Vigan holds longanisa fest

VIGAN CITY — While most of Asia was welcoming the Year of the Wooden Monkey on Thursday, the Longanisa Festival was held in this city.

Longanisa, this city’s most famous delicacy and Vigan’s pride, took centerstage in the mid-afternoon mardi gras.

Street dancers all garbed in "longanisa fashion" paraded ala lion dance along Vigan’s Heritage Village, inscribed by the Unesco as one of the world’s Heritage Sites.

More than 300 street dancers from six different schools and five women’s groups wore replicas of the famous bite-size pork sausage made of stockings, papier mache and brown paint.

They made longanisa neck garlands, necklaces, headbands, belts, buntings, buttons and scepters, which amused thousands of revelers.

Mayor Eva Marie Singson Medina said they even conducted a workshop on how to make replicas of the longanisa so that it would look authentic.

"In 1995, stores here sold only 30 dozen longanisas a day. Now they sell from 150 to 200 dozen," the Vigan mayor said. "Tourists have discovered the difference."

The secret, Medina said, is the use of sukang Iloko (Ilocos vinegar), which is comparable to the expensive imported balsamic vinegar in tartness, and the Ilocos garlic added to ground pork.

The local Ilocos garlic is considered more potent than the Taiwanese variety which is flooding the Philippine market.

Because of the current pork shortage, Medina admits that Vigan is having a hard time keeping up with demands especially now that more and more people are coming to Vigan for its longanisa.

More or less 60 pigs are slaughtered daily, most of which go to longanisa makers’ production tables. Another Vigan pride is the bagnet or deep-fried pork rind.

A more enterprising resident here has started exporting longanisa to other countries using the freeze-dry techology.

Aside from street dancing, a longanisa gourmet cooking competition was held also held on Thursday. Medina said the Vigan longanisa is a very versatile dish that can outdo any other product of any other city in the country and perhaps in the world.