I was at SM City Iloilo yesterday to take part in one of the side activities for the annual Fiestas in the City event of the Department of Tourism Region 6 with the cooperation of both the Province and City Tourism Offices. Opened last Monday and will run through the weekend, the event showcases the merry month of May and how it is celebrated all throughout the city and province of Iloilo - festivals, fiestas, festivals queens, Santacruzan and of course gastronomy.
To a hungry crowd of onlookers, Chef Red Zamora - a one-time contest of Kitchen Superstar over at GMA 7 hosted by Marvin Agustin and developed some of the menu of Book Latte, shared his version of KBL. To most Ilonggos, kadyos-baboy-langka is among the ultimate Ilonggos cuisine and served on fiestas and other events. Chef Red shared the recipe he got from Miag-ao and together with culinary students from John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime University, it was one afternoon filled gastronomy.
Using rice washing (water used to wash rice) as based for the broth, Chef Red boiled the kadyos beans, unripe langka (jackfruit), batwan and the oven baked pork belly. At home, our KBL recipe always call for the pork to be grilled for the aroma and flavour of the "sinugba nga baboy" seeps into the soup giving it a dimension on taste. To add more flavour, he sauteed some guinamos and added it to the boiling pot.
Presentation is the key and Chef Red did a very appetizingly presented KBL that even from above, one will surely salivate looking at the finished product. Indeed, this combination of pork, jackfruit, beans endemic to the region plus a souring ingredient (batwan) that is also an "indigenous" to the region makes KBL one of the most sought after Ilonggos dishes.