Vigan gears up for double busy days ahead after being named among the New7Wonders Cities alongside Beirut, Doha, Durban, Havana, Kuala Lumpur and La Paz.
There are new hotels and places to eat such as Bigaa Gastropub which occupies the spot left by Dulcelise. The owners are the same, so the wonderful cakes are still there plus there’s variety — eclectic is the way to describe the menu — ice cream cakes and savory pastas like the Bigaa pasta topped with bagnet. The particular pasta is an explosion of traditional flavor made more current with a touch of tropical mangoes. The sans rival cake was fantastic as usual.
The Vigan Heritage River Cruise.
The narrow Vigan streets seemed even much narrower during the long weekend of the Papal visit.
We rode a tricycle from Vigan’s core to the town of Caoayan to check out the Pinakbet Farm, a municipal project intended to help students with livelihood and encourage farmers to at least switch to semi-organic farming, if not organic. A semi-boodle fight lunch of pinakbet, grilled liempo, chicken and tilapia from the fish farm and an Ilocano song and dance cultural show can be enjoyed for Php300.
As always, the empanadahan at Plaza Burgos was teeming with visitors.
The Bigaa pasta.
Vigan okoy is so good with Vigan’s suka ken lasona (vinegar with red onions).
Met the Abinsay family from San Jose, California
Vigan’s empanada is so much different from Batac’s as well as Laoag’s mongo and papaya filled empanada.
Photographed by Brandon Tan and BlauEarth
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