A Christmas Feast

With the growing popularity of Philippine regional cuisine, Ilocano dishes are taking center stage as foodies praise its health benefits (heavy on fresh vegetables), cooking methods (mostly boiled) and also its taste. Of course, there's the other side to the healthy aspect -- a lot of salty fermented fish and lard (think bagnet)  -- which makes the dishes good enough to crave for. Positively Filipino Correspondent and food expert Elizabeth Ann Quirino writes about her recent feast in Vigan and the Ilocano treats she enjoyed, which included the poqui poqui, the traditional Ilocano Christmas dish, which is featured in our Happy Home Cook section this week.

Lotis Key-Kabigting won the Plaridel Award for First Person Essay three years in a row and she's back this week with her latest piece, "A Traveling Fool." If you're a chess enthusiast and/or a Lotis fan, you'll enjoy knowing what she's been up to all year.

And more about traveling, Filipino business executive Jose Eduardo Delgado, better known as Jed, talked to Positively Filipino contributor Serina Aidasani, about what drives him to travel the world and take great risks to satisfy his passion for adventure. Read "Wandering Jed" if you're up for some vicarious thrills.

For our Partner post this week, Positively Filipino Correspondent Myles A. Garcia writes about the annual Philippine International Aid (PIA) fundraiser, the biggest social event in the Filipino community of the San Francisco Bay Area. Now 29 years old, PIA has enabled over 43,000 poor Filipino children to go to school with scholarships and grants.

For our Video of the Week, Broadway superstar Lea Salonga introduces her daughter Nicole Chien at a concert at the PICC Plenary Hall in Manila.