The Philippines' culinary city — La Paz batchoy, Dinagyang Festival, and Western Visayas seafood
Iloilo City is officially designated the UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy of the Philippines — the birthplace of La Paz batchoy (pork and noodle soup with crispy pork cracklings, a national comfort food), original pancit molo (wonton soup named for the historic Chinese district), and fresh seafood from the Panay Gulf at the Fish Port Complex. The city has an exceptional Spanish colonial heritage — neoclassical churches, the Molo Church where women were the only priests allowed, and heritage districts still intact.
Iloilo was one of the most important ports in Spanish colonial Philippines — after Manila, it was the second city of the archipelago, exporting sugar and rice and importing European manufactures. The opening of Iloilo to free international trade in 1855 brought a wave of Chinese, British, and Spanish merchant communities who built the neoclassical commercial buildings of the historic districts. After WWII the city rebuilt; it is now the regional centre of Western Visayas and consistently ranked the most competitive and liveable city in the Philippines outside Metro Manila.