Dishing up vegetarian specialties at Bauhinia Filipino Cuisine

As Iloilo City is positioning itself as the "City of Wellness and Healthy Lifestyle", Bauhinia Filipino Cuisine dishes up vegetarian dishes as a support tho this thrust. A collection of old favorites, best-sellers and new fusion dishes, these 12 dishes make a complete meal as they come as soup, appetizers, main course and dessert. Let's discover the "vegetarian" inside us with these sumptuous creations.

To start out our vegetarian gastronomic tour, how about this Kinilaw Quatro. A 4-1 appetizer plate consisting of Bauhinia's best love kinilaw dishes.

There's Kinilaw nga Seaweed and Kinilaw nga Amargoso (Ampalaya/Bitter Gourd)

Add to that Kinilaw nga Rabanos (radish) and Kinilaw nga Talong (eggplant)

Whetting our appetites more is Ensalada ng Langka kag Puso ng Saging. This salad is a spicy-creamy concoction of jackfruit and banana heart embraced by vinegar and coconut cream spiced up by chilis.

Tickling our tastebuds is La Pinay Salad, a medley of Mesclun salad, grilled eggplant, roasted bell peppers and cashew praline in spicy balsamic dressing

Be sure to make some room for Lumpiang Ubod!

A colorful mix of fresh and organic vegetables makes one of the most popular Ilonggo dish - Laswa. Part of Bauhinia's Ilonggo menu selection, this comes without the seafood making it perfect for vegetarians.

Here's Linatik nga Kalabasa on a bed of young shoots/leaves of squash vine. Another popular Ilonggo dish also known as Nilatik or Linutik, it's basically a mash of squash cooked with moringa/malunggay leaves and if not for the vegetarians, it is flavored with dried and salted fish.

How about some Relleno nga Amargoso? Filipinized as relyeno, it a cooking style that stuffs something into another. Most popular in the Philippines is Relyeno na Bangus, that is a staple at home during the Holy Week. Now, a mix of seasoned mung bean sprouts, chayote and carrots fills in blanched ampalaya tubes which makes this dish a bitter, I mean better presented dish.

Now here's something almost in the boundary of extraordinary - Pinaksiw nga Sab-a nga Saging sa Labog. Now where to start? Paksiw is a cooking method that mainly uses vinegar and spices - and mainly used for fish preparations. Labog is known as roselle, a vine that produces a deep violet "bud" and is mainly used in cooking some Ilonggo specialties especially those involving native chicken. And using saging nga sab-a, completes this curios dish as this banana variery complements pork dishes like pochero, estofado and more. But for this dish, its actually the main ingredient - a play of sweet and sour!

A more familiar dish is Kare-Kare and here's the "Vegan" version - eggplant, string beans, banana heart, and pechay in a savoury peanut sauce.

Vegetable Fritters for those who craved for something crispy - eggplant, carrot, okra, sayote and more. - Comes with three delightful sauces - seasoned tomato, a turmeric-based one and I forgot the other.

To end the main course with a bang- here's a Vegetable Stew that reminds me of Caldereta. In fact, it looks and tastes like caldereta just without the meat.

Our food tasting ended on a sweet note with the Fried Kamote Chips in Sugar with Latik. A fitting finale and on of the more popular items served that day.

To make it a completely healthy lunch, we opted for Bauhinia's Lemongrass based drinks. Here's a literally cool version of the drink I call Lemondgrade - for lemon grass ade.

But with my sorethroat still haunting me, I opted for the hot version of lemongrass drink which came with honey. And I really loved it!

Now, Ilonggos, whether vegetarians or not, have the options to go healthy as Bauhinia Filipino Cuisine dishes up these delicious dishes that will suit a herbivore's lifestyle!

(Bauhinia Filipino Cuisine is located at The Avenue Complex, Glicerio Pison Avenue, Smallville Mandurriao, Iloilo City. For reservations, call Bauhinia at (033) 329-6951)

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