Misa de Gallo Breakfast buffet at Days Hotel Iloilo

A few hours ago, Filipinos marked the start of the nine-day ritual known as Simbang Gabi. And attuned to this tradition, Days Hotel Iloilo concocted a special breakfast buffet to give Ilonggo early morning mass goers a gastronomic upstart for ten days - Misa de Gallo Breakfast Buffet.

Starting 5am today until Christmas Day, The Promenade at Days Hotel Iloilo served a one of a kind breakfast buffet that goes well with the Filipino Christmas mass tradition. It merged their well-loved Daybreak Buffet (the most popular in town) with the best native Ilonggo delicacies to reflect the traditional Simbang Gabi gastronomy.

So when I arrived at the hotel the first thing that caught my attention was the display of native delicacies. They had ibos with muscovado sugar, suman with coconut topping, suman latik with yummy sweetend coconut topping (above), a sort of kutsinta ltopped with cheese and puto manapla. But it was the cassava cake that got a two thumbs up as it was soft, creamy and melts in your mouth - in short it was delicious. It was dessert that started my day at Days...

Checking out the other line up in the buffet, I chanced upon puto manapla served "hand in hand" with croissants. This is was the literal merge I was talking about.

And on we go to the breakfast staple and there were assorted cereals which you can combine with milk, chocolate drink, and yoghurt (both plain and fruit). I took a liberal amount of yoghurt - just the youghurt and enjoyed it.

There was also a make you own congee set up where guests can concoct their own mix given "hot and piping" congee to be mixed with hardboiled egg, century egg, chives,fried garlic, small dilis and fish sauce. Here's what my fellow food blogger Greg of Cafe Ilonggo blog made out of the set-up - a simple mix of egg, garlic and balingon. So how did it taste Greg?

To the salad bar I went next which had sorts of vegetables and fruits, some grown in an organic farm in Pavia.

As always, I made my favorite salad - a combination of cucumber, singkamas (jicama), pineapple bits and tons of thousand island dressing. Just looking at this photo, I can still remember how appetizingly delicious the combo which I had been making eversince.

Right beside is my favorite station - the grill station. On other days, it hosts US roast beef, assorted fish and meat barbecue among others but that time it had bacon, ham and chicken sausage.

There also was a make your own omeler - just tell the server which ingredients you'd to be part of your omelet and they will cook and serve it at your table.

So while waiting I dropped by the main course set-up and found these beef tapa though my photo makes it look more like a tocino. And I just love how they put lots of onions as garnish (I was so excited that I got the onions before I took this photo).

There was Chicken Adobo becking beside me and as I have tasted it, I owuld say "sauce pa lang ulam na". I promised not to eat any rice but this adobo made me broke my promise.

Smelling good from afar were these friend daing na bangus which I took with vinegar as dip..

There was Pancit Canton which utilized noodles usually used for pancit Lug-lug or Malabon.

For those who prefer some forms of carbohydrates, there's a pile of pancakes for them to enjoy.

And some cold cuts to go with it - ham and salami, just take you pick.

Our humongous order of bacon came and it looked delectable as if it one can finsih it all alone. I learned thatthis bacon is locally sourced and is of the lean type variety. Minimal amount of fat on each strip and got some word that the representative of Iloilo City's lone district just adore this lean bacon.

Mini muffins plus fresh pineapples and watermelon plus another round of native delicacies capped the first Misa de Gallo Buffet. But there are still 9 days more to go and as each day has its own to offer, so as this breakfast buffet at The Promenade at Days Hotel Iloilo.

Check out more photos Flavours of Iloilo on Facebook.

Misa de Gallo Breakfast Buffet

5am-10am at The Promenade. Days Hotel Iloilo

4th Level, The Atrium

Gen. Luna Street, Iloilo City.

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 (

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.

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

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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