The pakbet pizza in Ilocos Norte contains ground pork, cheese and vegetables. Photo courtesy of Choose Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – While restaurants in Metro Manila regularly come up with new pizza varieties, eateries in the Ilocos region are mining their culinary traditions to create unique versions of the Italian classic.

One such intriguing creation is the pakbet pizza, which was popularized by Herencia Café in Paoay, Ilocos Norte.

The thin-crust pizza is topped by ground pork, cheese and the vegetables used in cooking the Ilocano dish pinakbet – eggplant, ampalaya, okra, tomatoes and string beans.

Herencia also serves a bagnet (twice deep-fried pork belly) pizza and a dinuguan (pork blood stew) pizza.

In Laoag, the Saramsam Restaurant has created a poque-poque pizza (sometimes written as poki-poki) with egg, eggplant, tomatoes and onions.

Blogger Ivan Henares also reported of a pizza topped by bits of Laoag longganisa (Filipino chorizo) and a “carbonara” pizza with Currimao oysters.

The Ilocano pizzas were among the dishes presented at the recent Dulang Food Fair, which drew hungry crowds to Laoag.

Hotels and restaurants in the city prepared various Ilocano specialties, as well as variations on popular dishes, like a burger and a siopao that use shrimp instead of beef or pork.

Students also participated in a special culinary contest that highlighted the lowly mongo bean. The students created various mongo-inspired dishes such as pies, tarts, donuts and even a maja blanca (white pudding made from coconut milk).

Pamulinawen festival

The food fair is part of the bigger Pamulinawen festival in Laoag.

A highlight of the festivities is a parade of different kalesas or horse-drawn carriages, which have been decked up using indigenous materials from flowers to corn husks.

Tourists enjoyed watching the colorful carriages, which they said only proved that it is indeed more fun in the Philippines, as claimed by the government's tourism campaign. -- Report from Dianne Dy, ABS-CBN News