Philippine Islands – Discover the beauty of its 7,107 islands

Squid cooks very quickly so make sure you watch the pan during the cooking process. Serve this dish with hot, steaming rice. Ingredients:
1 kg (2 lb) small squid
2 tablespoons oil
Cloves of ½ head garlic, crushed
125 ml (½ cup) vinegar
60 ml (¼ cup) water
½ teaspoon salt

>> Press on the heads of the squids to remove all the black ink (and reserve all the ink). Remove the membranes, heads and tentacles from squid. Discard membranes and heads but retain the tentacles.
>> In a frying pan, heat oil and brown the garlic. Remove garlic and set aside.
>> In a non-metallic saucepan, combine squid, tentacles, vinegar, water and reserved ink. Simmer over medium heat until squid are cooked, about 2 minutes. Do not overcook or the squid will become touch. Season with salt.
>> Remove from

The Filipinos’ resourcefulness is best seen in his preparation of sinigang. The choice of pampaasim or souring agent is vast – kamias, sampalok, kamatis, ripe guavas, santol, balimbing, young pineapple and if worse comes to worse even kalamansi juice. Any vegetable available can find its way to the sinigang pot – sitaw, labanos, kangkong, gabi, okra or talong. Its brothe can be made from rice washing and can be complemented by either shrimps, beef, pork or fish. Ingredients:

2 cups rice washing or water
1 package of tamarind ready-mix powder
1 small onion, sliced
1 tomato, sliced
2 pieces radish, quartered
½ kilo shrimps
1 bundle kangkong, cut into 2″ lengths
1-2 pieces siling haba
salt or patis to taste>> Put half of rice washing or water in a pot. Add tamarind powder. Add onions, tomatoes

A typical Filipino fiesta table can be ladened with simple “sinigang” and “sinugba” dishes, chinese chopsuey, spanish kaldereta, and Italian spaghetti all filipinized to suit a combined oriental and occidental taste.

Foreign visitors to the Philippines are often pleasantly surprised by how quickly they develop a taste for Filipino food. Filipino dishes are neither too spicy nor too hot. The curries that smother Indian, Pakistani or Ceylonese dishes are rarely found in Philippines cooking. Hot chili peppers though native to the islands are heavily used only in the regional dishes of Bicol and Mindanao.
 

The location of the Philippines astride the great sea routes to Asia has resulted in varied foreign influences in its history and culture. The Filipinos are basically Malayan. However, more than 300 years of Spanish colonization and a half century of American tutelage have left their marks on the islands. Filipino

The Cathedral
Baguio City

Baguio City suffered heavy bombing and shelling during its liberation in 1945. The Cathedral sheltered 5,000 people for two months. Its grounds contain the graves of bombing victims.

Vigan Cathedral
Vigan Park, Ilocos Sur

The first Vigan Cathedral was ordered built in 1574 by Juan de Salcedo. Another version of the church was again constructed in 1641. The persent baroque-style building was completed in 1800. The Cathedral has a main altar with beaten-silver panels. Its bell tower stands separately in Plaza Burgos. The Fu dogs design carved above its outermost doors is testament to Vigan’s strong Chinese heritage.

St. Augustine Church (Paoay Church)
Ilocos Norte

St. Augustine Church (most popularly known as “Paoay Church”) was built in 1694 commissioned by the Augustinian friars led by Fr. Antonio Estavillo. The Church was completed in 1710 and rededicated in 1896. Considered as the most outstanding variant of the “earthquake Baroque”, Paoay Church was built of baked bricks, coral rocks, salbot (tree sap) and lumber, and has 24 carved buttresses.

The lower part of the facade was made of stuccoed brick while the upper facaed is made of coral blocks. Local materials were said to be made of mixing sand , lime, sugarcane juice and then boiling the mixture with mangeao (salbot) leaves, leather and rice straw for two nights. Its belltower, which is detached from its main building, is