To the west of Ilocos Sur in Northern Philippines is the South China sea. This is a very long coastline from Tarlac to Cagayan, consisting of a few provinces north of Manila.

Our town have its' own sea shore so fishing is one of the livelihood for some families in our area. Majority are into farming.

Fresh and affordable sea foods...one is spoilt for choice

Having decided to have some sea shells for lunch yesterday, going to the wet market is the fun part. The menu is decided as you go along checking whatever caught your eye. 

You can haggle as well regardless of the given price! 

Am not so good with that so most times I don't carry the purse.

Now...we chose to have some mussels, but decided to have them grilled. Another type of shells was bought too for soup and some sea weed. Included were some vegetables for grilling.

Don't forget the soup.

There are some sea weeds that are edible without being cooked, some just need blanching with hot water. The image above doesn't need any intervention. Just make sure to remove remaining tiny rocks where it was harvested. All it needs is sliced tomatoes and a bit of salt if bland.

Fresh fish are a plenty each day...

but we had some the other day so it was excluded. Some are being sold from house to house from sellers around the town so you don't need to go to the market anymore.

Fresh coconut water or "buko juice" anyone??

All images are mine and taken with my Samsung Galaxy S7. Thanks @elyaque for my badge!