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I was on "V-L" today

Not vacation-leave but valenciana and laswa - two Ilonggo favorites. These two are among the staples of an Ilonggo "diet"; laswa complementing any fried or grilled ulam while valenciana appearing mostly in parties,fiestas and other special occasions.

Valenciana is the local adaptation of the paella and almost a complete meal in itself. It consists of pork cutlets, pork liver, green peas, bell peppers, raisins among others then cooked and seasoned together with malagkit rice.

Laswa on the other hand is an assorted vegetable stew mainly consisting of talong, kalabasa, takway, patola, okra or any vegetable available.

This combo was made even special with my current addiction, a mango-calamansi juice mix!

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