FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

I love puso ng saging, be it kinilaw or adobo but my ultimate favorite is when it is made of part of sinigang na bangus.  I was leaning to having some leftover pork tocino for lunch but when I opened the kaldero and saw the milky sabaw of this bangus sinigang - all the tocino thoughts disappeared. It's a really simple dish - just cook like the way you make sinigang and instead of radish, okra and other sinigang veggies, just use puso ng saging plus the "undeveloped" bananas.  The preparation of the puso ng saging is where the tedious work begins, as you have to be experienced in doing so. There's the peeling of the outer layers until the white one appears and the washing to get those bitter taste off.  And it has to be cooked right away to get the milky color of the broth. I haven't really seen and tried a non bangus sinigang with puso ng saging though I think it would work also as good. Maybe shrimps next time, for the play of ...

Mention baye-baye and those familiar with this native Ilonggo delicacy would imagine rolls of pounded pinipig (roasted newly harvested rice) mixed with freshly grated coconut with hints of subtle sweetness. One of the most popular native snacks, baye-baye is a staple in local markets as well as pasalubong shops and native delicacies stalls in the malls. While most baye-baye are just plain, there's an innovation to this local delicacy that Ilonggos are starting to embrace. It's baye-baye roll filled with a mix yema and peanuts. It was in 2011 that I made a gastronomic contact with this baye-baye innovation when I judged in a competition featuring baye-baye innovation in the town of Pavia, Iloilo during a sidelight event of their annual Tigkaralag Festival . Entries came with sesame seeds, cheese, pandan and yema-peanuts which became the eventual winner. It  came with an innovation that captured our taste aside from the originality and the cre...

Always in the center of a typical Filipino Noche Buena is the "hamon". No matter which brand or what kind ham it maybe, the Christmas Eve midnight gastronomic gathering would seem incomplete without it. One ham that seems to be just within the taste and price range of the Ilonggos is the house brand of Iloilo Supermart - Right Choice . For around PhP 600+ per kilo, the Right Choice Ham is not like those typical hams which were made months earlier in preparation for Christmas. Instead, it can be termed as a freshly made ham yet still almost have the same taste and texture of the typical ham. So with this ham, I made my own healthy "double down" with kangkong mixed with three cheeses (Parmesan, Queso de Bola and Cheesewhiz) and chili garlic. It was a refreshing take as the ham complemented the taste of the vegetable concoction I experimented on. And my other experiment was "kangkongetti" - a typical tomato sauce, ham and cheese mix but with kangkong...

Another Pista Minatay  has come and gone; and as always the complete "yellow rice" staple called valenciana will have its gastronomic presence felt. Part of the  malagkit  delicacies served during Undas, together with  ibos/suman, kalamay hati, alupe, linugaw  and a lot more,  valenciana  stands out. Not only of its signature yellowish hue but its the only one that's not of "dessert" category. It's like a complete meal in itself. Basically, completing the "go, grow and glow" requirements, it has the carbohydrates, protein and vitamins & minerals in just one spoonful. And it can come in its simplest form, like the one below, with just malagkit rice, pork, chorzio and bell peppers to some fancy with additions liek raisins, peas, chicken, hardboiled egg (just garnish though), etc. But NO hotdogs, please... The recipe is just simple for it only involves 1) Sauteeing (Just gisa the pork, chicken, peas, chorizo bel...

What's in a name? Usually, dishes are named from their main ingredients, others from the method of cooking techniques while some dishes from the place of origin. But this curious specialty from Kong Kee Restaurant has even a more curious name. It is called " No Name ". I first encountered "No Name" as a noodle dish called Pancit No Name but luck wasn't on my side then as the dish was taken off the menu for a long time. But the name "No Name" still lived in my memory... And imagine how excited I was when I found "No Name" on the menu of Kong Kee. Though, it has been there for a long time, it just took me longer to find it.  So, No Name is a sort of chop suey like dish having a melange of vegetables like bell peppers, mushrooms and onions to name a few. For meat, it has squid, pork and innards.  All these are then smothered in thick savoury sauce made spicy by the chilies mixed in the dish. An order of this a...

When there are home celebrations like fiestas or reunions, there would always be lechon baboy as the gastronomic centerpiece. And chances are there would be left-overs the following day/s or even weeks. So how to get "rid" of the kilos and kilos or this roasted pig? More often, it would end up as lechon paksiw as there would be some sarsa leftovers too. Just stew the lechon in the sarsa, add some vinegar and spices and another dish is born.  But if you're too tired of this recipe, how about a "dry" lechon paksiw or I would christen it as pinamalhan nga lechon ? An off shot of the lechon paksiw recipe, it's left over lechon, simmered in vinegar and onions and cooked until dry. And there's no standard recipe as one can tweak it to his own delight! Add some chillies and you'll have a spicy version. Place it on sizzling plate, add some sauce and you may have lechon sisig. The possibilities are endless but it all started with a lechon paksiw made dr...

One of my favorite simple gastronomic pleasures into biting into this rich and delicious ube hopia from Tinapayan . Always satisfying, I make sure I buy more than enough because it is always not enough as soon as I start this guilty gastronomic pleasure. Good thing, it's just PhP 8 each and a dozen can always make my day end in a delicious way.

Hungry? How about a delicious meal from Sarangani Bay Prime Seafood DORY KABAYAKI?! This ready-to-eat cream dory fish is marinated and grilled with Japanese Kabayaki sauce made with Mirin (Japanese rice wine ), soy sauce and sweetened with sugar. There are two EASY ways of preparing this R.T.E. DORY KABAYAKI. First, is soaking a pack of Dory Kabayaki in boiled water for about 5 minutes. The result is a saucy, tender and delicious cream dory fish with that delectable kabayaki taste. TRY THIS: Dory Kabayaki with Kimchi Click to Watch Video  Second is placing a pack in microwave oven and cook for around 4 minutes. Don't forget to cut a slit on the packaging to let moisture out or else it could burst.  The result is drier (depending on how high the oven heat settings) and more of a grilled look for the cream dory as the sauce evaporates more ans becomes stickier - but still very tasty. TRY THIS : Dory Kabayaki Pinoy-Style Bento  Click to Watch Video No matter what your prefe...

Tino-um is a vernacular way of cooking with all the ingredients wrapped in banana leaves then placed over heat, directly or indirectly. And its one of the best ways to cook lobo-lobo which are minute silver fishes around half an inch long. After washing the fish, just place them in banana leaves (partially warmed over fire so that it wont easily break) together with tomatoes, onions, garlic, chives, chili pepper and seasonings (like salt and pepper or you can opt not to). Over low heat, place the wrapped ingredients in a pan and cook for a few minutes. You can also place small amount of water in the pan to lessen the heat that directly reaches the "wrap". When done, you can also opt to sprinkle olive or sesame oil before serving. 

And here's another batchoyan that would make your crave for this delectable Ilonggo noodle dish. This time you eat the noodles, pork, innards and chicharon then sip the caldo in a rustic setting - a quaint bahay kubo under the shade of rustling trees. Barely a month old, Tay Rudy's batchoy is already making a name for itself among the townsfolk.  Served at Payag Evelyn Batchoyan in Brgy. Bolong Oeste in Santa Barbara, Iloilo, this batchoyan has the making of a hole in the wall as more and more people are discovering this place.  Getting There Your landmark is Wilcon Home Depot in Santa Barbara along the highway that connects Iloilo City and the Iloilo International Airport. Across is a branch office DPWH with a road going to the Western Visayas Sanitarium. But you won't reach the hospital as you will have to turn right towards a cemetery and another right then left. Confused? Just ask around when you enter the road, its the only batchoyan in the...

Inspired by Project Pie, wherein you create your own pizza,  I also had my own project and it involves one o the most popular Ilonggo native delicacies - baye-baye. It was a spur of the moment thought having lots of baye-baye around that I thought of making one that would certainly be a notch higher. So searching for some ingredients that I can use, I found some pecan "nuts" and dulce de leche aka "boiled condensed milk".  And after some thoughts I came up with these - Baye-Baye rolled in crsuhed pecan, Baye-Baye rolls with pecan-condensed milk filling and pecan topped Baye-Baye "sandwich squares". Now which is my favorite? The rolls I would say - I just love condensed milk. I'd certainly have another project coming very soon so stay tuned...

I don't usually eat talaba but if it's the cheesey (and garlicky) baked talaba from Tatoy's Manukan and Seafoods , bring it on! A simple way of cooking talaba , I just love the generous cheese and fried garlic topping that even non-seasoned oyster eaters like me are just tempted by the "looks" and aroma of it. Though around 3x the price of the steamed oysters (PhP180 vs PhP65 as of the last time), its still quite a steal given the quality and how delicious and very satisfied customers like me will be.

I got a pack of Ma Mon Luk egg noodles from Iloilo Supermart - a 250gm pack consists of 6 dried noodle "patties"  and costs around PhP50.  I suddenly had cravings of the noodle soup served in some Chinese restos that I decided to make one at home.  But mine turned out to be more of a pancit canton.  Didn't want to use artificial broth cubes, so I just cooked the noodles and luckily we had some chopsuey leftover that made a perfect mix.  I just drenched the noodles sesame oil, put on the toppings and added more I found on in the fridge like these Spam cubes. The result was a mix of delicious flavours and good aroma (from my fave sesame oil) - that gave me a fully  satisfied tummy from an on the spot experiment.