page_title: Filipino cuisine
section_title: Luzonese cuisine
hierarchical_section_title: Filipino cuisine / Type of food / Regional specialties / Luzonese cuisine
caption_attribution_description: English: Bicol Express - Filipino pork and chillies cooked in coconut milk
context_page_description: Filipino cuisine is composed of the cuisines of more than a hundred distinct ethno-linguistic groups found throughout the Philippine archipelago. However, a majority of mainstream Filipino dishes that compose Filipino cuisine are from the cuisines of the various ethnolinguistic groups and tribes of the archipelago, including the Ilocano, Pangasinan, Kapampangan, Tagalog, Bicolano, Visayan, Chavacano and Maranao ethno-linguistic groups. The style of food making and the food associated with it have evolved over many centuries from their Austronesian origins to a mixed cuisine of Indian, Chinese, Spanish and American influences, in line with the major waves of influence that had enriched the cultures of the archipelago, as well as others adapted to indigenous ingredients and the local palate.
  Dishes range from the very simple, like a meal of fried salted fish and rice, to fish curry, chicken curry, complex paellas and cozidos of Iberian origin created for fiestas. Popular dishes include: lechón, longganisa, tapa, torta, adobo, dinuguan, kaldereta, mechado, pochero, afritada, kare-kare, pinakbet, crispy pata, hamonado, sinigang, pancit, and lumpia.
context_section_description: Ilocanos from the mountainous Ilocos Region commonly have diets heavy in boiled or steamed vegetables and freshwater fish, and they are particularly fond of dishes flavored with bagoong, fermented fish that is often used as a substitute for salt. Ilocanos often season boiled vegetables with bagoong monamon (fermented anchovy paste) to produce pinakbet. Local specialties include the soft white larvae of ants and "jumping salad" of tiny live shrimp.
  The Igorot prefer roasted meats, particularly carabao meat, goat meat, and venison.
  Due to its mild, sub-tropical climate, Baguio, along with the outlying mountainous regions, is renowned for its produce. Temperate-zone fruits and vegetables (strawberries being a notable example) which would otherwise wilt in lower regions are grown there. It is also known for a snack called sundot-kulangot which literally means "poke the booger." It is a sticky kind of sweet made from milled glutinous rice flour mixed with molasses, and served inside pitogo shells, and with a stick to "poke" its sticky substance with.
  Isabela is known for Pancit Cabagan of Cabagan, Inatata & Binallay of Ilagan City are rice cakes prepared year-round in the city and both famous delicacies specially during the lenten season. Cagayan for its famous Carabao Milk Candy in the town Alcala and Tuguegarao City for Pancit Batil Patung and Buko Roll.
  The town of Calasiao in Pangasinan is known for its puto, a type of steamed rice cake.
  Kapampangan cuisine makes use of all the produce in the region available to the native cook.  Among the treats produced in Pampanga are longganisa (original sweet and spicy sausages), calderetang kambing (savory goat stew), and tocino (sweetened cured pork).  Combining pork cheeks and offal, Kapampangans make sisig.
  The cuisine of the Tagalog people varies by province. Bulacan is popular for Chicharrón (pork rinds) and steamed rice and tuber cakes like puto. It is a center for panghimagas or desserts, like brown rice cake or kutsinta, sapin-sapin, suman, cassava cake, ube halaya and the king of sweets, in San Miguel, Bulacan, the famous carabao milk candy pastillas de leche, with its pabalat wrapper. Cainta, in Rizal province east of Manila, is known for its Filipino rice cakes and puddings. These are usually topped with latik, a mixture of coconut milk and brown sugar, reduced to a dry crumbly texture. A more modern, and time saving alternative to latik are coconut flakes toasted in a frying pan. Antipolo, straddled mid-level in the mountainous regions of the Philippine Sierra Madre, is a town known for its suman and cashew products. Laguna is known for buko pie (coconut pie) and panutsa (peanut brittle). Batangas is home to Taal Lake, a body of water that surrounds Taal Volcano.  The lake is home to 75 species of freshwater fish, including landlocked marine species that have since adapted to the Taal lake environment. Eight of these species are of high commercial value. These include a population of giant trevally locally known as maliputo which is distinguished from their marine counterparts which are known as talakitok. Another commercially important species is the tawilis, the only known freshwater sardine and endemic to the lake. Batangas is also known for its special coffee, kapeng barako.
  Bicol is noted for its gastronomic appetite for the fiery or chili-hot dishes. Perhaps the most well-known Bicolano dish is the very spicy Bicol Express. The region is also the well-known home of natong also known as laing or pinangat (pork or fish stew in taro leaves).
caption: Sinilihan, popularly known as Bicol Express is a famous dish from Bicol
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