I have never been to the town of Lucban, Quezon though it has long been on my list of places to visit. 
Well known for its Pahiyas Festival to celebrate a bountiful harvest, the whole concept of food, food as décor (thousands of rice leaves in stunning colors), pork sausages, noodles, etc. are right up Marketman’s alley. I just have to get there sometime soon. Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about the town and its traditions so it will take some research and inquiry before I muster up the courage… At any rate, I noticed a vendor at a local market selling packages of what looked like thin egg noodles labeled “Pancit Lucban†and I was intrigued enough to stop and eventually purchase a package for PHP50. Back home, I read the simple instructions on the back of the package for a classic Pancit Lucban or what is more commonly known as pancit hab-hab, which apparently is a noodle dish that is eaten off of banana leaf squares without utensils or the use of your hands. You are just supposed to eat it straight off of the leaf…
Lucban aficionados will have to forgive me as I am 
attempting a recipe without ever having tried an authentic version… Nevertheless, here is my version of Pancit Lucban or Pancit hab-hab. Omit the large green pechay or bok choy leaves if you want to eat this in the traditional manner. To make, heat up some vegetable oil until hot. Add small cubes of pork and some chopped onion and garlic. Saute until cooked and add soy sauce and some black pepper. Add 6 cups of chicken broth (more flavor) or water. Add a package of noodles and sitr until cooked. I added some bok choy though the traditional vegetable would be sliced sayote (chayote). Check the seasoning and serve with a spritz of kalamansi or calamondin.
Wow. Was this a pleasant surprise. 
Wickedly easy, fast and delicious! I liked the flavor and texture of the thinner noodles. They seemed to have more chewiness and strength than traditional Chinese egg noodles used in a Pancit Canton and it turns out the Lucban noodles are made with rice rather than wheat flour and eggs. I can fully understand why people would be quickly eating this treat without utensils from streetside carts in the town of Lucban. Yum.
20 Responses
mm – have you tried Buddy’s on kalayaan st in Makati? (before Reposo or N Garcia st, it would be on your left) they take pride in their pancit lukban and other Lukbanin products, in case you don’t have the time to go to Lukban yet.
Buddy’s has branch in Market Market Fort Bonifacio too. Love their Pancit Lucban with vinegar. Thanks MM for the recipe. I will try to cook it.
We went to Lucban for the Pahiyas festival this year. I must say that as festivals go, it’s one of the more colorful ones on the tourism calendar. The kipings are a lovely and ingenious way of using our native products.
Word of warning though, try to get there early or be ready for hours of traffic. It took us 5 hours to get to Lucban, leaving Manila at 7:30 in the morning. After a quick walk around the town, we were too hot and bothered to stay longer and left around 3, arrived back at 9:30 p.m. Maybe you can plan on staying overnight if you have friends with a place there or find a decent b&b.
We went to Lucban last year but during the offseason (non-Pahiyas time) and there are lots of great street food near the church. Maybe a local quezonian can post what the names of the treats are. A food anthropologist would have a heyday doing research in the province.
Rina, I haven’t tried Buddy’s yet…will soon…at Fort Bonifacio as gsl suggests…shucks, I was just at Market!Market! the other day. Mila, I think I would rather go off season to Lucban rather than brave that one day everyone wants to be there… FIVE hours to get to Lucban??? That’s how long it takes to get to Baguio?!?
Buddy’s is the Best! Marketman — dig this. They use chicharon — the fatty, meaty kind of pork rind that you can pair with rice for an instant meal as garnish. A plate of Buddy’s is worth half a day’s work-out. Very decadent.
I’m excited for you to taste Buddy’s. Just pop a Xenical after! :)
https://celdrantours.blogspot.com/2005/07/carlos-recommends_19.html
The best way to eat your way through Lucban. With Habhab cooking lessons to boot.
Thanks Carlos… I’m booking a tour soon!
Rina, gsl and gigi – I just tried Buddy’s this morning at Market!Market! and for a 2-3 serving platter of freshly cooked pancit lucban for PHP95 it was very good! I was impressed!
pancit lucban/hab-hab noodles are made of flour,
not rice.I eat it with rice though.
ed, I would buy the made of flour and egg theory based on the looks of the noodle… but several websites seem to be sure it has rice flour in it…and the tensile feel seems to suggest more than just flour and egg…but at any rate…they taste good!
Hi, I was browsing the net looking for recipes when I stumbled on this one. This comment may be a tad late but I’m from Lucban (though I live in Manila now) and thought I would leave a comment. The Pancit Lucban they serve in Buddy’s is good, but quite expensive. The cost of one order of Pancit Lucban (which can serve from 2-5 people depending on a person’s appetite) would only cost from 30-50 pesos, depending on how much ingredients they use. And the traditional way of cooking it is to boil pork with meat bones and use that instead of chicken stock. The pork will be then cut up and used as an ingredient, although most people started using lechon kawali instead, because it adds more flavor and character to the dish. Aside from chayote, we also use carrots and then of course, pechay. :-)
P.S.
Yes it would take 5 hours to go to Lucban via Lucena but if you go via the Sta. Cruz, it will take 3-4 hours. There are lots of places you can stay for the night but book in advance because they usually have a waiting list.
your use of words such as tensile and scarfing are not appropriate,and are not used properly.
alex, thanks for pointing those out. Scarfing in my day was slang for eating like crazy…though I just looked it up and it has an altogether other slang and proper meaning. Have edited the post. As for tensile, I did mean to point out the strength of the noodle as opposed to say a more common pancit canton… at any rate, thanks!
Hi Marketman! I’m Lucbanin through and through and I must say that my culinary tastes are very much biased to Lucban delicacies. ;-)
I’m a huge fan of pancit habhab, but it’s longganisang Lucban that really gets my taste buds going! I cook it out of the casings with garlic until it gets all “tostado”, and use a bit of the red oil from cooking the meat to make a tasty sinangag to go with it. Not the healthiest thing in the world but it’s definitely my favorite breakfast-anytime (I can have it for lunch and dinner…and maybe even a midnight snack, too) meal.
I only spend a few days year in Lucban (during Pahiyas, of course), and I look forward to it everytime because I kid you not, it’s a 24-hour food festival. You can get authentic Lucbanin eats whenever you please! Bonete (our version of pandesal, buttery bread shaped like baby binkies!) with kesong puti from in Lumban, bought on the way to Quezon, suman, PAvino’s sweets, and the sweet caramel coated pumpkin pastry (the name evades me at the moment) are just a few I really miss! Lucban, Lucban. Sigh. I remember when Buddy’s was just this tiny tapsilog joint across our ancestral home that my cousins and I would frequent. Now it’s all decked out in neon lights, has branches in some of the swankier parts of Manila (there’s also one on Pearl Drive)! It also saddens me that our old bahay na bato has been turned into a hotel–I’ll get you in touch if you want to book a room for next year’s Pahiyas.:) People usually book a year in advance but I’ll try my best to squeeze you in–it’s one experience you wouldn’t want to miss.
My gosh that post is typo-laden! What happens when you daydream about food at 5 in the morning :)
Lora, I would LOVE to go to the Pahiyas Festival…will have to remember to check with you before I attempt that! Many thanks!
Lora, the name of the “sweet caramel coated pumpkin pastry” is PILIPIT/BUSKARON (one twisted and the other flat oval). Very close to carioca of the Ilocanos. I maybe biased here but I like PILIPIT/Buscaron better @ 5 pesos a piece last Nov. 2007 last I had 10 of those hehehehehe.
Only one family sells those in Lucban and they still do. The son of my dad’s Pareng Joe sells ’em at the Kamayan sa Palaisdaan.
pancit buddy’s is masarap everytime i celebrate my birthday buddy’s pancit ang handa ko sa office they like it very much specially the lechon kawali na nakasahog dito and the combination of suka with pansit taste really good
we want to have a supplier of pancit habhab to be delivered in Visayas area>>..If someone can help me find supplier of pancit habhab, you can call or text me..+639276477125…thank you I LOVE PANCIT HABHAB
what a real………its very delicious…pero d q pa nttikman