Welcoming 2020 with a "Grazing Table"-inspired Media Noche

Happy New Year 2020!

Not only a New Year but also a new decade as we start the 20s of the 3rd millenium!

So how was your Media Noche to welcome this new era?

Ours was just simple but with some Googling, it may have looked a little grander compared to our previous preparations.

It started with sausages I bought from Iloilo Supermart - 2pcs for around PhP 130, so I got 4 different variants.

I wanted to recreate a simple grazing table or maybe a cheeseboard to have something new this time compared to last Christmas' Noche Buena set up.

So I arranged them on a board together with some ham and Queso de Bola plus so breads from Tinapayan Bakeshop.

It was a good thing I got two loaves of French Bread despite the bulkiness of bringing it home.

It gave some flair to the experiment I did. It is basically just a sausage platter patterned after the cheeseboard or some grazing table set-up.

Assorted fruits just filled the void of the grapes and the literal spacea plus some biscuits and walnuts too - if you can see them.

With the highlight already in place, I just crowded the remaining food we had to give it a grazing table "look" despite the many containers of the table.

What used to be the highlight now played second fiddle as the ham platter was just in the shadows. But it was a good and tasty ham - Cares brand I from the grocery.

More goodies from Tinapayan include my favorite holiday baked good - Stollen bread and the equally yummy cheesebread plus some grocery bought wheat bread.

Special mention to another favorite of mine - cheese pimiento loaf. Completing my Tinapayan buys was the Junior Mango Cheesecake.

Speaking of fruits, I'm sure everybody had their 12 or 13 fruits to welcome the new year. Ours wa a combinations of citrus, pears, apples, melons and more.

If corn is considered a fruit then we might add another to our "basket". Made this sweet corn gelatine dessert after craving for some days ago after watching a Jell-O feature online.

With yellow gelatine plus cream-style corn, evaporated milk amd condensed milk topped with sweet corn kernels and cheese, it was more than cravings satisfied.

Added the popular Dacs kutsinta from Arevalo on the menu to have some native delicacy on the list.

As if all the carbo-loading above weren't enough, how about some Valenciana?

Or some Potato and Chicken Salad overloaded with pineapples.

How about some spaghetti with ham and sausages that could even pass as pizza because of the generous toppings.

For a soupy ending, the Pancit Molo is always a good and deliciois idea - no matter what the occasion is.

With soda, juices and wine to wash all these down to our tummies, it is indeed a simple and bountiful start for a prosperous new year and decade ahead of us.

Again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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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 cooking weed called Lupo

Lupo is a weed that is commonly found in ricefields and roadside in provinces. It is most prevalent in Ilonggo cooking compared to others as it is mostly the Ilonggos who can recognize lupo , though maybe called differently in other places. Most commonly used in laswa or monggo dishes to add greens like kamote tops, it also makes a good partner in sinabawan na isda recipes. It has hints of bitterness but don't expect it to be ampalaya-bitter like. It is mostly sold in wet local wet markets by the tumpok .

FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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