FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Paksiw nga Pata (pork hocks) is almost like cooking adobo but at home it has hints of estofado . No, it doesn't have fried saba or pineapples but it is sauce tends to be sweeter almost bordering on the taste of the latter. Making pinaksiw nga pata is simple but tends to have a slow cooking time - to make the pork hocks tender, almost melt-in-the-mouth, so to speak. It calls for stewing pork hocks in a concoction of water, vinegar, garlic, pepper, bay leaves, brown sugar, ginger and a little soy sauce.  When tender and the sauce seems to be "gelatinous" and sticky, just make a few tweaks on the final taste of the dish. Adding banana blossoms completes the dish. Extra rice, please! Click for the FULL RECIPE >>>  PAKSIW NGA PATA 

Buko Pandan is among the most popular Pinoy desserts and easiest to make. Its just a combination of young coconut strips called buko , gelatin cubes with the essence of pandan and a creamy concoction made with milk and cream. It has made quite an impact to the Philippine dessert scene in the last 10-15 years that competing with halo-halo . From a home-made specialty, buko-pandan has invaded the likes of fastfood joints, restaurants and even hotels. The preparation of a basic Buko-Pandan recipe is mainly on the making if the pandan-based gelatin. The recipe varies from household to househol and from restaurants to another. But in the end, it just boils into a green gelatin cubes with pandan (and/or buko essence). Here's a simple recipe for Gelatin with Buko-Pandan essence: Ingredients: 2 sticks agar agar / gelatin (preferably green but white will do, just add green food color) 2 cups young coconut juice 1 cup sugar 5 pieces pandan leaves or drops of...

One of my fondest memories of having to tag along during a Sunday "marketing" chore is seeing piles of kalamay nga pula  sold in the town's market. It really excites me to see this brown mound, most especially  if it has much bitog-bitog .  As the transaction goes on, I'd sneak around and pocket as many as I could. So even if we didn't buy any sugar at all or how long the whole panindahan takes place, at least there's something to keep me busy along the way. On the downside, most of the time I'd forget about this when we come home and I just remember it when the ants feast on the remains of the days - LOL

On most Filipino occasions, aside from lechon baboy, a pancit dish would always be present. Be it bihon, sotanghon, canton or combinations like bam-i (sotanghon and canton); it is always on the handa-an table. And like many Filipino dishes, the pancit recipe varies from household to household much more in different restaurants and food place. Here's a basic recipe for a Pancit Canton Guisado where you can tweak using more or less ingredients of your choice. Ingredients Pancit ( dried noodles or fresh meke ) Vegetables ( strips of cabbage, thin strips of carrots, sliced sayote, onion leaves, etc ) Meat and Seafood ( squid, shelled shrimps,  fishballs, kikiam, pork,etc   ) Others ( sliced onion, crushed garlic,  oil, salt, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, calamansi, water,  "shrimp broth" - crushed shrimps shells soaked in water then strained ) Procedure In a large heated pan, place cooking oil and when hot enough...

A bibingka so filled with coconut strips that I call the bingka from Mohon -  bingkang bukayo. It is always a treat to savor every bite of this famous bingka from Mohon. Each mouthful is teeming with strips of coconut that would put other bingkas to “shame” in terms of coconut meat filling.  They sell bingka by the box (PhP50) and by the paper bag (PhP20/8pcs) and both have the same delectable goodness of the famed bingka from Arevalo. The only downside is that they only make their bingka on Fridays until Mondays. And if you’re not fortunate enough, you’ll find yourself with none for most are already out by noon time – they don’t usually make a very big batch. But you can make reservations for pick-up; just contact them through 0919-572-2581. Yet be really sure of your reservations because sometimes, even those can be “sold out”. Read more about Bingka from Mohon .

Sinigang is a very popular Filipino sour soup dish and there are a hundred and one ways of making sinigang . From pork, beef and chicken to seafood like fish and shrimps and the "gourmet" or stylized sinigang like sinigang na lechon , lechon kawali , fried salmon and many more. And as many variants there are, there are also a number of ways of souring sinigang. The most popular is using tamarind - either leaves, fruit or the easy way ready to use sampaloc  broth cubes or mixes.  One of the best  pork sinigang for me is one that makes use of gabi (or taro) to make the broth richer and more malinamnam . You can do this the original way (use gabi and rice washing) or just a store-bought sampaloc mix for a delicious  sinigang na baboy . (Warning: I love having a vegetable-overloaded pork sinigang) Ingredients 1 kilo Pork/pork ribs, cut into bite-size chunks 4 tomatoes, quartered 3 medium sized onions, halved 4 pieces gabi (ta...