Seafood galore with a dash of football

A plate of mouth watering shrimps and more bounty from the sea welcomed us at Cabugao Seafoods House in Pavia, last weekend. The hearty lunch came after we witnessed the 2nd Globe Football Para sa Bayan ceremonies held in Santa Barbara, Iloilo.

Globe Football Para Sa Bayan is a grassroots program for the youth from underprivileged communities and serves as an inclusive platform for socially advantaged and less advantaged teams to interact and work together. It is a year-round football campaign of the giant telecommunications company to bring the program around the country to impact nation-building in a big way. Football is just the first step in Globe sports advocacy as the company continues to develop various sports programs for its CSR communities.

With more than 1000 participants from various football clubs across the island of Panay, the two-day event was led by Globe Sports Ambassador and Ilonggo National Football Team player "Azkal" Chieffy Caligdong. It is the second time for Globe to conduct the sports activity in Iloilo (last year it was held in Barotac Nuevo) and it followed the Metro Manila kick off last month. Earlier, Caligdong also conducted a football clinic for 40 students of Hacienda Conchita Elementary School in San Dionisio, Iloilo as part of Globe's Classroom on the Go project.

Now on the gastronomic side, Cabugao Seafoods House is among the most popular restaurants dotting the highway leading to the Iloilo International Airport. It was among the first to set-up a food business and now the most successful - with an expansion and two more branches in Iloilo (another one is just around 3 kilometers and the other in Oton, Iloilo).

So we had this yummy kinilaw na isda and their specialty, adobado (adobo with coconut milk) nga alimusan

The shrimps make a comeback - cooked in Sprite and tanged with calamansi.

Here's their sizzling seasfood mix - squid, green shells,, shrimps and veggies in a yummy curry-like concoction.

But if you're not a fan of seasfood or has some allergy considerations, don't fret for they also have meat dishes like crispy pata an native litsong manok, to name a few.

All's well that ends well. And these football heroes simply just agree!

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 native (foods) welcome in Guimaras

Even after having breakfast less than an hour that time, we couldn't say no to this lot of native delciacies that welcomed us in Guimaras. First and foremost, Guimaras best known produce is their sweet mango famous almost worldwide. And it comes with it's best partner, ibos. This brown baye-baye variety is made from toasted rice thus giving it a more disctinct flavour compared to it's more "caucasian" cousin. I like the one wrapped in banana leaves compared with the one in plastic for it gives it a more native feel. So when you're in Guimaras, be sure to check out the markets for these native delicacies that can make your trip more gastronomically satisfying.

FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Search This Blog