The Ilonggo Christmas tradition continues – Tinapayan’s Gingerbread Village

Tinapayan Bakeshop always delights Ilonggos, young and old, with its annual grand Gingerbread Village display at The Atrium. The Display which was put up weeks ago is located at the main entrance and will run until January 2012.

"It's in our childlike nature, I guess, that led me to start the Gingerbread Village," says Evelyn “Owa” Que, manager of Tinapayan." It's like your dream of being somewhere - in a dreamland, living in a different pole."

Tinapayan's Gingerbread Village is both an animated and gastronomic display as aside from the gingerbread houses that makes the village; it has movable displays like human figurines, carnival attractions and more. The highlight of the display is a train that regularly runs around the village to the delight of the onlookers.

It takes a long time for the Gingerbread Village to take shape. “You have to color flow it and paint it with Royal icing” says Ms. Owa. “The most difficult part is making the base, which is made of gingerbread cookies - it's fast to bake, but takes three weeks to toast” Que said.

As early as August, the pattern for the village is made and baking starts by October and by the last week of November, the village must already be on display. The first village spanned only one table but even then, the village was a sight to behold. Gingerbread was invented in Drayton in Shropshire, England. It is a sweet that can take the form of a cake or a cookie where the predominant flavor is ginger and once hardened, it can last for years.

A great display for the season and even better if you can take home a gingerbread house to add flair to your home. You can even put a light inside the gingerbread house, making it an added Christmas treat at home. These gingerbread houses which are on sale for Php895 only at Tinapayan Bakeshop.

Acknowledgement: Some portions of this write up were sourced from article written by Ms Kathy Villalon for The News Today

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

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 por...

A native delicacy called Inday-inday

Now you may ask, what is Inday-Inday ? It's another repetitive-feminine named native delicacy that is made from rice like its more popular sister - baye-baye . While the latter is has its own original flavor and make, inday-inday is actually a combination of two well loved native delicacies - muasi ( palitaw ) and bukayo . But the muasi portion is not the the usual palitaw recipe for the it's more firm and gummy (I don't know the English term for kid-ol ). Actually its more like a hardened kutsinta and this makes it more to my liking since I'm not really fond of muasi in the first place. And its not quite easy to find inday-inday in the market today, though I've seen and tried it in Sabor Ilonggo stalls but their's is more like suman latik for the based is ibos -like. Ibos is malagkit rice boiled in gata which is called suman in Tagalog. Despite the uncertainty for its nomenclature (I've read that inday-inday is just plain pal...

Muasi

A confession to start this blogpost - I consider MUASI as one of my hated native delicacies given its bland taste even with the sugar dip. But that was back during my childhood days. Maybe be because I may have used less sugar or might have completely forgotten to "dip" it at all. Yet nowadays, I have learned to appreciate it especially when its freshly cooked with the muscovado teeming the aroma of roasted sesame seeds. So let's make some MUASI

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

Search This Blog