LASWA is an Ilonggo version of mixed vegetable soup. A quick dish to cook using vegetables including kalabasa, okra, patola, sitaw, takway, talong with saluyot, malunggay or alugbati leaves as greens. Shrimps, crabs or local snails called bago-ngon can be added as sahog. It’s a smorgasbord of different ingredients.
A stones throw away from the plaza of La Villa de Arevalo is an ancestral house where one can find not only good pasalubong items but also a look into the past of the district. Known as the Sinamay House , this well preserved ancestral house is an attraction not only in the outside but also what it houses inside. A collection of what the past like is housed in the two storey edifice which also acts like a museum of sorts. Sinamay is simply known as abaca by most and, here, a variety of products made from this fiber can be found. I remember watching a feature on tv wherein the owner proudly showed a framed letter signed by the late Princess of Wales, Diana, showing her appreciation of the handkerchief she was given as a gift coming from this very shop. But the attraction I am most familiar with are the chewies and crunchies made by Mama's Kitchen. Attractively packed in boxes showing their current flavours and variety, this is among the better...