One of the more interesting dishes served during our food tasting session at Punot Restaurant, a week ago was Pasta Dinagyang. It was most striking as the penne pasta was unlike the usual - it was black and aptly named for Iloilo City's most distinguished festival - Dinagyang. The pasta is blackened by squid ink which forms part of the sauce and topped by mixed seafood and parmesan cheese. Now, Dinagyang can be celebrated all year round, gastronomically that is - only at Punot.
I was in Davao City exactly this day a year ago, to be part of Unilever Food Solutions' Sooo Pinoy Food Trip . The goal of the Food Trip is to show that Filipino dishes per region have different identities based on the culture, lifestyle and history of the area. The Food Trip also aims to show that there are many Filipino recipes from different regions of the Philippines, each having its own specialty that has to be recognized for the unique flavor it adds to the Filipino Cuisine. Lots of goodies at Lola Abon's As our eatinerary for the day begins late in the morning, we made use of the spare time doing our pasalubong shopping at Lola Abon’s. Among the most popular durian candy makers in Davao, this business started in 1948 when Abondia del Puerto Raakin made some pastillas de leche. When her sukis suggested putting some flavour to them, she thought of durian being abundant in Davao, thus the durian candy making business was born. In no time at all I filled my basket w...

