I finally made it back to Adams town proper, one of the last to make it. My other companions were already feasting on a late lunch at a picnic shed by the river, dining, kamayan-style, on aba (a local version of laing minus the coconut milk), kiwet (a Yapayao term for palos or freshwater eel), shrimps, a green salad of lightly blanched young string beans mixed with fresh tomatoes on bagoong and lasuna (sibuyas tagalog), itlog ti abu-os (fire ant eggs), igado (stewed pork entrails), breaded fried frogs (tokak) and red highland rice.
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| Lunch: Better late than never |
After this delicious lunch, we proceeded to a souvenir shop with walls of inch-thick hardwood planks and a roof of gabut grass. Here, we did some free wine tasting, sampling tapuey (Kankana-ey rice wine similar to Japanese sake) and tropical wines made from bugnay (wild blackberry), pineapple, cherry, santol, passion fruit, duhat and malubeg, manufactured from 40 local wineries, all backyard operations, within the town. The list of locally-produced wines could go on as the people of Adams are constantly experimenting on other fruity combinations for their wine industry.
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| Souvenir and wine store |
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Totally sated and a bit tipsy, we now returned to our dump truck for the hour-long trip back to the National Highway (and, from there, to Laoag City) with the injured me now conveniently seated beside the driver together along with cramp-afflicted cameraman Roland Fontilla, Jr. and the foot-blistered Sheryl Songsong. The allergy-afflicted Kenneth del Rosario still rode at the back, now provided with PVC chairs for our riding comfort.
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| Locally-made wine |
Mayor’s Office: Municipal Hall, Brgy. Adams Proper, Adams, Ilocos Norte. Mobile numbers: (0927) 668-1128 & (0921) 286-3470