A Dinagyang lunch at Roberto's

As the Dinagyang Festival is also the "fiesta" of the City Proper district of Iloilo City, it has been a tradition for most residents to have a feast in their homes despite the abundance of food in the city. And I was part of one of these fiesta's the Dinagyang Sunday of 2012. Together with the awesome couple Anton Diaz (Our Awesome Planet) and wife Rachelle, we snaked our way through the crowd and found ourselves in a more crowded place - Roberto's Restaurant.

During regular days, Roberto's is already crowded so given this is one very hectic day for the Ilonggos, the crowded never thinned out. With their famous Queen sio pao selling like "hotcakes" plus their other specialties like meatballs, pancit bihon, hamburger and a lot more, the Ilonggos still favor the homegrown taste of Roberto's.

But we went further up the building and joined in the fiesta fare prepared by the family of Claudes, that guy you'd often see manning the cashier's booth and often heard shouting "Isa pa ka Reyna" - referring to an order of Queen sio pao. It was my first time to be in this part of the Roberto's for usually I just have some take outs. It was two flights of stairs before we reached where the gastronomy was and it was already teeming with people - mostly acquaintances.

So we wasted no time digging in the fiesta fare which included lechon, chicken inasal, beef stew, caldereta, chopsuey and pancit canton, among others. I can't help but long for meatballs, bihon and camaron rebosado for these are among the popular food items at Roberto's. It was just a quick lunch but satisfying for there were a lot more friend lining up the stairs down below plus we had a lot to discover in the streets - from food and stuff to interesting people and places along the way.

After all it's Dinagyang, the biggest street party in Iloilo and it comes only once a year so we had to make the most part of it. And for Anton and Rachelle, it was their first time to join and celebrate Dinagyang so it was also a time for them to discover the things Iloilo has to offer especially during this big celebration. Hala Bira!

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

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