Art, food meet in 2025 Ibagiw Festival
Instead of seaweed wrap, lettuce leaves and Vietnamese wrapper were used in Man-apsol’s crispy rice wraps
Text and photos by: Rimaliza Opiña
Baguio is expanding how the creative community showcases their art.
The star of the table, pinikpikan rings
Aside from folk arts and crafts, organizers of this year’s Ibagiw Festival included food crawl in the list of activities of the Ibagiw Arts Festival.
A twist to the classic tempura — Deep-fried shrimp wrapped in lettuce and vermicelli noodles
Together with Baguio artists, they turned their restaurants not only as exhibit venue for various works of art but also showcased in their menu locally sourced ingredients. The Ibagiw has also expanded and included La Trinidad this time.
The Cordillera News Agency attended the venue where camote, lettuce, and pinikpikan took centerstage but were prepared not in the conventional way that diners use them.
At Man-apsol, a homegrown coffeeshop in La Trinidad, Benguet, its cooks were challenged to transform “ordinary” ingredients into dishes that will suit diners with discriminating taste, but does not deviate from Cordillera heritage.
And this the cooks of Man-Apsol did when they prepared hors d’oeuvres available only during the Ibagiw Festival.
Alongside the mouthwatering dishes, the works of syringe artist Clinton Aniversario and sculptor Christopher Alison were featured.
Food served to the guests were dokto balls-mashed sweet potato rolled in desiccated coconut; deep-fried shrimp wrapped with lettuce and vermicelli noodles. Sushi was also given a twist when instead of seaweed wrap, it was double wrapped with lettuce and Vietnamese rice paper and deep fried to give it that crunchy exterior and soft interior.
The star of the table was the pinikpikan rings. First cooked like tinola, later the flesh was minced, seasoned, and mixed in flour, shaped into rings, then deep-fried.
Man-apsol owner Patrick Wong said if he gets a good review from diners, he might consider including some of these in their menu.
Other restaurants that participated in the food crawl were Mt. Camisong in Itogon, Benguet and L’Atelier Du Grain, Venus Parkview Hotel, Gypsy by Waya, and Canto, all in Baguio.
