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Santa Barbaranhons embrace the Slow Food Movement

The municipality of Santa Barbara, Iloilo embarks on a culinary journey focusing on heritage, traditional and sustainable food. Promoting and utilizing local produce and recipes, the LGU led by the Municipal Tourism Officer Irene Magallon with the support of the Baranggay Nutrition Scholars and department heads held a cook off of local Ilonggo dishes and typical "sud-an"    with ingredients sourced out from the local market.  Tasked of preparing one dry and one "sabaw", groups prepared assortment of typical "sud-an" favorites and various methods of cooking which includes pinamalhan, tinola, sinugba, sinabawan, ginat-an, relyeno, ensalada, tino-um among others. On a special note, if the dish involves a souring ingredient, it required the use    "catmon", a local citrus fruit which was the old name of the town. Fresh ingredients were sourced out from the town market which is just a few steps away from the venue. The
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An Ilonggo favorite: Pancit Molo

Named after one of Iloilo City’s districts, Pancit Molo is one of the more identifiable pancit dishes in the country. It stands out uniquely among the noodle dishes mainly because of its non-traditional pancit look. It is a derivative of the Chinese wonton (filled dumplings) made into a soup.  One of the first questions always asked is "Where's the Pancit?". With pancit as a sort of "prefix" to the name of the dish, first timers always for the noodle-like component of the dish. It's then explained that the pancit is actually the molo ball wrappers which is basically of the same mix as any pancit/noodles. Pancit Molo is more of a household specialty and the recipe varies from household to household. From the meat filling mix to the soup, there could be a hundred and one ways of making pancit molo. Pancit Molo Filling I suggest to make this days before the actual cooking of pancit molo so that the flavours will be full.

Pinasugbo

I often take pinasugbo for granted. Aside that I almost always ended up in a mess, I find it really sweet and often takes a toll on my teeth. But there are certain situations that I don’t wish for; it just comes at the right time.  A pack of pinasugbo from Deocampo suddenly appeared at home (who, when, where, etc still a mystery) and it just screamed to be eaten. So loud that in order to shut it up, I have to shove it in my mouth – lol. Pinasugbo is made from slices of banana (saba variety) slice length-wise, deep fried and smothered with caramel. Then a number of these slices are packed in paper cones for easy consumption.  But as the caramel hardens, it sticks to the cones and most often one might find himself eating a bit of paper. But luckily a trick I got from one of blog’s comments solved this problem – just heat it for a few seconds in the microwave and it slides off easily. That made me enjoy these pinasugbo from Deocampo that time. Aside

Kadyos : The Ilonggos' signature beans

Now where do I start? I think I have enough feature on kadyos (and KBL ) that I find having a new post ... redundant. But there are times I can’t resist taking a photo and making another blog post. Like this instance, I chanced upon kadyos being “plucked” from its pod. Never got this one before so it would seem a good photo op. But now I’ve got one what’s next? Of course the perennial kadyos cuisine – KBL . Kadyos, baboy, langka is an Ilonggo favorite, no doubt about it. The beans being endemic almost in the region makes gives it (and the dish) a sense of popularity and a following. Ilonggos away from home often crave for the dish and it’s often one of the first they request when finally back home. The common yet special dish usually consists of broiled pork leg boiled until tender with kadyos beans, jackfruit and some greens. Batwan , another almost endemic fruit to the region, gives the broth a distinct sourness very different from others li

Delicious puto from Brgy. Lanag in Santa Barbara

Now who doesn't love puto? One of my favorites before was the puto I christened " Puto Calaboa " as it was made in Brgy. Calaboa Santa Barbara, Iloilo. But after sometime, they supply stopped coming to town as the maker of the puto had some personal health issues. Now enter another puto maker from Santa Barbara - this time coming from Brgy. Lanag, an adjacent baranggay to the poblacion. Wrapped in 5's using banana leaves, the puto is made fresh daily every morning. The puto-maker just make a limited batch so as to ensure the quality and avoid having oversupply to be sold the following day. The puto smells very good as if you are already eating it. Each bite (though I could easily eat it all in one bite) gives a full flavour esp. of the richness of the coconut milk. Its the kind of puto that you can't stop eating given its almost dainty size at the same time rich flavour - but it's not " makasalum-od " (

Healthy Okra and Kamote Salad

After all the cholesterol-laden gastronomy this Holiday season, chances are we are looking forward to some fiber enriched diet. And here's a simple vegetable salad made with easy to get ingredient (that is if your based in the Philippines). Made with steamed okra and kamote tops with local langgaw (vinegar) with fresh tomatoes, onions and chives as garnish. It was a play of colors, textures and flavours all in one plate. But I may tweak the recipe a bit by adding some guinamos ( bago-ong ) to the vinegar dressing and/or olive or sesame oil. Now my mouth just waters at the thought ...

A native delicacy called Inday-inday

Now you may ask, what is Inday-Inday ? It's another repetitive-feminine named native delicacy that is made from rice like its more popular sister - baye-baye . While the latter is has its own original flavor and make, inday-inday is actually a combination of two well loved native delicacies - muasi ( palitaw ) and bukayo . But the muasi portion is not the the usual palitaw  recipe for the it's more firm and gummy (I don't know the English term for kid-ol ). Actually its more like a hardened kutsinta and this makes it more to my liking since I'm not really fond of muasi in the first place.  And its not quite easy to find inday-inday in the market today, though I've seen and tried it in Sabor Ilonggo stalls but their's is more like suman latik for the based is ibos -like. Ibos is malagkit rice boiled in gata which is called suman in Tagalog. Despite the uncertainty for its nomenclature (I've read that inday-inday is just plain pal

Apan-apan

I never actually dared to try apan-apan before knowing it was a local delicacy made with grasshoppers. I could just hear the crunch of it's legs and other body parts. But now, apan-apan is more popular as an apptizer made with kangkong sauteed in guinamos (the local term for bago-ong). And I get to enjoy it more and crave for it at times. Cooking apan-apan is like making adobong kangkong only with guinamos. But at times, it doesn't really matter since I almost interchange the method being an experimental cook. So it usually starts with the sauteeing of garlic and onions then adding guinamos - I often add chillis for a kick. Then I add vinegar, soy sauce and kangkong leaves and the upper portion of the stalk. Then it's just simmering it until the stalks are soft enough to be eaten. ( Click for Recipe-style post ) I like tweaking the recipe by adding (ingredients I love like) calamansi and sesame oil. The former brings more tang and the latter the dif