Food is truly a feast to the eye and nourishment for the soul

TRAVELOGUE 6

Vidi Vici Vigan

Good roads, muddy roads, off road, superb cuisine and

most of all a journey among brother riders.


Crisologo Street

The City of Vigan (Ilokano: Ciudad ti Bigan; Tagalog: Vīgân) is a fourth class city in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. It is the capital of the Province of Ilocos Sur. The city is located on the western coast of the large island of Luzon, facing the South China Sea. According to the 2010 Philippines census, it has a population of 49,747 people.

It is a World Heritage Site in that it is one of the few Hispanic towns left in the Philippines where its structures remained intact, and is well known for its cobblestone streets, and a unique architecture that fuses Philippine and Oriental building designs and construction, with colonial European architecture.

The area of Vigan was originally a settlement of traders coming from the Fujian Province, China. At the time of Spanish colonization, the Chinese settlers, whose language was Southern Fujianese (Min Nan, often referred to as "Hokkien" by most Filipinos), referred to the area as "Bee Gan" (Chinese: 美岸; pinyin: Měi'àn), which means "Beautiful Shore." Since the Spanish conquistadors interchanged V and the B to refer to the B sound, they spelled the Hokkien Chinese name "Bee Gan" as "Vigan", which is the name used to this day.

Vigan's Chinese heritage is still evident from the numerous elite Chinese creole families who come from the area, many of whom adopted Hispanic family names. Others, such as the Sy-Quia family, have retained Chinese-derived surnames, though most, if not all, of the Christian Chinese creole families fully Hispanicized themselves culturally.

The most commonly known source of the city's name is from the Biga'a plant, which once grew abundantly along the banks of the Mestizo River, from which captain Juan de Salcedo derived the city's name (after a misunderstanding with the locals, thinking he was asking the name of the plants).
Other names

The city's full name at the time of its Spanish foundation was "Villa Fernandina", or "Town of Ferdinand", in honor of Prince Ferdinand, the firstborn son of King Philip II of Spain. As the city grew, and the seat of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia transferred to Vigan, it was later renamed "Ciudad Fernandina de Vigan" ("Ferdinand's City of Vigan").

The residential areas were not spared. Some of the houses on Crisologo Street were casualties of fire during the Japanese period; several houses on Quezon Avenue were destroyed by fire as well in 1952; while in 1971, some houses near Plaza Burgos burned down as well. The houses along Crisologo Street that were burned were later reconstructed faithfully following the architecture of the former structures.

We partook of the Bigueño cuisine. Vigan is home to good restaurants where visitors can bask in authentic Ilocano food like bagnet, Vigan Longganisa, Sinanglao and other dishes. These restaurants are Los Majitos Street Dining, Café Leona, Uno Grille & Lilong and Lilang Café. The Empanadaan at Plaza Burgos serve the famous Vigan empanada and other delicacies.

The famous Vigan Lonnganisa

Vigan Empanada made from rice flour and colored with Annato oil, usually filled with ground Vigan longganisa, monngo beans, egg, sayote strips or fresh raw papaya

Preparing Vigan Empanada

Bagnet- Sun-dried and deep-fried pork belly, served with chopeed tomatoes, red onions and sprinkled with fermented fish sauce.

Okoy

Halo-halo- a summer merienda cooler filled with assorted sweetened beans, jackfruit, boiled plantain and milk. Sometimes Purple yam ice cream and creme brulee is added on top.