FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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...