Favorite vegetable dish of people from the North
This dish has find its way to our history, it was said by the old folks from Ilocos that Gabriela Silang (March 19, 1731 – September 20, 1763) used to cook this as for her husband Diego and to share it to their neighbors and friends (as many Filipino still does practice this custom).
There was even a story that, one day Gabriela brought dinengdeng to her sick friend but along the way she met an old woman chilling from cold weather. With natural kindness, she instead gave the old woman her cloak and the still hot dinengdeng.
A favorite vegetable dish from Pangasinan and Ilocos region. Almost every native vegetables (that is to exclude veggies that are used in cooking Chopsuey) maybe put to the dish but the most popular are; squash and its flower, okra,string beans, ampalaya (bitter gourd), eggplant, malungagy fruit and gabi (taro) tuber. It is mixed with bagoong isda (unprocessed fish sauce), ginger, tomato,onion and grilled fish or shellfish. It is also known as inabraw.
You can find this dish to every restaurant serving local dishes especially in“carinderia”. You may notice if you go to different towns, its taste may vary because many of them develop their own distinct recipes.