FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

  A favorite of many Ilonggos,   ginat-an nga tambo   is heaven to them and fans of Ilonggo cuisine. With coconut milk and greens like saluyot, takway and okra plus subak like shrimps or crabs – this would automatically induce a lot of cravings.  Especially when you’re abroad where raw ingredients are often hard to find and if they are luckily available, it still doesn’t taste like the one you might have grown up with. Even so, it is more than enough one's craving for this Ilonggo cuisine, no matter where you are in the world.

A mouth-watering combo that it makes me salivate even by just looking at this picture anytime of the day - and it's past 2AM now. Grilled or fried meat or seafood plus a tasty vegetable side dish is always a gastronomic winner. And this early, I scream for extra rice, please! Apan-apan  is the local Ilonggo term for a simple dish made with  kangkong  basically cooked adobo-style but with additional  guinamos  (the local  bago-ong ). It is a side dish but with it being so flavourful, it could easily outdo any dish it is paired with. I just love squeezing some calamansi over my apan-apan to add some tanginess and making it more appetizing. CLICK FOR RECIPE There are a hundred and one ways of making sinugba or inihaw na baboy - or even thousand. It may differ in the marinade, cooking process and others. But for the simplest and still my all time favorite is just rubbing salt to fresh pork (and maybe some calaman...

This June 2025, indulge in a curated selection of dishes highlighting Filipino culinary artistry and local ingredients as Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo proudly introduces its Hunyo A La Carte Specials. Available from June 1 to 30, 2025, between 10AM and 11PM, these exclusive offerings are served at the hotel's Courtyard Lobby Bar, providing guests with a unique and flavorful dining experience throughout the month. Together with the Iloilo Bloggers Inc. , it was a delightfully delicious lunch trying out all these special dishes that fused some well-loved recipes with local Ilonggo ingredients. Let's start with these d elicious crab cakes made from locally sourced crabs from the town of Concepcion in Northern Iloilo.  Igbon, Concepcion Sustainable Crab Cakes Perfectly fried with a resounding crunch from the outside yet it was moist inside letting our palates savor the freshness of the crabs. T opped with poached egg and drizzled with batuan hollandaise sauce, it was a perfect st...

What makes the Ilonggo fresh lumpia different from most lumpiang sariwa is the absence of the sauce for the flavours is already "built-in". It is conveniently eaten on the go and sold in some stalls and bakeshops in the malls.  I got to discover this delicious fresh lumpia courtesy of Mr Eugene Jamerlan who helped the maker, Ms. Charito del Rosario, in marketing her delectable products (she also makes empanada). Each costs PhP15 and Ms Chari takes a minimum order of 50 pieces. That's too many and too expensive I thought.  Well, it's just her a sideline job for her and she doesn't make it on a daily basis, just upon order. But if you're lucky enough to order at the same time she has a big order, she can lower the minimum to maybe around 20 pieces.  Her recipe is very simple based on the actual product and it has a delectable clean taste where in you can savour the melange of the ingredients at the same time retaining some of the...

Other places in the Philippines have their own version of this cassava-based delicacy. In most parts of Western Visayas, this native delicacy is called alupe (or alupi). It is made with ground balinghoy (cassava) mixed with coconut milk and meat plus sugar and other flavorings. It is then wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. What looks like an unappetizing mixture before (steaming) becomes a pleasure to both the sense of smell and taste as it results to a flavourful snack that would surely bring back memories. Or will surely make one for those tasting it for the first time. Now only if it ain't that sticky and messy to eat!

Another Ilonggo dish named after its main ingredients is the kadyos, manok kag ubad . Kadyos is a local legume, though also found in other parts of the country but most recognizable in Ilonggo cooking. It comes in pods and ranges from deep violet to green in color and makes a purplish broth (for violet beans).  Native chicken or darag , is most commonly used when making the dish but one can also used broilers. But the free range chicken gives better flavour to the dish. And ubad , yes it's with an A, is the pith of the banana tree. Aside from being a sort of extender to the dish, it also creates a a different texture and it is almost flavourless. Read more about Ubad .