FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

A few hours from now, we will welcome the New Year with a bang and bid goodbye to 2010. The past year had been very good blogging year as I have discovered and rediscovered more than a lot of gastronomic delights and a few things or sorts that added color to Flavours of Iloilo . As a last hurrah, here's a look back to what, why and how 2010 become such a gastronomically momentous year. JANUARY Enjoyed Dinagyang both culturally and gastronomically … reacquainted my palate the delights of Breakthrough, Buto’t Balat, Peppy Thai and Esca’s … officially met members of the Iloilo Bloggers Inc at Green Mango… discovered the buffet at Emilion, Balbi’s dinuguan and diwal … invaded Uncle Tom’s, Kopi Roti and the riverside boulevard with the Skyscrapercity Iloilo peeps … awed by the trip in Guimaras esp. with the Pulang Pasayan trip … food trips at Mang Inasal, JD Roadhouse … got myself a new (and real) digital camera! FEBRUARY Experienced the Jaro fiesta more than the food … had a “bukolic

Among the things I like about Green Mango is that constant innovation of its menu. From new items to new combo meals, the Filipino fast food restaurant is always on the go. Just like last Friday, the restaurant invited us for another food tasting session of their latest combo items – GM SoOOHper Meals . From the name alone you’d know you’re in for a super treat – big in taste but light on the wallet. It’s like a mix and match combo or I’d say a choose your own combo meal. From three carbohydrates-based items, one gets to pair them with three proteins. So it’s a choice between yummy spaghetti, award winning canton guisado and flavourful pancit palabok. More choices come next as one gets to pair it with delectable chicken barbecue, perfectly fried chicken and mouth watering fried pork chop. As this was a food taste session, all these combos were presented to us and we just choose what our stomach’s grumble that time and mine said “pancit palabok with fried pork chop”. I haven’t tried th

TheVenue Function Rooms at The Avenue Complex was the perfect venue for the Philippine Blog Awards Visayas held last Nov. 27, 2010. Being one of the organizers, I looked nowhere else for TheVenue that had it all – p rime location, complete facilities, great food choices plus variety and people who are more than willing to help you for all your needs . Good thing everything went as planned and all the participants had blast even before, during and after the awards night. It was also among the few occasions that owner consented on a menu that come from different restaurants in the complex for usually it is exclusive to a single resto. Our menu was a good mix of house specials from five of the best restaurants in Iloilo City – all located within The Avenue complex. For starters we had a savoury Pumpkin Soup from Mojave Grill and Steak House that got all perked up for more of what’s to come – both for the awards night and gastronomy. The restaurant also provided an American Salad bar

I was about to go home yesterday when all of a sudden I just decided to drop by the still unfinished Plazuela de Iloilo . A month ago it had its soft opening with a few locators open but now, though works are still going on, it has quite created a buzz among Ilonggos. From the architecture and the press releases it had, it showcased it Spanish theme maybe as a reminder that Iloilo was the last Spanish bastion in the country. The name of the mall itself, Plazuela shows obvious reference plus its main activity area is known as Plaza Mayor. A new concept of malling in the city as opposed to the usual box typed malls and very compact malls, Plazuela de Iloilo makes malling a leisure. It echoes Iloilo’s way of life – not so hurried despite the hustle and bustle of city life. Compared to the adjacent mall, SM City Iloilo , Plazuela is really very spacious – in fact my first impression is it’s actually a waste of space – lol. But a beautiful one – it could be the next most photogenic places i

Found in almost all malls in the city is rather old Pinoy concept given a new lease of life with a new packaging. Pinoy Scramble seems to be competing head to head with another cold dessert now invading the city – frozen yoghurt. Aside from the familiarity – who can forget the look and taste of pink crushed ice flavoured with milk and sugar then with chocolate sauce, Pinoy Scramble is very affordable. A small cup costs only PhP10 while a bigger one in a more attractive (read “sosyal”) container, as in the photo, is just PhP17. A far cry from fro-yos that a small cup would already be around Php65 the least. This already comes with a sauce of choice and topping (guava and powdered milk for me). Additional toppings come for PhP 4 and a lot of choices too. Only time will tell which among the two will stay longer and click with the very picky Ilonggos. For me, I love them both and I’ll just make the most out of these two while they last.

Breakthrough Restaurant is among the default food places I’d recommend to anyone – whether first or nth timers, to Iloilo City. But the last time I was there, I seemed to have reconsidered the thought of it - call it wrong timing, maybe. The beachfront, which is among its non-gastronomic magnets, was in disarray – as if it wasn’t cleaned in a week. Our order came a little later than the usual despite being not so crowded that time. And the food wasn’t that exciting and satisfying that time though I had my usual orders of sizzling crabmeat, baked scallops and fresh lumpia plus kinilaw na tangigue in lieu of my favorite – kinilaw na pasayan. I also had an order out of curiosity – dinugu-an. I always almost have these items at Breakthrough and automatically compares my present orders with the best memories I had before that I overestimate the real goodness that end up getting frustrated sometimes. Though that time everything was at part except dinugu-an which turned out to be sweet, no,

Bourbon Street Grill and Bar in Smallville was the top choice when we scouted for a sponsor that will host the lunch of the speakers during the Visayas Blogging Summit , a month ago. And as usual it never failed us – aside from being a big supporter of our cause, every visit is always worth it and in my case – very bloggable. As one should probably know by know, B ourbon Street is synonymous with the best backribs in town. When the menu for the VBS lunch came out, I need not worry seeing Bourbon BBQ Ribs in it and a host of other specialties of the house. I came ahead of the pack to oversee things at Bourbon but had limited shots of the food prepared as they will be served hot. When the “hungry pack” arrived, out came the appetizers that by the looks of it were really appetizing. The Southwest Salad came in mini bread cups and consisted of citrus marinated beef, greens, tomato confit and roasted bell pepper with French vinaigrette. The Pink Salmon and Parmesan has towers of salmon