Genuine Ilocano Cooking

Ilocano cuisine has been hailed as both healthy and exotic, chock-full of fresh vegetables and some "strange" ingredients such as bile and blood. Food expert and columnist Micky Fenix writes about her encounters with the food of the Ilocos and provides us a primer from her book, Country Cooking: Philippine Regional Cuisines. A fascinating, mouth-watering read that Ilocanos will love and non-Ilocanos will savor.

Another Filipino dish that's taking center stage is dinuguan, which takes a star turn in the November 16 episode of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," the romantic comedy that stars a Filipino hunk named Vincent Rodriguez III playing the lead character, Josh Chan. Positively Filipino Correspondent Anthony Maddela gives us a sneak peak in "'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' Goes Gaga for a Filipino." What's dinuguan doing in a rom-com? Mark your viewing calendar for 8 p.m. on Monday at CW Television Network and find out.

Our featured young achiever in our regular section, Watch Out World This Is A Filipino is Mikey Ilagan, who runs the highly successful website for geeks in Philadelphia, aptly called Geekadelphia. Positively Filipino Correspondent Elizabeth Ann Quirino reports.

We have another Pinoyspotting feature, this time from Fiji and New Caledonia where Positively Filipino Correspondent Rey de la Cruz traveled last year and met some interesting Filipinos.

Our Happy Home Cook recipe this week is for "Igado," the Ilocano version of menudo from Micky Fenix's article mentioned above.  

In our Video of the Week, CNN Philippines' The Story of the Filipino features graphic designer Dan Matutina, who developed a game to inform people about disaster preparedness in the wake of Typhoon Sendong back in 2011.

Gemma Nemenzo

Editor, Positively Filipino