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 (

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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