The Most Popular Bicolano Dish

Bicol's famous "Bicol Express" 

 

Bicol is always associated with spicy food. The most famous of Bicolano dishes is the Bicol express (a pork dish), spicy and cooked in gata. Anyone who would partake of and savor this very hot and creamy dish is surely to experience sweating in gustatory delight. Mainly because of the abundance of chili and coconuts in Bicol, chili and coconut milk are staples in Bicolano cooking. Whereas, knowing the images of spicy dishes in Bicol holds a special place in the hearts of food-loving Filipinos.

BICOL ARTS FESTIVAL

Bicol Arts Festival ia a month-long festival during February wherein they showcase the region’s arts and culture, crafts and agro-industrial products coming from the different provinces and cities of Bicol. Every province and city in the region has their own representatives that gathers in Legazpi City to join and attend the event. It also coincides with the celebration of the National Arts Month.   Various activities are lined up which include Festival parade, Essay Writing and Poster Making Contest, Laro ng Lahi, Fashion Show and more so.

Visual Arts and Crafts

Paracle, "the golden country" in Camarines Norte, has grown to be the center of jewelry-making tradition. Although the art has declined since colonial times, some antique styles have survived the centuries like that of the agrimon, the indicate golden bead necklace of the 19th century.

A pious congregation, Bicol has always excelled in the carving of the religious statues as part of religious beliefs on the saints images.

The art of Abaca weaving has been long developed in Albay and  Camarines Sur, although the art is given way to commerce in what has become a lucrative industry.

Bicol Architecture

In pre-colonial times, many Bicol houses were perched on trees for protection from the sun and insects.

In the Spanish and early American colonial periods, the less privileged lived in native huts located some distance from the center of town, in coastal or inland barrios. They used light materials for their houses.

Theses dwellings had wooden posts and were elevated about 1 to 2 m above the ground. The framework and floor were made of bamboo; their walls, flap windows and hip roof of leaves of nipa or gogon grass.

These one room houses, which usually had no divisions, had minimal furniture, like a bench; allow table and a chest of storage of clothes.

But in the contemporary period, most native huts have been replacing by American-type bungalows or two-story houses with the sala, kitchen and toilet below, and the sleeping quarters on the second floor. These houses are usually made of hollow blocks and cement. Wood is used for the second floor of two-story houses. Roofs are galvanized iron; the windows are slide or the vertical-flap types.

Nowadays, there are still hut made houses but it is already common that others now have bungalows to withstand the impact of strong typhoons that usually strikes.