Poqui-poqui Face-Off: Saramsam and Preciosa

During my visit to Laoag City, I had the fortune of eating at two premier restaurants, Saramsam Ylocano Restaurant and Bar and La Preciosa. Saramasam means an informal gathering, or pica-pica, and is quite the iconoclast, serving traditional regional dishes in different ways, such as the dinuguan (blood stew) pizza. La Preciosa Restaurant is more traditional, and is the favorite restaurant in the city per the website Tripadvisor.

Poqui-poqui may be named unfortunately (it's a Tagalog vulgar term for vagina), but it sure tastes heavenly. It's basically eggplants, eggs, onions, and tomatoes. The first time I tried it it was vaguely familiar, until I remembered how my father  was so fond of a version that uses no eggplant at all. It dawned of me I've been eating a variant since childhood.

Saramsam's version uses smoky eggplant, and this reminded me of the home-style goodness of meals cooked in wood of my childhood. 

La Preciosa's is saucier, and the onions used were so fresh they were sweetish. Of the two versions I'm partial to the latter. Forgive the unfortunate picture composition, but La Preciosa's is the tastier dish.