Home-Cooked Specials from Luzon

In the 60s, I enrolled at UP Diliman and stayed at the Molave Residence Hall. I had my first culinary awakening then, because the food served there had the most imaginative names —and was also the blandest I've ever tasted.

- By: Dr. Nestor Alonso II

A year later, I transferred to a lodging house at the back of Balara Filter Park and joined the Venerable Knight Veterinarians fraternity. This was my second culinary awakening, because my fraternity brothers from Luzon introduced me to their regional specials.

Goats’ bile is a prized ingredient in Ilocos. In Pampanga, they eat frogs and crickets (camaru), while in Southern Luzon, bangus and dalag (mudfish) are consumed. In Bicol, the trinity of taro, coconut cream, and chili is essential in their cuisine. I then realized that Cebuanos are the most finicky, if downright snooty, about food.