Sunday lunch at Pavia Seafood Place

At the crossroads of Iloilo city and the Iloilo airport, the town of Pavia is now fast developing not only in terms of residential-commercial-industrial but also in gastronomy. But for a small town that has no access to the sea, it seems to be unlikely to hold seafood restaurants. The past few years saw the mushrooming of this type food stops along the highway and yesterday during a birthday celebration I got to taste test the newest of them all - Pavia Seafood Place.

Big! That's how I see the place the many times I passed by the restaurant located in Brgy. Mali-ao. And big it is in the inside with native tables and benches that can accommodate more than a hundred. It's almost "al fresco" as walls are made with screen materials to to let the air and light in while the insects out (but they found other ways in -lol).

Adding a more native flair and a casual ambiance is the pebbled flooring and the turo-turo display where the "eats of the days" are there for the eyes to feast on. That time aside from the grilled specialties like locus (squid), bangus and pork chops they had saucy meat dishes and vegetables plus kinilaw na tangigue? and seaweeds. But what caught my attention was the delectable display of plated lechon - looks really appetizing compared to the ones display at Breakthrough (the last three time I was there) that looks like a day or two old.

Looking at the big menu board on top of the counter I noted their other specialties. It's a seafood galore just like the what its name promises - popular fishes like pantat, blue marlin, tangigue, managat and bulgan come either grilled or sinabawan (add adobado and with tausi for pantat Also coming in grilled, in soup or baked are shellfishes like diwal, scallops, nylon shells and oysters - the latter being reminding me of the famous baked talaba of Allan's Talabahan in Oton.
Completing the seafood galore are crabs, prawns and shrimps that are steamed or cooked sweet and spicy. They also have native litsong manok, crispy pata, kalderetang kambing, binakol na manok, beef bulalo, pork sisig and a lot more.

After all the rundown of the menu, I got a chance to talk to one of the persons in charge. Pavia Seafood House is just 3 months old and is owned by Eugene Chan (of the Kusina Tsina). So that explains the more professional service orientation and food that basically is quite at part with the other seafood restaurants. In the course of the casual talk, my eyes fell on a sort of out-of-this-world item on the menu - Starbucks brewed coffee. A what! (lol)

They also have a live seafood display - pantat and crabs, that time. An airconditioned area that can seat around 40, or so, can also be found within the restaurant for meetings or for big groups. As the place is just new, it was not full that time but from patrons kept coming in and out while we were there. Cabanas lined the outside for a more alfresco dining experience.

All in all, that Sunday birthday party lunch left a good first impression - the place, the ambiance and the food (I'll have a separate blog entry for this). And surely Pavia Seafood House will become a foodie pitstop as soon as this place picks up more and more patrons.

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An Ilonggo favorite - Valenciana

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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...

Takway

The gabi (taro) is just one of those plants which is edible from "roots to tops". The most popular of which is the tuber part which is used in a variety of dishes and mostly in combination with coconut milk. Its leaves, of course, is the main ingredient of a Bicol specialty, laing . It is dried then chopped and sauteed with other ingredients including, again, coconut milk. Then there is takway . The local term for its tendrils/runner, that part which is torn between being a stem or a root for it neither grows upwards nor downwards - it grows sideways . Scraped off of its outer skin, takway is often a key ingredient in vegetable dishes like laswa and the gabi tuber with coconut milk and local snails know as bago-ngon . It is also popular when cooked adobo style with guinamos , the local bago-ong . It is very popular in the region that even big supermarkets sell takway in style - cleaned and plastic wrapped in styro with some additions to make it easier to prepare. ...

FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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