When Filipinos think of the Spanish colonial era, Vigan immediately comes to mind.

That is because in the Philippines, the largest concentration of bahay-na-bato houses to survive from the Spanish era is in Vigan.

The name “Vigan” is now generic, wrongly associated by Filipinos with anything Spanish colonial regardless of its place of origin or of its proper historic name. Filipinos call any bahay-na-bato a “Vigan house,” old furniture “Vigan furniture,” and terra-cotta tiles “Vigan tiles.”

STO. DOMINGO, Ilocos Sur – Squash, for some Europeans, refers to the sport. For farmers here, it’s the raw material gestating a business partnership with overseas Filipino workers.
As the year ends, this town may squeeze profits from selling a novel product from that raw material: canton-style noodles from squash –the vegetable, not the sport.
Ernesto Tadeja, [...]