Naga: Heartland of Bicol

It’s easy to fall in love with Naga. Disembarking from the plane feels like going back to a Philippines that can only be found in old novels. As I looked at the quaint iron gate that separated the arrivals from the sparse crowd, I had to remind myself that I was no longer in that fabled, genteel colonial past of my grandparents’ time. Despite the modern vigor and vitality that met me throughout my stay, I could not shake this feeling.

Aling Conching, a Naga restaurant run by Clara Verdadero, serves the recipes of Clara’s mother, Consolacion David Verdadero, who was a Kapampangan from San Fernando, Pampanga. When Consolacion moved to Naga, she adapted the cooking of Pampanga to the ingredients found in Bicol. This influence is seen in the kare kare with freshly roasted and ground native peanuts and in their balo-balo, fermented rice wrapped in mustard leaves.