All Aboard The New Scania Marcopolo For A Taste of Pampanga's Culinary Heritage

Known as the culinary center of the country, Pampanga is just roughly a two-hour drive from Manila yet its worlds apart. Just sit back and relax and leave the driving to Scania...

And there's just no better way to discover Pampanga's rich and diverse culinary heritage than a luxurious bus ride from one of the world's leading bus and coach manufacturers. Scania Philippines introduces the new Marcopolo, the renowned Swedish icon's latest entry to the global bus fleet market with the latest cutting-edge technology for an elegant ride to Pampanga. All aboard for a Pampanga Food Tour...

The new Scania Marcopolo can carry up to 48 passengers in total comfort with its plush upholstered seats along with extensive noise reduction for an experience like no other. This is cruising taken to the next level, with panoramic glass windows to enjoy the passing scenery along the way. The automatic transmission shifts gears with velvety smoothness, with no sudden jerk or jolt for a leisurely ride. This was probably the most comfortable ride yet to Pampanga (for more on the Pampanga Food Tour, see my post on my other food blog, Flavors of Pampanga: Cruising Aboard The New Scania Marcopolo Heading North For A Pampanga Food Trip).

The modern streamlined interiors exude a modern vibe, almost like a sleek airliner with its overhead bins...

...mounted with convenient lighting and temperature controls above the seats...

...and USB chargers just below beside the footrest for all your mobile devices. Equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity, your devices are juiced up and ready for the Pampanga Food Tour. All seat adjustments are conveniently located within an arm's reach, and if you need just a little more space with the passenger beside you, simply push a button and the seat effortlessly glides to the side. For more than a century, the famed Swedish manufacturer created a line of commercial vehicles from cargo-loading trucks to luxury coaches with legendary passion and precision. The current K-Series chassis of the new Scania Marcopolo is the culmination of almost 125 years of expertise in commercial vehicles maximizing fuel efficiency, comfort and dependability with its rugged yet precise engineering.

Powering the massive Scania Marcopolo is the robust 13-litre diesel engine, the backbone of Scania's industry leading platform of modular power plants. Built for maximum power with a refined smoothness, the new Scania Marcopolo is ready for any road condition while providing comfort.

Poch Jorolan of OuterEater Tours and third generation owner of the City of San Fernando's famous Everybody's Cafe hosted the group for the Pampanga Food Tour. His roots and deep insights on Pampanga's colorful and complex tapestry of culture and culinary heritage provided a personal perspective to the Pampanga Food Tour for a memorable experience. And when you're traveling in comfort, time passes and you've reached your very first stop in a flavorful culinary journey to the north...

...at Alviz Farm in Guagua, Pampanga. Surrounded by lush and verdant greens and vibrantly-colored bougainvilleas, Alviz Farm is an actual working farm with rice fields and gardens...

...offering the freshest seasonal produce. Cely Alviz of Alviz Farm laid out a sumptuous breakfast spread with traditional Capampangan dishes that just brought back nostalgic memories of childhood summers in Pampanga...

...including that rarest of harvests, Sta. Rita's famed green young rice or Duman (for more the prized duman, see my post on my other food blog, Duman: Harvesting Green Gold). Found only in the town of Sta. Rita and harvested in the cold months of November and December, duman is both rare and extremely expensive with a typical one-fourth kilo pouch fetching prices as high as P 5,000. Undoubtedly one of the town's many culinary treasures, the young green rice is delicately roasted and packed tightly in banana leaves. A town fiesta is held annually to celebrate the duman harvest, and we arrived at just the right time to sample one of the province's rare harvests.

Old-timers enjoy this rare delicacy as is, with its fragrant and mild nutty notes and soft and chewy texture. I prefer it with a thick and rich cup of hot Tsokolate Batirol, simply add a few spoonfuls of duman in the hot chocolate and leave it for a few minutes to let the grains puff up as it absorbs the chocolate transforming it with a porridge-like consistency.  

At the breakfast spread, Cely Alviz also served the traditional Suman Pasko, sweet and sticky rice cakes wrapped in banana leaves...

...along with hearty dishes like Pisto, Salted Duck Eggs and Tomatoes, Tamales, Pork Sisig, Guagua Longanisa, Kilawing Bangus, Ensaladang Talong, Chicharon, Taba ng Talangka Fried Rice and Tidtad, Pampanga's version of the pork blood stew or dinuguan. Like all provinces in the country, the cuisine is dictated and shaped by their agrarian roots based on the crop of rice and the Spanish colonial experience.

After a satisfying and lavish breakfast, take a leisurely walk around the expansive property as you prepare for the next stop in a flavorful Pampanga Food Tour. Alviz Farms is available for booking with a minimum of fifteen persons and activities include rice planting. Or if you prefer, take a dip in the farm's pool after breakfast.

And before you know it, it's time for lunch. Since 1946, it's been literally everybody's cafe...at everyone's favorite, Everybody's Cafe. A dining institution for generations now managed by Poch Jorolan, the restaurant offers cherished family recipes and traditional Capampangan dishes preserving an enduring family legacy that began with humble bowls of pancit more than seventy years ago... 

...with classic dishes like Ensaladang Pako, a local fiddlehead fern salad topped with salted duck eggs, fresh tomatoes and onions...

...and Pampanga's modern contribution to the evolving Filipino table, the savory Pork Sisig made with finely chopped pork mask, onions and fresh chili. The dish traces its roots along the railroad tracks of Angeles City when the often discarded cuts of slaughtered pig carcasses delivered to US military bases in Clark where utilized for what is now a favorite staple paired with beer. The name "sisig" is derived from the Capampangan cooking process which includes souring with the local calamansi, and the name stuck. Today, the dish is celebrated yearly with a festival where local chefs and restaurants serve their own inventive versions of the Pork Sisig. At Everybody's Cafe, the iconic dish is served the traditional way, without the sizzle. And the mayo. You get the purest flavors, with the savory richness of the pork mask tempered by the calamansi and fiery chili.

And when you have Pritong Hito, or  deep-fried crispy catfish, you just got to have some Buro and Mustasa.

It's the all-time trifecta of contrasting flavors and textures in one bite. Simply top your fresh mustard leaf with deep-fried and crisp catfish and drape in buro or fermented rice with shrimp and tomatoes then roll it up like a vegetable wrap (for more on Capampangan Buro, see my post on my other food blog, What's in The Fridge...Burong Hipon). The bold sour and salty notes of the fermented rice complements the clean and crisp notes of the catfish followed by the mildly spicy hints of the mustard leaf. Just perfect.

Not to be missed is Everybody's Cafe's signature Morcon, a roulade of beef and pork with salted duck eggs and Spanish chorizo. Spanish influences run deep in the country's culinary heritage, and this is one of them. Here's an insider tip. That bowl of sauce served with the morcon is made with the rich and savory drippings of the dish. Slather your morcon with this sauce and to your steamed white rice. Enjoy.

The short drive back to Sta. Rita led us to another of the town's indulgent desserts, the Turrones de Casoy and Sans Rival by Ocampo Lansang Delicacies.

Their story began when four sisters were taught by a Dominican sister to prepare the decadent Turrones de Casoy and buttery Sans Rival Petit Pourtunes back in the early 1920s. The four sisters then started the business right in their family home where the desserts are still made. You won't find a sign of Ocampo Lansang Delicacies but local residents will point you to the exact location. At the ancestral home, the signature desserts are still prepared in the same tedious process using the same recipe and ingredients that have not changed since the 1920s. Each cashew is sliced into paper-thin slivers by hand for the Turrones de Casoy and Sans Rival. Old school, classic, and nostalgic, it's one of those moments when you're just glad some things never change. 

Our tour of Pampanga continued with a visit to the "Sistine Chapel" of the north, The St. James the Apostle Parish Church or simply Betis Church in the town of Guagua. Built in 1680 by the Augustinians, the historic church remains an enduring vestige of the Spanish colonial experience with the Roman Catholic faith as the country's dominant religion. The solid fort-like structure is quite a sight...

...but it's the ornate ceilings that just continue to amaze and inspire both the eyes and soul.

The massive dome is also meticulously hand-painted with colorful and dramatic murals adding to the stately grandeur of the four-hundred year old church. 

The tall and imposing belfry of Betis Church stands in stark contrast with the next church we visited on our Pampanga Food Tour...

...with another historic church half-buried in lahar. The much older San Guillermo Parish Church in Bacolor is another historic landmark not to be missed, where the second floor is now at ground level. The church has seen countless revolutions, wars, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but the recent cataclysmic event of 1991's Mount Pinatubo eruption led to the catastrophic lahar flows that forever changed the town's landscape (for more on Mount Pinatubo, see my earlier post, Bucket Lists and Conquering Mount Pinatubo).

Windows from the second floor now serve as the main entrance of the church...

...and the once tall bell tower is just a few steps up where you can view the historic church bells up close. It's a dramatic testimony to a town's resilience, with the church still offering regularly scheduled daily masses. Weathered and half-buried, the San Guillermo Parish Church is ready for the next four hundred years.

Our last stop on an eye-opening Pampanga Food Tour led us back to the City of San Fernando at the historic San Fernando Train Station. Once part of the prosperous Manila-Dagupan railway line, the station is at the midpoint of the route where it flourished during the sugar boom. That time, Pampanga's sugar plantations rivaled both the volume and output of the country's sugar barons from the Visayas. The country's national hero also frequently traveled to the north via the Manila-Dagupan route, making numerous stops at the station to convince prominent Capampangans to join the La Liga Filipina movement. But he also had a personal agenda, commemorated with a statue of Dr. Jose Rizal sitting on the station bench holding both a book and a rose. It's been said he courted one of the city's local beauties, Rosario Joven, making him a frequent traveler and visitor to the now preserved San Fernando Train Station. 

The classic architectural design with its vibrant red bricks sets it apart from the residential structures surrounding it. But the former train station also witnessed one of the country's most tragic chapters in history...

Inside the train station, life-sized statues of American and Filipino prisoners of war commemorate the Death March when the country's last defenders were forced to march by the Japanese Imperial Army from Bataan to the station for that final trip to Capas, Tarlac. Packed in freight trains during height of the summer heat, countless deaths and atrocities were recorded during the infamous march, forever memorialized with poignant statues inside the station. Today, the San Fernando Train Stations stands proudly as a reminder of the city's prosperous and tragic history for a deeper appreciation of Pampanga.

With its colorful history and rich culinary heritage, Pampanga is a destination filled with countless attractions and flavors to be savored and experienced. And when you're aboard the new Scania Marcopolo, you can enjoy all of Pampanga's richness in unparalleled comfort. Just sit back and relax and let the new Scania Marcopolo take you to your next destination...  

For more on the new Scania Marcopolo Tourer and Scania Philippines, visit their showroom at 1132 EDSA, Balintawak, Quezon City or call (02) 361-0088 for more information and inquiries. You can also check out their website here at https://www.scania.com/ph/en/home.html.

Alviz Farm is located at San Agustin, Sta. Rita, Pampanga or call 0906-449-1151 for inquiries. You can also visit their FB Page here at https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Breakfast---Brunch-Restaurant/Alviz-Farm-Kapampangan-Culinary-Heritage-Tour.

Everybody's Cafe is located at Manila North Road, San Fernando, Pampanga or call (045) 860-1121 for more information.

Ocampo Lansang Delicacies is located in Sta. Rita, Pampanga or call 9000-027 for inquiries.

Solo Expeditions is now on Facebook and Instagram (@dudeforfood), check out the FB Page and IG Feed for regular updates on cool destinations and good eats. Better yet, click "Like" and "Follow" and enjoy the ride...just look for the FB widget on the right sidebar.