FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

I missed my chance a few weeks ago to have a food trip somewhere in Brgy. Ingore, Lapaz.  It would have been filled with these mouth-watering native Ilonggo delicacies as that trip would be in a compound that makes these native goodies and sells them throughout Iloilo City. Why in Lapaz did the native-delicacy maker set their compound at? It seems to have started a long time ago when the Panay Railways (connecting Iloilo City and Roxas City in Capiz) was operational. Along with Lapaz's most famous gastronomic contribution - batchoy, the train served a vital role in the thriving business. The demand was there - imagine the throngs of people using the train, buying these for snacks or even something to bring home. Then there's also the supply - raw products coming from the towns can be easily transported to be made into these native delicacies. So the cottage industry has thrived even after the train stopped operations and is still making god business.

Laswa is among the most popular Ilonggo vegetable dish and among my most "blogged" about. It has so many variations despite it's simplicity and mostly dependent on the the availability of vegetables. Usually it has kalabasa, talong, okra, hantak (sitaw), tagabang (saluyot), patola and a host of other vegetables. For this recipe puso ng saging (banana heart) was added not only as "extender" but to add some texture. Cooking laswa is simple - just stew the vegetables and subak (usually fresh seafoods like shrimps, crabs, or even snails locals call bango-ngon ) then season with salt or use broth cubes . Others prefer to use dried and salted seafoods like pinakas for it adds more flavour to the dish at the same time makes this vegetable dish more appetizing. Or at times this is solely a vegetable dish (no subak whatsoever) and is perfect partnered with fried or grilled meat and fish. No matter how you cook it or what you partn

Locals adore it. Tourists love it. So what make makes Roberto's a big hit?   Most probably it was the Queen siopao that made Roberto's come back to my tastebuds. And it was really hard back then to get hold of the queen as it was only available 3 days a month compared to almost daily today.   Also back then it was just around PhP65 for this royal siopao and its now at PhP105. But the Queen still reigns with its equally regal  filling of chicken and pork adobo, Chinese sausage, hard-boiled egg and bacon. Then there's the ever so popular meatballs!  Sure it may look dry and bland but its equally famous sauce makes it more iconic. As for me, I like it even without the sauce since I can fully taste the memories of my childhood this way. At PhP30/stick of 4, it's one delicious way of reconnecting to the past and for some - discover what makes them ever so popular! And take some Lumpia shanghai on the side too. Crispy,

It wasn't until I laid my eyes my on its flaky and crisp crust with its delicious aroma emanating that discovered the empanada specially baked by Tinapayan. With a crunch I opened the empanada to reveal what’s inside - a hot mix of moist shredded pork, carrots, peas and raisins among others, giving a flavourful blend that could rival any sio paos around. Ms. Evelyn “Owa” Que, the amiable owner of Tinapayan is very proud of her creation especially the crisp and flaky “crust”. She said the empanada has been on the shelves on her bakeshop for years now and maybe since Tinapayan offers a gazillion of delicious product, it may have been “relegated” in the background. I quite agree since with all the breads, cakes, loaves, cookies, buns, sweet squares and bars, etc, you’ll surely have to have an eagle eye to find what you’re looking for. But you’ll get distracted along the way since the quantity and quality that overwhelms you prove to be a galore o gast

Tired of the usual paksiw recipe for left-over lechon ?Why not try making the left over roasted pig into something a lot healthier - by making it part of vegetable dishes. At home, we've tried making left over lechon into KBL ( kadyos baboy langka ) enjoying Lechon na, KBL pa . It can be made into sinigang, sisig and sinabawan . One can even sugba  ( ihaw or grill) to give it another taste dimension. Believe me, sinugba nga lechon  tastes awesome! And one of our latest recipes is "lechonizing" a monggo recipe. Usually, we cooked monggo with kalabasa and alugbati with the addition of pork. But if there's leftover lechon, the dish looks and tastes even more delicious especially with the lechon skin. Just cook the monggo dish as it is, then add lechon and the rest will be gastronomic history! Extra rice please! Check out the detailed  MONGGO GUISADO RECIPE CONTENT

Buho Bakery is one of the more iconic neighborhood bakeshops in Iloilo City. Just the mere mention of it brings back memories of yesteryears and of course it's claim to fame bread - panso . While its a take off from pancho , which is a desiccated coconut filled bread, panso from Buho is more of the commercialized version of it. But nevertheless, it's so delicious especially when its hot off the oven. "Buho" means hole in Hiligay-non and it's this hole on its wall that gave it it's monicker. At certain times of the day they are closed, but everytime you'd crave for their breads, you just knock at thins window and it'll be opened to take your orders.   The filling of these bread is like coloured and chewey dough with some slight flavor.  And the bread, which is very good on its own, is their basic bread recipe used for their other products like teren-teren, pan del eche and more. These panso costs PhP2 each and you

Been addicted to kimchi lately and tried so many brands I found online and in grocery stores. And one that really stood out for me is the one from Kim's Bob Korean Restaurant. I'm no kimchi nor Korean food expert but this one is a level higher than the ones I've had before. From the first time I opened the bottle and smelled its aroma, it gave me an impression that its quite different and better from the ones before. Maybe because of the notion that it comes from a well respected Korean resto as compared from the generic store bought ones. Sorry for this kimchi discrimination... But I was right in the taste department as it was stronger, more flavorful - not just full of spice and the taste difference was obvious. One could really taste the difference even if it was a repeated blind taste test.  Add to the fact it had more ingredients other than Napa cabbage or wombok. It had a better defined flavor dimension that is not just salty and spicy. It has a delicious sourness whi

It's not Catbalogan nor Katagalugan, it's  CA-TA-LU-GAN, Catalugan. I also had the same problem when I was a kid when reading and remembering the name of this bread. But the many years of enjoying this specialty from Tibiao Bakery, I think I have it in me. So what is catalugan? It's basically a filled bread and like what you see, it has more filling that the "bread" itself. Tibiao Bakery makes the more "high end" catalugan as they are big, individually wrapped and deliciously addicting. Smaller bakeshops also make catalugan but its just the regular "one of those" breads. But this one from Tibiao is worth every "bit and morsel". For around 12 each (few years back it was only PhP 10), this bite size bread is heavy as the filling is a compact and flavouful blend of "secrets" for this one had no ingredients listed on its packaging. So I can only assume what they are everytime I am

How cholesterollific this linaga is but admit it it looks very delicious! On the way out of the the Iloilo Central Market , we chanced upon this stall serving this stewed lanit-lanit or tendons.  The lady who ordered it was about to take spoonful of her lunch when we stopped her just to take a photograph of her lunch bowl and she found it funny-lol. But I found it very salivating looking at the steaming broth that probably is soured by batwan just like most linaga served in Iloilo. The thought of having the chewy portion of the cow or pig is a steaming and sour soup easily made me forget that I just had lunch .  I usually dig in/look for this part whenever I order linaga or kansi but this bowl has lots of it so I might be checking this one out very soon when I get back to the Iloilo Central Market.   

When non-Ilonggo friends tasted bitso-bitso , I wasn't prepared for the comment that this could be the local version of Krispy Kreme 's glazed doughnut. Bitso-bitso is boiled-and-fried rice dough the coated with muscovado caramel, at least for this particular one made by Manang Lori in the town of Santa Barbara. Though I'm not really privy to the actual recipe of Nang Lori, making bitso-bitso , is quite laborious since it requires three cooking processes aside from choosing the right kind of ingredients. Just like the puto-bingka of Nang Leling  where rice flour is also used, it starts with the pilit rice being soaked overnight before it will be ground the next day. Just like muasi (palitaw) or the bilo-bilo balls (used in making linugaw ), the ground rice flour is mixed with regular flour, water, coconut milk and a little bit of sugar and vanilla. When the dough is ready, Mang Lori's bitso-bitso takes a twisted form so that it can "take-in" more

My recent tour had me back at the dried seafood section of the Iloilo Central Market for my groups pasalubong fix. Yes, it is not only biscocho , butterscotch and barquillos that make up the ultimate Iloilo pasalubong list but also dried lukos , fish tocino and guinamos . So what's there to find and buy at the dried seafood market? Plenty! More than enough salt and saltiness to drive our blood pressure off the charts!  But enough of this gory-ness and just live with  these words from our former Miss Universe " Everything is good but in moderation... " Let's start with balingon or dilis, and there's a lot to choose from! From the kind of " anchovy " to the size, color and the level of saltiness, it's overwhelming. There are the regular or he more familiar ones which often is a breakfast staple - whether fried or sinanlag - pan fried without oil, or how ever you define it. It is also best for this recipe