Visit the following cities and provinces and try their specialties. Learn the ways of the best cooks of each region through cooking classes and demos. Eat local and never refuse an invitation to someone’s home—it may lead to the very best meal you’ve ever had.

• Manila: eclectic restaurants run by brilliant chefs, hole-in-the-walls with craft beer and local bar snacks, chill speakeasies with innovative cocktails, a flourishing Chinatown serving authentic Chinese and unique Filipinized Chinese dishes, elaborate dinners in private homes, local eateries serving the best native fare.
• Luzon: Malolos Ensaymada and sticky rice cakes of Bulacan; coconut products, carabao’s milk cheese, deep fried duck of Laguna; empanada (fried stuffed pastry), longanisa (preserved sausage), bagnet (crisp fried pork) and pinakbet (vegetable stew) of Ilocos; and coffee, bulalo (beef bone broth with marrow) of Batangas.
• Visayas and Mindanao: Lechon (roasted pig with crackling skin), puso (heart shaped fragrant rice), salted fish of Cebu; slurp-worthy noodle soup classics like batchoy and molo, fresh oysters, angel wing clams, mangrove jack, scallops, and raw fatty clams of Iloilo; and love-it or hate-it durian, pomelo and other fruits, grilled dishes, tuna belly, tail and female tuna roe of Davao.