FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Puto Bumbong is very synonymous with the  Pinoy Christmas as it is part of the Holiday gastronomic scene especially during 9-day early morning mass called Simbang Gabi . Characterized by it's purple hue because of its quintessential partner - ube or purple yam. Its named as such because of the usage of bamboo as steaming "vessel" for the native delicacy. Placed on banana leaves, it is then topped sugar, shredded coconut, margarine and even cheese. But you can cook puto bumbong even without the bumbong or bamboo tubes. Here's a simple recipe that could start your gastronomic love affair with the native delicacy the Filipino Christmas gastronomic scene is made of. Ingredients Puto 2 cups boiled and mashed Ube (Purple Yam) 1 cup Gata (Coconut Milk) 1 1/2 cup  Malagkit (Glutinous Rice)  flour Salt Water Banana leaves Toppings Shredded niyog (mature coconut) Margarine Brown sugar (muscovado is also good) Cheese ...

A visually enticing and mouth-watering collection of Pinoy appetizers makes up this bilao full of favorites. Making one in you own home is just easy as collecting and making these individually and then arranging them to make an appetizer centerpiece. There's steamed okra , atsara , piniritong talong , steamed kamote tops, itlog na maalat (which you can also make as a salted egg sauce ),  fresh tomatoes and onions, sweet and spicy dilis , bago-ong (either fresh or guisado ) and lato or seagrapes which you can serve fresh or salad . You can mix and match a variety of appetizers, taking into consideration its flavors at the same time colors to make it appeal more and yes - visually and gastronomically appetizing! Click the links below for the recipes: Papaya Atsara  Salted Egg Sauce Guisadong Bago-ing Alamang Lato Salad Sweet Spicy Dilis  

Among the many reinventions of the fruit salad, one of the most interesting I find is the addition of sago as base or "extender". Though the latter may sound "negative", but once you've seen and tasted this new take on a fruit salad, you'll be asking for more! Tapioca (or sago) is an essential ingredient of native delicacies and desserts like  linugaw  and taho.  But now it has found its way to more "modern" desserts like puddings and salads. With the availability of cooked "sago pearls" in the market and in different size, making these desserts is just simple and easy. Here's a recipe for Creamy Sago and Fruits Salad

What is a hole-in-the-wall business concept? According to Collins Dictionary, a "hole-in-the-wall business is a business, especially a restaurant, that operates from very small premises." The pandemic has brought about new opportunities that are more beneficial to both businesses and consumers. The hole-in-the-wall concept is one of these. Most hole-in-the-wall food businesses are found in small neighborhoods. Unlike big restaurant chains, they offer good food that is cheaper due to lower overhead costs. It also offers consumers a sense of adventure when they visit an unfamiliar location. Mrs. Wharton Cakes and Savories Mrs. Wharton which started with cakes has previously announced that it will launch several food brands. It is now applying the hole-in-the-wall concept especially after they finished setting up the Mrs. Wharton Cake Boutique where people can come and take out cakes for their celebrations. Mrs. Wharton's popular savory dishes will als...

Back then, when what's on the table wasn't in tune to my moody taste buds, I am simply served raw native chicken's egg mixed with hot rice and seasoned with salt. That makes my childhood food memories as fresh as the "Bisaya nga manok" eggs. And I haven't tried one in decades so good thing there were some " itlog sang BIsaya nga manok " in the fridge and just some leftover rice (the magic of microwave oven) - the childhood gastronomy was relived. But I also take these native eggs, directly  - from the fridge, crack it open and drink. Others mixed native chicken's eggs with hot milk making a liquid leche flan! Anymore egg memories you can share?

It's been a while since my last German food trip at Bavaria Restaurant that it surprised me that they now have an aptly named gastronomic combo - Oktoberfest Platter . But I should have expected it since Bavaria is a German state in which Munich is the capital which is famous all over the world mainly because it hosts the world's biggest annual beer festival - Oktoberfest! So what's in this platter that almost had me speechless at Bavaria? It's a meat-lovers dream come true - assorted wurst  (sausages), fried pork knuckles, schnitzel ( meat, thinned by pounding with a  meat tenderizer, coated with flour, beaten eggs and bread crumbs, and then fried), a basket of home-made German breads, vegetable side dish and  Kartoffelsalat (German potato salad) It's megacombo of their assorted platters (Sausage, Butcher's, etc ) given a more festive look which attracted me in the first place. A perfect "to be shared" meal with...

An out-of-the-blue experiment that turned out to be delicious! But it's really not that surprising since pineapple-cheese as a sandwich filling is already yummy, so how much more if it becomes an ice cream? The creaminess of the cheese and milk is balanced by the sweetness of the pineapple making the combination something different with hints of familiarity. Here's the recipe that I experimented with in making this pineapple-cheese ice cream

Now, who doesn't love danggit? The crunch, the saltiness ( yikes high blood! )  and how it complements the taste of vinegar, makes this dried seafood an ultimate favorite.   It's probably one of the most popular dried fishes together with the many varieties of tuyo/pinakas and dilis/balingon.  And fried danggit is the bomb! With just vinegar or calamansi as dip or some fresh tomatoes as side dish, it often makes you say "Extra rice, please!". I love the meatier type of danggit wherein you can actually bite some of the dried flesh of the fish.  Compared with the thin and smaller ones where in its just it may seem like just dried plastic (most often the prepacked ones in the groceries) and often are sharp enough to cut you gums, meatier danggit is la delight in every bite.  While, dried danggit is more often fried, I also prefer cooking it right on top of charcoal.  Aside from being  oil-free, cooking ...

Laswa is to the Ilonggos as what dinengdeng and pinakbet  are to the Ilocanos. These are mainly vegetables based dishes with a few meats and seafood. What makes laswa different is that guinamos or bago-ong is not part of the recipe. In both Ilocanos dishes, bago-ong is a major flavour enhancer giving both dishes a distinct bago-ong taste. Laswa , on the other hand, is a tamer version since guinamos is rarely used and it just relies on garlic, onion and tomato plus a little salt as flavour enhancer. Thus, it is a perfect combination with fried or grilled fish or pork! Here's the basic recipe for the Ilonggo favorite - Laswa Ingredients Kalabasa cubes Okra slices Eggplant slices Sigarilyas slices Patola slices String beans Saluyot Takway (optional) Puso ng Saging (optional) Alimasag, dilis, shrimps, daing na isda (optional) Garlic, crushed Onion, quartered  Tomatoes, sliced Salt Water How to cook Laswa Wash all the veget...

So, how was your Mother's Day gastronomic celebration yesterday? Whether it was a family gathering at home or a socially-distant eat out at a favorite restaurant, as long as we all pay tribute to our Mothers in our own ways, it's always a meaningful celebration. Ours was just a simple family gathering of four and we prepared what we can think of days or even hours before. It was a mix of meat and seafoods as well as vegetables with pasta, salads and desserts for the finale! How about some fried chicken, grilled bangus belly and fish barbecue resting on some turbo-broiled hash browns? These would go well with a sili-mansi-toyo dip or that big batch of kimchi (which I forgot to take a solo pic), beside the cake on the main photo above. More seafood, in the form of the simple Linusgusan nga Pasayan or Halabos na Hipon. This is basically shrimps cooked in water and salt or some use clear soda for an added sweetness to the shrimps. After noticing that we sort of lacked s...

One of my favorites, this dried seafood is made from "cured" fish meat which they say is salmonite . Often seen as "red circles" sold in the market, it is always with curiosity that buyers ask what they are and when they do know, they actually buy it for that. Cooking it might be tricky since too - you must have the right heat since too much will burn your cooking (there's sugar in it) and too low, you might not be cooking it at all. But when its perfect, you'll have a dried seafood that's crisp yet meaty and the saltiness complements the sweetness of it being a tocino. Sold mostly in packs  (check out the red ones) that cost around PhP150 more or less, which is great for pasalubong. But you can actually buy these packs by the kilo, just ask the vendors at the market. And I just love having   fish tocino meal for breakfast now, and then. Enjoy! Here's an adapted recipe on How to Make Fish Tocino from Business Diary...

This bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen is the most affordable Japanese noodle soup we've ever seen so far! Given that most ramens cost from PhP 180 to PhP 250 here in Iloilo to around PhP 450 in Manila. Not to mention the almost PhP 950 bowl I had in Hong Kong (missing Ichiran). Now back at home, Mushin Japanese Cafe along Arroyo Street in Santa Barbara near the town's public market, offers this Japanese noodle soup for only PhP 130 a bowl with add-ons ranging from PhP 10 to PhP 55. This hole in the wall cafe offers two kinds of ramen - Tonkotsu and Syoyu/Shoyu. Tonkotsu ( NOT tonkatsu) has a soup broth based on pork bones and other ingredients, which are typically boiled for several hours, and the dish is traditionally topped with sliced pork belly and served with ramen noodles that are hard in the center.  Syoyu (soy sauce in Japanese)  has a clear brown broth, based on a chicken and vegetable (or sometimes fish or beef) stock with plenty of soy sauce added resu...