Four towns, four fiestas

It’s always a galore of gastronomic delights during fiestas and (last) September 10 proved to be a galore of fiestas too, in Iloilo. With four towns celebrating their annual revelries, one can actually get “lost in digestion” on this fateful day …

Bauhinia's version of tinuom nga manok

The municipality of Cabatuan pays homage to Saint Nicholas de Tolentino as it also celebrates its Tinu-om Festival. Tinu-om na manok - the town’s delicacy, is a native chicken soup spiced with tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, and lemon grass, wrapped in banana leaves.. Now you would now why its town plaza has that gigantic banana leaf …

Two towns away is Lambunao and pays homage to the same patron saint. A native dessert from this town is linidkid nga mais - a mix of shredded corn (pilit variety), coconuts and sugar. It is then wrapped in banana leaves then tied at the top like a pouch and steamed for around two hours. The effort made in making this delicacy s greatly rewarded with this delicious native treat.

Guimbal also celebrates its fiesta on Saint Nicholas de Tolentino’s feast day. Last year, the town bested 99 other towns across the country and was named as the first Kraft Eden Town. Its winning recipe is Pininyahang Manok with Cheese that gave the town national mileage on TV during the Keso de Gallo event last Dec. 16, 2010 and on boxes of Eden Cheese!

Ajuy celebrates Tambobo festival also on the same date. Tambobo is a Hiligaynon term for “a storehouse for agricultural products that are kept until a demand or need arises.” The festival is the presentation of the municipality’s incomparable and unequalled bliss of human, material and natural wealth – including the bounty from the sea!

Now mark the date, Sept. 10 so as to look forward to four big gastronomic adventures in Iloilo!

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 pork broth cube (

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 usu

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.

An Ilonggo favorite - Valenciana

Found in almost all occasions like fiesta, birthdays, reunions and others, Ilonggos really love valenciana because most if not all have grown accustomed of having it in special gatherings at home. A complete " go, grow and glow " dish because it has the carbohydrates, protein and vitamins and minerals in just one spoonful, Valenciana is really an " occasional dish ". Here's the recipe for Valenciana

An Ilonggo favorite - Suman Latik

Suman Latik is one of my favorite native delicacies - plain suman/ibos topped with sweetened coconut strips or bukayo . Most of the time those sold in the markets have this two (suman and bukayo) already in one wrap and all you have to to is devour it. But most of the time, the bukayo portion is bitin that I wish there's more. So why not make our own suman latik so you can have all the suman we want with all the bukayo toppings we desire! Here's a simple recipe for Suman Latik

FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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