Breakfast at Green Mango

Breakfast at Green Mango - Jaro branch

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, from my last memory of their bistek tagalog, it wasn't as dark as this nor tasted with overpowering soy sauce. I can't be sure since I had my last bistek tagalog at their main branch along Valeria street. Though I can say that this one is more bistek looking and tasting, but I love the "original" recipe of their sauce back at the main branch. (Gotta make another taste test sometime.) But still finished my plate since the beef itself, usually good.

We finished almost everything except that tapa wherein my friend said it was too hard. Just by looking at it, I can say that it really was that no need for him to demonstrate by cutting it using his spoon (which he did anyway).

And so our tour of the heritage district of Jaro began with a trip to my Alma Mater, currently hosting the 14th Unigames, with the University Church and it's infamous addition, that "canopy".

The icons of Jaro, the Metropolitan Cathedral which houses the image of Our Lady of Candles in it's facade ...

...to it's equally famous belfry and plaza,

and a souvenir/religious items shop wherein the best buys are still, of course, the candles!

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 por...

Easy Century Tuna Recipes

If you're looking for simple, easy and delicious Century Tuna recipes online, congratulations, you've found it right here! How about spicy tuna sisig or tuna sinigang ? Maybe stir fried tuna with pickles or just yang chow fried rice . I love Century Tuna from its flakes in oil variety, the spicier the better, but when I discovered the versatility of its solid variant, it became an obsession. At first I was just into the usual tested recipes; pasta and sandwich filling, but then it got simpler – I just eat it straight from the can! Usually with a piece of bread or an apple. I just add a few drops of vinegar to spice it up a bit. Then came the experiments. Yup I got tired of that habit that one day, I decided to test my skills in the kitchen. Serendipity, you might call it yet most of them turned into good recipes that I have shared now and then. Satisfying my Palabok cravings had me experiment on this recipe on the spot. With Century Tuna in lieu of the us...

Lauya nga Pata sang Baboy

It was a typical fiesta scene in a barrio that I got to taste this cholesteroliffic and delicious pork dish. I can still vividly remember that decades old gastronomic memory - very tender and almost fall of the bone pata, vivid orange sour and sticky broth, large chunks of unripe langka; all in one big large kaldero ! And it's been really a while since I've tried to recreate that taste memory and a few days ago, it was worth another try. Here's my simple recipe for Pata Lauya

Kusay

Often mistaken to be, sounding-alike, as kinchay , kusay has a very distinct aroma and flavour. A rather unfamiliar herb mostly anywhere, my Tagalog officemate call this as sibuyas na mura and in Manila groceries labeled as kutchay . It do looks like onion chives but kusay is flat unlike the hollow chives. We have kusay planted in our backyard for occasional uses like soup garnishing. However, it often takes a trip to the Central Market to buy them in large quantities if ever we make Pancit Molo since it is an important ingredient in the filling mixture and as garnishing.

Kalkag

I don't know how it came to be called as such but to Ilonggos, these are tiny dried shrimps. Methinks its actually shrimp fry or baby shrimps. Mostly used as garnishing over kalo-kalo (fried rice); however it can be of many uses depending on the imagination of the cook. One of the more common ways of using kalkag is making a torta of out of it. Just mix it with some seasoning, egg and flour then fry. Or just sprinkle them over laswa or any vegetable dish, as garnishing and mild flavouring as well. Most of the time though, I just heat them over a pan (without oil) or just mixrowave, for around half a minute and mix it with rice.

FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Search This Blog