pangasinan, here's a teaser for myself when I tried this Calasiao puto in Dagupan City. Small rounded white puto so yummy and it melts easily in my mouth. Then I discovered that the puto city is in Calasiao, Pangasinan, a few drive away from Dagupan.
Street bibingka in Dagupan City
I love bibingka, and its my favorite food every Christmas season, I remember last year that I always buy bibingka everyday in our peryahan here in our village, then here in Dagupan City, I got a chance to taste on how their bibingka tastes like.
The taste is heavenly...why is it that street food always comes an awesome taste. If puto tastes better..then you should try some of their kakanins. Bibingka is so smooth from the inside.
Sinigang na Malang fish of Capitol Cafe
Here's our lunch for day 2 in Pangasinan, I first tasted this Malang fish here, it looks like a Tilapia fish but it got a bigger body with lots of fish meat. Malang fish emits a strong fishy smell, I think it came from a fish pen and not from the wild. Although that it comes with a strong fishy odor, the taste is good and perfect for a sinigang soup with veggies. The body of the Malang fish is like a body of a zebra with black stripes.
Bella's Calasiao puto factory in Calasiao, Pangasinan
Day 3 - me and my room mates in the resort, Jinkee, Orlee, Mac, Bam, and John decided to have a street tour around Pangasinan, since my room mates are leaving that day, they got the idea of shopping some local food, then we got a tip to try and visit Bella's puto factory in Calasiao, Pangasinan. I didn't expected that the jeep ride is sooooooooooooooo slow in the highway, we arrived in Calasiao after 2 hours of SLOWWWWWWWWWW travel all the way from Lingayen, Pangasinan. We decided to rent that Dagupan-Calasiao jeep to drive us to Bella's puto factory and then drive us back to Calasiao road.
Its a long ride, but the sight and experience in the puto factory is awesome!
Here's a Bella's version of Tikoy! so soft, sweet and you can tell that the rice is crushed in its finest form.
The owners of Bella's treated us a free eat all you can Calasiao puto! here's to breakfast at 10am!
Bam tried picking up the soft puto from the steamer, it was hard to remove it, and then we saw one of the factory staff did a demo in front of us and he removed 20 putos in less than 5 seconds???
my blogger friends told me to try it and have a photo, I told them I just want to have a photo op with the famous celebrity of Calasiao....the puto!
Blogger friends with the owners of Bella's
Breakfast in El Puerto Marina Beach Resort and Spa
Day 4 and last day - I forgot to try and eat the food offered in the resort we stayed in, the waiters told me that their best seller is the Lingayen Pinakbet, I told them I'll try it on the next day. And on the next morning, I ordered a nice omelette breakfast at 630am in the morning, I ate it while I check my email, I was suppose to order the pinakbet after it, but then our tour bus arrived so early, I missed the chance to taste it but I promised that I'll be back there soon.
my 2nd visit in Hundred Islands
This is my 2nd visit in Hundred Islands, I was here last 2005 and I can tell that the beauty of the island was nearly gone after I saw it again this 2011. I thought that I'll enjoy my visit, but then all I did was to complain why they installed a boating dock in the Childrens Island, now the dock is damaged by the Pedring typhoon and the look now is not like a dock, its like a damaged bridge during the world war.
But still, there are some moments that I enjoyed my visit...looking at the small islands and enjoy the sunny rays in the middle of the ocean.
Here's my photo on top of Governors Island. hahahaa. I conquered you again, but this time I am totally prepared! I brought water with me hahahaha.
The Nestle Pinipig cruch ice cream sold here is 150% higher than those sold here in our sari saris store in Cavite. Its so weird that you have no choice to buy it for a P75 pesos if you want to cool down after a long boat ride or island trek.
Lunch in a Kaleskesan carinderia
After the tour around Pangasinan, Vanj treated us to a nearby carideria along the highway of Lingayen, we tried this famour "kaleskes" food. Vanj told us that this food is an energizer meal to farmers and fishermen. The kaleskes is composed of cow's meat and internal organs chopped and cooked with a yummy soup and blood of the cow. It tastes like bulalo, but yummier.
here's the kaleskes..... all soup and under it are the meat
must try food if you are in Pangasinan, I also heard about that pigar pigar food, but I told them that I'll try it once I visit the city again. Then I asked what's in a pigar pigar, then they said its a carabao meat, and then told them that ohhh I have tasted carabao meat already, they are the tastiest meat ever! my town in Sampaloc, Quezon usually cook this every festival, one of the best is the calderetang carabao.
I forgot the name of this food...
but I heard its a "kilawing kambing", its like a slightly steamed raw goat meat with some chilis. Yummy and tasty! best to eat it with a ice cold beer or Coca-Cola.
This is the end of my little travel and food adventure, hope that I can post more here in my blog every Monday for my Travel and Lifestyle Monday post. I still have more here in my HD, I still got some photos and story to share from my La Union trip. So kita kits again and thanks for reading my post.
^_____^
Azrael Coladilla
