Mula Aparri... Food Tripping in Cagayan Valley




4-5 March 2008. i was supposed to be in macau for another media tour...and i ended up in aparri. which in my opinion was a better deal, because it's easier to go to macau than to aparri, after all.

during my break between classes, francis from the lab asked if he could rent my camera for his project in aparri. i jokingly said, sure, as long as you bring me along. and he said ok :) fortunately, i didn't have any classes for the next two days, so i could go (almost) guilt-free. after our 4-7 pm class taht day, we took the 11-hour bus trip from cubao to aparri. but we didn't stop there. we went from town to town to do a survey on fish aggregating devices or "payao" in the province of cagayan. it was COLD. too bad the waves were too rough to go across to the babuyan islands. inevitably, half of the time we were eating the local delicacies (i love traveling in the philippines, esepcially if it's free :D).

but since i didn't want to be absent for class, i took the bus back to manila by myself after the second day, a 12-hour trip this time passing through ilocos, la union and pangasinan. unfortunately, it was night time, so i didn't see the beaches of pagudpud :( but laoag was nice :)

and because of all the new places i've been to around luzon this past month (for field trips and such), i've updated my lakbayan map :D still have far to go before i make it to A+ ;)



My Lakbayan grade is B+!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Comments

  1. mariarica .March 18, 2008 at 5:57 AM

    ngalaway ko sa food!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeneen GarciaMarch 18, 2008 at 5:58 AM

    lami gyud yum yum. especially if you've never tried it before :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Janjan PerezMarch 18, 2008 at 6:04 AM

    Good shot Neen! :) I love pictures of the elderly... they have such nice facial features.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jeneen GarciaMarch 18, 2008 at 6:10 AM

    thanks jan! this makes me miss my SLR again. sigh. ah but i'm planning a trip to hidalgo this week :D these times it really feels great to be in manila.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Janjan PerezMarch 18, 2008 at 6:14 AM

    i've just recently added Kalibo, Aklan and Roxas, Capiz to my map as well :) It's great to travel, isn't it?

    Unfortunately, there's no project that requires me at Manila as of yet : /

    ReplyDelete
  6. mariarica .March 18, 2008 at 6:26 AM

    neen, what kind of slr are you looking for? tell us if you're going to hidalgo. jake and i are there almost every week. para samahan ka namin sa suki nya so he can get you a good price :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jeneen GarciaMarch 18, 2008 at 6:32 AM

    whoa! really? well, actually, i want to have my film SLR cleaned first for the first time after six years :P might look at pentax, canon, and nikon. not really planning to buy just yet (kulang pa ng raket :P). my main concern right now is getting a digital recorder to document my interviews.

    ReplyDelete
  8. roland dcMarch 18, 2008 at 6:38 AM

    nice neen...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jeneen GarciaMarch 18, 2008 at 6:56 AM

    thanks roland :) there's supposed to be a legend about that rock in the distance. the legend of langay-langay and baket-baket or something like that. but all i wanted to capture here was the wildness of the northernmost tip of luzon island :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aileen SiroyMarch 18, 2008 at 7:05 AM

    as always, beautiful pictures, neen. i feel like i traveled with you. =)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Kahlou FranciscoMarch 18, 2008 at 7:13 AM

    hey if u do get to go to hidalgo, pagtingin mo naman ako prices ng digital slr. It's still on my wish list pero medyo pinipigilan pa ako eh. pag mas marami na daw ako ipon. hehehe... oh btw, im eating roti prata now. addict na ata ako. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Jasper PoMarch 18, 2008 at 7:21 AM

    guess u must go to Bicol soon :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jasper PoMarch 18, 2008 at 7:25 AM

    parang naligaw na windmills ng Bangui, itim!

    ReplyDelete
  14. cathy alvarezMarch 18, 2008 at 7:26 AM

    gimingaw nuon ko nimo neen da! lami ang empanada no? hehehe pagkaon lang gihapon nakit-an

    ReplyDelete
  15. Jasper PoMarch 18, 2008 at 8:00 AM

    carrots? :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. joseph padillaMarch 19, 2008 at 3:17 AM

    hehehe(",) sarap ng empanada! sayang hindi mo ako pinasalubungan.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Aileen GuirnelaMarch 20, 2008 at 10:05 AM

    the food looks super tasty... such unique way of cooking empanada... congrats diay for reaching B on your Lakbayan...in no time you'll be an A soon.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Frances CabahugMarch 20, 2008 at 6:00 PM

    My Dad used to cook empanada when I was a kid...I remember I liked having raisins in mine, but no egg bits.

    This looks so tasty. *sniff*

    ReplyDelete
  19. Jeneen GarciaMarch 24, 2008 at 4:26 AM

    thanks aileen! hope you're not too busy this week so we can meet up!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Jeneen GarciaMarch 24, 2008 at 4:27 AM

    hey kahlou :) when we went there last saturday, a lot of the shops were closed :P pero mukhang pinakamura na yung P22k na Nikon D40 ni benny.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Jeneen GarciaMarch 24, 2008 at 4:28 AM

    that's the next project :) and batanes, of course...kasi P99 na lang ang pamasahe!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Jeneen GarciaMarch 24, 2008 at 4:28 AM

    buti ka pa, nakapunta na dun!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Jeneen GarciaMarch 24, 2008 at 4:40 AM

    cathy! musta na man ka uy? of course, food gyud ang makit-an. isn't that what 50% of traveling is all about? hehe. our food-tripping in iloilo is still one of my best memories. mingaw na pud ko nimo. daghan na ka utang nga storya nako ha ;P

    ReplyDelete
  24. Jeneen GarciaMarch 24, 2008 at 4:41 AM

    e tito j, di na kasi masarap ang empanada pag di mainit hehehe. kaya dapat next time isama niyo ako sa biyahe niyo ;P

    ReplyDelete
  25. Jeneen GarciaMarch 24, 2008 at 4:43 AM

    hey leen :) when are you coming back to the philippines to do your own lakbayan? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  26. Jeneen GarciaMarch 24, 2008 at 4:46 AM

    aww, doesn't your dad cook anymore? that's cool, though. i don't know anyone personally who can do that :) and that kind of empanada is more difficult to do than this one, too (personally, i like that one better than this one, in the long run :P).

    ReplyDelete
  27. Elise DantesMarch 24, 2008 at 5:24 AM

    *stomach growls* ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  28. Frances CabahugMarch 24, 2008 at 3:41 PM

    Sadly, no. Haven't had a home-cooked meal in a loooong time. Hence my disastrous weakness for men who can cook and bake. Maybe what I'm looking for is a 1950's housewife.

    I should ask my Dad for the empanada recipe. I think I should start cooking for myself. I remember that some empanadas can be baked instead of fried.

    ReplyDelete
  29. mia comerosMarch 25, 2008 at 1:10 AM

    Hmmmm! Lami-ah gud. :)

    ReplyDelete
  30. Jemi AquinoMarch 27, 2008 at 11:06 PM

    my mom's obsession.

    just saw this today. i'm still catching up on people's blogs and pics.

    about that LAKBAYAN grade, we really need to do the by-land thing before we turn 30. =)

    HUGS,
    jemi

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boljoon: More Reasons to Return

Image
8 and 9 June 2007. When editor Kristin Llerin asked me to write about Boljoon for the Cebu Yearbook, I asked, "Why ME?". I'd just written an article on it a few months before for the Lifestyle page (supposedly, it was what inspired the Yearbook editors to feature Boljoon in the yearbook), and I felt I had written all I had in me to write about Boljoon, after years of yearning for it. I'd explored all I wanted to. It was a closed book, as far as I was concerned. "Because you like to travel!" she said. Fine. It was MY Boljoon, after all, so I thought it might as well be me. When I got there on a Friday morning (the first weekend of the schoolyear, and I was already on another "vacation" :P) to interview some government officials, I discovered that there was an archeological dig going on in front of its historic church, and that there were actually still a couple of places I hadn't been to...which some of the locals hadn't even heard of, eit...
Read more

Being Brown... again

Image
In 2002, I wrote an  #essay for one of my Sun.Star columns titled "It Ain't Easy Being Brown" . In March 2016, I suddenly got requests from university students in different parts of the  #Philippines  to interview me about this essay for their class. The essay wasn't online and they had to ask me for a copy, so I have no idea how their teachers thought to assign it as a text. In October 2017, I was contacted by students from yet another school telling me that they had chosen the same essay to make a  #shortfilm  on for a school competition. Again, no idea how they got hold of it. But since my essays are  #autobiographical , it was basically a film based on my life. Sharing it now because it's just so hilarious 😂 especially their portrayal of my parents. It's so amazing what kids can do with the technology these days. This is the  #poster  they made for the film. You can read the (very short) essay first . And then watch the  #trilingua...
Read more

It Ain’t Easy Being Brown

STRANGER THAN FICTION by Jeneen R. Garcia Published in 2002 Never fails. Every time I walk down a grocery’s toiletries section, an overly eager, mestiza sales lady blocks my path, wielding the latest whitening product. It’s as if I had a sign on my forehead saying “In Need of Whitening: Approach at Will”.  It’s weird how even in this age of political correctness and Naomi Campbell, Filipinos still automatically equate beauty with fair, cancer-prone skin. And have you noticed how they use naturally white people like Lucy Torres and aforementioned sales lady to endorse their product, in a strategy to make us brownies insecure? In fairness, it’s generally easier to find something that’s bright than dark. It’s less straining to the eyes. Bright surfaces reflect instead of absorb light, making everything else around them brighter. My mother most of all has always wished my skin were whiter. She says I was born reddish, and was worried I would take after my kayuman...
Read more