Roberto's Queen sio pao

It’s been a while since I featured (read gorged on) Iloilo's most popular Chinese bun - Roberto’s Queen sio pao. Aside from being unavailable most of the time (I think it’s now every two weeks rather than monthly), the restaurant is out of my usual way.

Priced at PhP105 and though the size isn’t that overwhelming as before yet still big compared to other sio paos in the city.

It was still hot when I got it from “Roberta” before (he's Clauds by the way, RIP 🕯) and around two hours later with some rainy escapade, I was surprised to sense it warmth when I got home.

Aside from what’s inside, I really like the bun of Roberto’s sio pao. With a hint of gumminess yet soft to each bite, it greatly complements the filling.

Though I got a rather one sides sio pao with the filling almost bursting out the bottom part while the top was all bun.

But it’s one of the more photogenic ones I had so far – I halved it perfectly with without much damage to the hardboiled egg and just right to have a big chunk of bacon on one side.

One can actually see big pieces of pork adobo and some shreds of chicken adobo.Though, it sort of disappeared but the flavour of the Chinese sausage was evident on some portions. It sort of became a mess when I finally gorged on it but it was a mess I am not mindful of.

Though my main reason is to have a better photo of Roberto’s Queen sio pao inside out, it was still all about how big, how delectable and how gastronomically influential it was. For as what it said on the plastic bag … Roberto’s is comfort food since 1978.

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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. ...

FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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