Lamesa Grill Iloilo's Halo-halo All-you-can for only PhP 99

Lamesa Grill Iloilo welcomes the early arrival of summer (and it's only February) with the ultimate cooler - halo halo! And what better way to enjoy this colorful melange of sweetened fruits, beans and other ingredients than creating your own mix and going back for more!

Lamesa Grill's Halo-Halo Buffet brings in more than 30 ingredients you can mix and match plus enjoy to your hearts and appetite's delight. Happening daily from 2-5pm and for only PhP 99, one can enjoy the all the works for personalized halo halo.

Take you pick from sweetened fruits like langka, saba, ube and kamote to fresh mangoes, melon and buko to canned peaches, pineapple, avocados and lychees. There's also nata, sago and gelatin to give color and texture to your creations. Giving a crunch to your halo-halo are rice crispies, pinipig, corn flakes and peanuts. One can also find sweetened garbansos, red and white beans. Finally garnish it chocolate filled rolled wafers and marshmallows! You can opt to have a scoop of ice cream and a slice of leche flan as add-ons for only PhP15 each.

But as this is a buffet you won't probably stack all the ingredients into one small cup - there's still excitement in creating the best looking halo-halo if you're with a group. I made four different concoctions/designs of halo-halo yesterday as members of the Iloilo Bloggers Inc. were invited by Mr. Roy Betita, one of the owners/franchisees, to take part during the buffet's dry run.

What makes this kind of buffet good is that you can choose the ingredients you want, the flavours and the texture as well. You can opt for a halo halo that bursts with colors (if you into photography) or just tame ones like the "sapin-sapin" inspired yellow and purple concoction I made. In the end, it's all up to you - you're in gastronomic control! And lastly, I think I reached 4 cups of halo-halo since I didn't put any milk or sugar in them - just the ingredients and shaved ice.

Beat the heat with Lamesa Grill's Halo Halo Buffet and enjoy summer the coolest way possible - all you can eat halo halo!

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 (

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

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.

Batwan

Ilonggos know batwan or batuan by heart as the fruit is almost endemic to the Western Visayas. Its scientific name is Garcinia binucao, derived from the Tagalog name for the fruit, binukaw. It is a large green fruit with large seeds and its a favorite souring ingredient in most Ilonggo dishes especially KBL or kadyos, baboy, langka and the Ilonggo-style paksiw known as "pinamalhan". It is characterized by a tamed sourness compared to tamarind and kamias . The fruit is sold by pieces or kilo in wet markets and even big grocery stores. Batwan is the preferred souring ingredients for the Ilonggo favorite- KBL. The photo shows boiled batwan with skin and without skin (right) A favorite riddle when we were young - "Among the many fruits in the forest, but one (batuan) is the best. What is it?"

A cooking weed called Lupo

Lupo is a weed that is commonly found in ricefields and roadside in provinces. It is most prevalent in Ilonggo cooking compared to others as it is mostly the Ilonggos who can recognize lupo , though maybe called differently in other places. Most commonly used in laswa or monggo dishes to add greens like kamote tops, it also makes a good partner in sinabawan na isda recipes. It has hints of bitterness but don't expect it to be ampalaya-bitter like. It is mostly sold in wet local wet markets by the tumpok .

FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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