FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Even before its ground floor renovation, it was already home to countless food shops. Turo-turo, batchoyans, snack and pasalubong shops made up majority of the ground floor of this 3 storey building. Located along Valeria Street, La Salette building has long been a gastronomical magnet. Its being almost located at the center of big shopping centers makes it a melting pot in this part of the city. Spanning almost a block, its accessibility to most destinations creates a foot-traffic the envied by other buildings Surprisingly last year, it embarked on a move now common in this part of the city. It gave a new and refreshing look to its ground floor with a line up of restaurants and food shops showcasing the Ilonggo pride. From history to the cuisine it presents and the innovations it brought after the reinvention, the new La Salette beckons. Mang Inasal The country's fastest growing chicken inasal and Iloilo's most famous restaurant export nationwide. This store proves how stron...

One of the most popular Ilonggo cuisine is KBL - acronym for kadyos, baboy and langka. That's why not only my blog has lots of it - lol, but also most native restaurants and stalls in the food courts serve them. Though this dish has found it's way commercially, still a home made KBL is still the best. Like this one we had few days ago. The best KBL for me is when the B (baboy- pork, whatever part of it) is first broiled (thus the color of the skin) then boiled together with the langka and kadyos then soured with batwan. It gives the soup a distinct flavour I usually look for whenever KBL makes it's way into my plate. Similary, this KBL from Ocean City at SM City's food court makes use of pata but the pork was obviously just boiled with the other ingredients that the taste was just the usual commercial KBL. But for PhP65 and order this, bowl of KBL was worth to satisfy my cravings for KBL that time.

A popular Cebuano restaurant has now reached Iloilo. Cafe Laguna opened it's first branch in the Visayas (outside Cebu) at SM City Iloilo this week. Finally Ilonggos can now experience what made Cafe Laguna such a big hit in Cebu, starting from it's being a carenderia before to a place of fine dining now. Here are some snippets of information from Cafe Laguna's website. CAFÉ LAGUNA began as a labor of love for the urbina family. Coming from a long line of fine cooks, Lita Urbina decided to share her culinary talents with everyone. She got the love for cooking from her mother who owned a restaurant in Cartimar, Manila. As a young girl, she remembered being exposed to the restaurant business and how it was managed. With the help and encouragement of her family, Mrs. Urbina decided to open her own carenderia which served Filipino food with a distinctive taste incomparable to this day. Food was not only sumptuous but enkindled memories of homecooked meals shared with friends an...

I've been guiding someone here in Iloilo in the past few days. Though it was only through text messages that I inform her what to do, where to go, what to eat and more. It was on the last day of her visit to Iloilo that we decided to meet. Over the usual mouth watering cakes and desserts at Dulgies Cafe, I got to know more of my mystery guest. She shared her experiences of travelling alone for the first plus her adventures and misadventures here in Iloilo. Over slices of mango nostalgia, heaven's cake sand french streusel apple pie, we shared many stories about almost anything under the sun. It was really a fun afternoon that we didn't realize almost two hours have gone by. It was also a coincidence that I brought her to Dulgies Cafe to have some cakes since it was her birthday that day!

With a bowl piping hot dinuguan and freshly delivered puto manapla and baye-baye , this was one of the more satisfying eats I had together with my guests from Manila last week. Biscocho Haus (near YMCA) was an unlike place to have breakfast since it is always associated with pasalubong. Several branches of this pasalubong shop do serve breakfast, lunch and snacks. Among the limited food items they have are pancit Molo and pata. I never really liked the former since it was very buttery but the latter is amogn my favorite eats. This breakfast would have been much better if they had fresh lumpia that time to complete a native haul of Ilonggo specialties.

To jumpstart our tour of Jaro district, my friends and I had breakfast at the newly opened branch of Green Mango right across its plaza. It was a good thing they open early (7am) to serve commuters especially students and office workers working or passing by the area. It was the usual breakfast meals for my friends, smoked longganisa & beef tapa combos and for me, of course my favorite, bistek tagalog . It took them almost an eternity to serve our breakfast since there was a big batch of order ahead of us and I can count only 3-4 staff at that time. Anyway, these combo meals are affordable at PhP49 each and comes with free drinks (except for my order.) First thing that caught the attention of my friends was the shape of the rice, it was almost conical as opposed to the usual truncated cylinder or cone. Then no reactions from then on. Either they were so hungry or they have nothing to say ab0ut the food (lol). It seemed that my favorite order at Green Mango has changed a bit, fro...

This is JD Bakeshop's answer to the Iloilo butterscotch craze. Not actually butterscotch but can almost pass as one. Part of their dessert squares collection, these chewies can be bought by piece yet this one came packed in 6's (but only 2 left when I got hold of it.) As it is called, they are "buttery" and chewy reminiscent of Rgies butterscotch. They are twice as big as those ordinary butterscotch and tastes better than those I have reviewed. They may look ordinary but tastes better than expected. They also have chocolate chewies which I will blog about soon.

Bauhinia Restaurant is among the few classy restaurants in Iloilo City that serves Filipino cuisine. A modern ambiance for local Filipino cuisine that often surprises patrons with an "interesting" meal that visual ans gastronomic delights. The menu offers the regular Ilonggo and Filipino favorites but comes to your table is an almost unrecognizable dish that you think it's a wrong order. They just take presentation into the next level, that is. - Tuna kilawin shooters Crostinis with smoked bangus pate Photos from GimmeAPiece Sinigang na lechong baboy Pork belly chunks served with sinigang broth soured by batwan Chorizo Fried Rice Seafood kare-kare Prawns "tinu-om" Chocnut cheesecake and leche flan

Krua Thai is among the pioneering restaurants in the Kimwa Commercial Complex popularly known as "Smallville". This restaurant meaning "Thai kitchen" opened Oct. 29, 2004 and is now among the most popular restaurants serving Thai cuisine in Iloilo City. As it will celebrate its 5th year anniversary in a few days, Krua Thai is offering its loyal customers a special PhP249 lunch and dinner buffet on October 28, 2009 serving all its house specialties. This also comes with free iced tea and drinks. Mark this date and get ready to feast on the many specialties of Thailand, Krua Thai has to offer. Meanwhile here are some good orders from Krua Thai courstesy of Labeth of Skyscrapercity Forum. Chicken in green curry Spicy beef salad Beef in panang curry Fried Prawn Patties