Skip to main content

Sooo Pinoy's Food Trip Na, Pilipinas: A Boracay EATScapade Part 1

The culinary tour around the Philippines continues as Unilever Food Solutions brings the Sooo Pinoy advocacy to the island of Boracay. In cooperation with the Department of Tourism, UFS is on the road to 10 gastronomic destinations across the country and visit more than 100 restaurants. It aims to get to the belly of what makes up Filipino cuisine in a campaign dubbed as Food Trip Na, Pilipinas!

Among the premiere tourist attractions of the country, Boracay offers a melange of cuisine to cater to a very diverse parade of nations frolicking under the sun. And it is a challenge for restaurants to come up with recipes that have the Filipino flavor as well making them stand proud beside with other world cuisines.

DAY 3: BEACH FRONT DINNERS

A sunset walk along the famed white sand beach brought us to our first foodie destination - Sur Beach Resort. Situated along the northern shores (Station 1) of the island, we wondered why it was named as such until we learned that the owners hail from Davao del Sur.
Welcoming us was the Mini Beef Burger Patties with Mushroom which we made Sooo Pinoy by having it with rice. Also on the menu was Pan-fried Dory with Garlic and Cheese sauce.

Dinner was served at Mesa Filipino Moderne Restaurant at the Boracay Regency Resort as they brought out their Filipino specialties.
An import restaurant from the famed Lamesa Grill group, this restaurant offers a modern take on Filipino food and ingredients as they served Tinapa roll and Hito Flakes with Green Mango and Chili for appetizers. Like a fiesta we had Laing and Bago-ong Rice, Crispy Boneless Pata, Crispy Boneless Tilapia, Laing 2-Ways (dry and wet) Chicken Binakol, Shrimp Croquettes and Suahe on the Rocks. The latter were cooked on hot stones in bowls – right on the table!

For a post dinner sampling, Le Soleil de Boracay two very Filipino and Ilonggo dishes as well. The aroma and eventually taste, totally distracted us from the lure of the beach and sea, which was just a few meters away.
Their Chicken and Pork Adobo had a very homey flavor which is surprising for big hotels and resorts which usually taste bland. Le Soleil’s Sooo Pinoy dish was the Inubaran nga Manok with a Bicolano twist. It has ubad (the popular Ilonggo “extender” which is from pith of the banana but the spice and use of coconut milk gave it a taste of Bicol. Also, as the owner of the resort hails from Negros, a side order of Bas-uy (a soup made with pieces of various meats) was made available.

DAY 4: D’MALL THE MERRIER

Our second day started at D’ Mall where Smoke Resto served their specialties – Adobo Rice, Eggplant Omelet, Adobong Kangkong, Sinigang na Hipon, Bicol Express and Tuyo & Salted Egg with Garlic rice. And it was their Bulalo Soup that made my day – smells good, tastes even better.

Why not? Smoke Resto made it to the Sooo Pinoy Top 10 of the Best Bulalo in the country. And it comes in Sizzling and Crispy variants too!

After a side trip to Jonah’s Snackbar for a round of Banana Choco Peanut shake, lunchtime had our stomachs filled with the specialties of Island Chicken Inasal.
Another walk along the white beach and back to D’Mall, a bowl of Kansi (Ilonggo style bulalo), a plate of Apan-apan (adobong kangkong with guinamos-Ilonggo bago-ong) and a serving of their Chicken Inasal served as midday meal with their very refreshing calamansi shake.


To know more about this local gastronomic affair, food lovers are invited to like the “Sooo Pinoy" page on Facebook and follow @SoooPinoy on Twitter.

Popular posts from this blog

Ultimate Ilonggo Favorite: KBL Kadyos, Baboy, Langka

K.B.L. or Kadyos, Baboy, Langka is the ultimate favorite dish of most Ilonggos. It is also one of the most missed native dishes as kadyos and the souring ingredient, batwan , are hard to find when outside of the Ilonggo region.  Basically, it is boiled/stewed pork dish owing its "deliciousness" to the combination of the soft and tender pork, the tamed sourness of  batwan  and the  malinamnam na sabaw .  One of the "secrets" of the malinamnamn na sabaw , is the fact that the pork, whether just the plain meat or pata (hocks) are first grilled or broiled. This gives the broth a rather smoky taste that makes it more appetizing.. Learn how to make the Ilonggo dish KBL (Kadyos, Baboy, at Langka) with the recipe below. Ingredients 1 kilo Pata (pork hocks) or pork cubes, GRILLED and sliced into bite size pieces  1 unripe Jack fruit, cubed 2 cups pigeon pea (kadyos) 6-8 pieces batwan fruit  (or tamarind powder) 1 piece pork broth cube (

An Ilonggo favorite - Valenciana

Found in almost all occasions like fiesta, birthdays, reunions and others, Ilonggos really love valenciana because most if not all have grown accustomed of having it in special gatherings at home.  A complete " go, grow and glow " dish because it has the carbohydrates, protein and vitamins and minerals in just one spoonful, Valenciana is really an " occasional dish ".  Here's the recipe for Valenciana

Budyawi

Bujawi (budjawi, budyawi) is what Ilonggos refer to the fruit of the buri or century palm tree . Abundant in many parts of the province of Iloilo, the buri has many many uses from the leaves to its trunk. It produces a fermented drink (tuba), alcohol, vinegar, syrup, and sugar. The trunk yields large quantities of starch. The bud (ubod) is used for salad or as a vegetable. The kernels of the young fruits are edible and are made into a sweetmeats. The mature seeds are used for beads? (rosaries) and buttons.  The petiole yields so-called buntal fiber of which, the famous Baliuag and Lucban hats are made, or which, when crudely extracted, is sometimes twisted into rope. Mature leaf is used for covering tobacco bales, rarely as a thatch for houses, while the ribs are used for making brooms. From the unopened leaf is obtained a very fine fiber, corresponding to raffia fiber, which is utilized in making cloth, fancy articles, and as string. Fibers secu

Batwan

Ilonggos know batwan or batuan by heart as the fruit is almost endemic to the Western Visayas. Its scientific name is Garcinia binucao, derived from the Tagalog name for the fruit, binukaw. It is a large green fruit with large seeds and its a favorite souring ingredient in most Ilonggo dishes especially  KBL or kadyos, baboy, langka and the Ilonggo-style paksiw known as "pinamalhan". It is characterized by a tamed sourness compared to tamarind and kamias . The fruit is sold by pieces or kilo in wet markets and even big grocery stores. Batwan is the preferred souring ingredients for the Ilonggo favorite- KBL. The photo shows boiled batwan with skin and without skin (right) A favorite riddle when we were young - "Among the many fruits in the forest, but one (batuan) is the best. What is it?"

Takway

The gabi (taro) is just one of those plants which is edible from "roots to tops". The most popular of which is the tuber part which is used in a variety of dishes and mostly in combination with coconut milk. Its leaves, of course, is the main ingredient of a Bicol specialty, laing . It is dried then chopped and sauteed with other ingredients including, again, coconut milk. Then there is takway . The local term for its tendrils/runner, that part which is torn between being a stem or a root for it neither grows upwards nor downwards - it grows sideways . Scraped off of its outer skin, takway is often a key ingredient in vegetable dishes like laswa and the gabi tuber with coconut milk and local snails know as bago-ngon . It is also popular when cooked adobo style with guinamos , the local bago-ong . It is very popular in the region that even big supermarkets sell takway in style - cleaned and plastic wrapped in styro with some additions to make it easier to prepare.