FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Another simple Century Tuna recipe that will surely set your palates on fire and the best of it all, it's no cook! Inspired by my previous experiment , this one's actually faster to prepare and using tuna, it's a lot healthier. Using everybody's favorite Century Tuna Flakes in Vegetable Oil (Hot and Spicy) , I just mix chopped bottled kimchi with a can of tuna (including the oil - it's the one giving the kick) with rice with a squeeze of calamansi. For blog photo purposes, the bigger chunks of tuna plus shredded kimchi were used to garnish the solid concoction to give more visual appeal at the same time providing some bite to it. And the one on the plate is just half of what I prepared. Now definitely this ain't gonna be the time I will prepare this newly concluded experiment of mine, for it doesn't only look good, it really tastes good! Mashita! That's delicious in Korean, now I know !

I found myself preparing my very own bowl of Extra Super Lapaz batchoy (with egg) in the busy kitchen of Ted’s Oldtimer along Diversion Road. Together with the able kitchen staff, I did not only learn the assembly but also discovered a lot from my experience inside the most popular batchoyan in town. Place 130 grams of miki noodles in a bowl. Add a helping pork strips. Place 6 slices of pork intestines Add 4 slices of pork liver. Sprinkle a tablespoon of chicharon. Add a teaspoon of fried garlic. Sprinkle a teaspoon of onion chives. Pour in pork caldo. Crack fresh egg. Serve and enjoy with puto or pan de sal. Burp!

With only a handful of places where Thai cuisine can be appreciated by Ilonggos, Days Hotel Iloilo dishes up with its own take on this world famous and popular Asian cuisine. Before, Thai foods appeared in some of the hotel’s buffet selection like Flavors of Asia but this time it’s all about “ Amazing Thailand ” and it’s wonderful cuisine. The buffet will become the staple offering every Monday (starting June 27) at The Promenade and I had a taste of what’s to come last Thursday during a special lunch “preview”. The rainy weather proved to be somewhat a good backdrop as I prepared my palate for a hot, hot, hot gastronomic and cultural appreciation. But as explained by Days Hotel General Manager, J Scott Sarria, the “spice” of their buffet was made to attune with the local taste but still with authenticity. That means dishes are not as hot and spicy as one would expect in Thailand but one can intensify it as sauces, dips and spices abound on the buffet table. As usual, I started wit...

Now I'm back to my (un)usual food experimenting self. Without much thought, I just mixed bottled kimchi, left over lechon and pork adobo, added some tomato catsup and got this very appetizing mix of rice, meat and vegetables. I just "chopped" the kimchi a bit to have little strips of this Korean delicacy easy to eat. Both the lechon and pork adobo were also "stripped" to have a continuous eating experience - no need to cut, slice or wrestle with it. But I guess secret of having this appetizing mix is I mix them all with bare hands that each flavour easily infused and gave me something new to experiment more on next time.  Namit! Masarap! Now how'd you say delicious in Korean?

Filipinos love "sawsawan". Aside from enhancing the flavours of the foods dipped in it, most sprinkle this on top of rice to have a more appetizing time at the table. So what's my favorite sawsawan? It has to be calamansi based. I grew up dipping fried foods in calamansi-soy sauce mix that I had most of the time. Then I became sort of adventurous then that I placed siling labuyo (known as kutitot in local dialect) that it spiced up my foodie adventures. But now I'm trying to minimize my soy sauce intake that the calamansi-sili mix is already a good appetite enhancer. But a friend introduced me to a very weird combo - by adding banana ketchup to this mix! Weird but i suggest you try it for grilled pork chops and you'll ask for more. In fact this was supposed to be but there wasn't any banana ketchup left - lol. So what's your favorite sawsawan?

Tinapayan Bakeshop is my favorite bakery in Iloilo City. Most, if not all, of their products are (very) good and worth the price you pay. Not to mention they are attractively presented and packaged too doubling as a pasalubong treat. One of my favorite breads at Tinapayan is ensaymada - both ube and cheese! I always buy them in tandem or none at all. What I like most about them aside from the rich sugar-butter topping plus either cheese or ube, is that quality of the bread plus the ube (and cheese) "extends" inside the bread. Most of the time it's the regular ensayamda ( monggo ) that is filled but not these "sosyal" type for obviously this adds to the price of the ensayamada. That explains that each of these ensaymada costs PhP22 but it's worth it. Enjoy these ube and cheese ensaimada from Tinapayan Bakeshop "up close and gastronomical".

Attuned with chicken inasal and Lapaz batchoy, Ilonggos would give any restaurant serving a cuisine this foreign. a curious second look. Much more, if items on the menu read tzatziki, falafel, baklava, kofta and moussaka, an order would be likely as hard as these items would be pronounced. But this didn’t stop renowned chef Mervyn Whitfield from bringing this cuisine into the mainstream Ilonggo culinary scene. Stavros’ Kebab and Mediterranean House gives Ilonggos a journey across cultures through the palate as it brings whole world of cuisine just in a single setting. With a casual dining ambiance, Ilonggos are lucky to have this cuisine readily available at an affordable price. Assorted kebabs A Greek word for cross, Stavros’ presents itself at the crossroads of different food traditions and gastronomic cultures of the Mediterranean. It brings in specialties from this part of the world that is relatively new to the Iloilo dining scene. “Most of our ingredients are imported to give the...

Hotel Del Rio honors that special man in our lives this Father's day. As we serenade our Dads with the Best Hit Music from "THE QUERDAZ", enjoy a hearty buffet dinner we prepared just for you. Start with our specials soups Sopa de Ajo (onion soup) and Pancit Molo. Our Appetizer Station includes American Vegetable Rolls, Fish Bites, Beefy Nachos and Maki Roll. Enjoy our Salads selection of Mixed Green Salad, Salad Charlotte and Chicken Pop Salad. Our main buffet consists of Fish au Gratin, Paella, Spanish Beef Stew, Chicken with Orange & Herbs and Ox tongue with mushroom sauce plus Steamed Rice and Risotto Nero. We also have a Roast Beef Station, TexMex station and a Pasta corner. And finally enjoy our dessert line up of Mango cream Pie, Chocolate Confetti, Sylvannas, Pineapple Tartlets, White Salad, Rocky Road Float, and Fresh Fruits in Basket plus our crepe station. On top of it all, you might win some special treats! And your next stay might be on us! Express a hear...

Sarap-to-the-bones fried chicken goes full-throttle this June as Max’s Restaurant announces the much-awaited Chicken-All-You-Can Promotion 2011. It’s time to work up the biggest appetite and make a beeline once again to the nearest Max’s Restaurant for an unlimited serving of the Filipino’s favorite home-cooked fried chicken, from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm daily. For only PhP 199, customers can bite into their favorite Max’s fried chicken, matched with an ice-cold glass of any Pepsi softdrink that can be upgraded to bottomless drink for only PhP28. Diners can also watch out for a show-stopping promo activation performance by Max’s employees every 6:00 pm daily to signal the start of the promo. As an added treat to its customers, Max’s is also giving away free PhP 20 money coupons for every PhP200 spent during the Chicken-All-You-Can promotion. A maximum of three accumulated coupons per transaction may be used to “purchase” any Max’s products within a year after issuance. “Chicke...

From afar, I thought it was a new product but upon closer inspection – it was a revelation of the new pack of Rgies yema. A complete turn around from its previous one, the new packaging combines a sleek look and feel and can surely compete with the big players in the industry. But what’s inside is still the main of gastronomical event – a bite of the savory, sweet, and chewy candy coated in crystallized sugar. Still retaining the original packaging and the same sweet taste Ilonggos loved since then. As we are all familiar with the line – looks good, tastes even better. Grab one now and share in agreement with two thumbs up!

A constant source of wonderment and amusement among Ilonggos is the literally named Coffee Shop Under the Bridge, an “accidental venture” of businessman Lando Layson. Layson, 66, is fondly called by local media “Ambassador of River Development” because of his effort to develop the boulevard and keep the river clean. “This is the world’s most expensive coffee shop; the roof is about P10 million,” says Layson, pointing at the Carpenter’s Bridge. He is one of the first to initiate the Healthy Lifestyle Partnership Association in December 2009 when the boulevard had its soft opening. He was also instrumental in having vehicles banned from using the road. From a membership of 15, the association now has 400 card-bearing members. It does not collect any membership fee but has a commitment to regular exercise and healthy lifestyle, as well as keeping the boulevard clean.Layson, who starts his day with taebo exercises at 5:30 a.m., has asked permission from the DPWH to put a landfill on the sm...

There are a million easy reasons why a business remains on the top. Whatever those reasons are, one thing is sure: a successful business gives something back. Waffle Time Inc. recently held a tree planting activity last June 4, 2011 at the coastal area of Brgy. San Fernando, Barotac Viejo geared towards mangrove reforestation in the area. Around 63 Waffle Time management personnel participated in the supplemental enrichment activity, planting around 1,000 mangroves in the area. A day earlier, company personnel participated in a seminar/orientation conducted by Dr. Rex Sadaba, a mangrove expert from the University of the Philippines Visayas.With the assistance of Dr. Sadaba, the tree planting was a successful one. The company realizes the ecological importance of mangrove biodiversity and conservation and its long-term environmental and even economic effects. Mangrove ecosystems sustain diverse flora and fauna species in large proportion and provide many ecosystem services such as coas...

Marina Seafoods is among Iloilo's most popular restaurant and among the pioneer nightspots along the stretch of Diversion Road in Iloilo City. It's already an icon in this part of the country even before most people associated the name as Claudine Baretto's role (as a mermaid named Marina) in a TV series of the same title. Incidentally, Claudine herself is an Ilongga. Today, this restaurant is among Iloilo City's "exports" as Marina brings Ilonggo cuisine within reach to Ilonggos and non-Ilonggos alike in other parts of the country especially in Metro Manila. Slowly but surely, it expanded as a full scale restaurant in some of the hippest locations in the Metro like in Glorietta in Makati and SkyGarden at SM North EDSA to name a few.But mostly, one gets the more authentic feel and taste of authentic cuisine when it is served in a no nonsense manner. Like this one at the food court of Market, Market at The Fort. It is in such manner that one appreciates more ho...