FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Hawker food centres are popular in Singapore as they offer every day food conveniences at an affordable price in generally expensive Lion City. Newton Food Centre is among the OG hawker centres in Singapore and still remains among the most popular - even featured in the movie Crazy Rich Asians. During my first time in Singapore ( thank you Cebu Pacific ), I was able to visit this hawker centre and it was overwhelming - so many stalls to choose from aside from having unfamiliar yet appetizing and inviting dishes all throughout. Here are some pics and picks of our gastronomic adventure in Singapore at Newton Food Centre. And had a gastronomic affair with these flavors of Singapore. Cereal Prawns Roast Pork combo Fried Rice Stingray in Sambal Sauce Nasi Goreng Char Kway Teow Nasi Lemak Fruit platter Good thing there’s an MTR station nearby bearing its name, so going there is relatively easy. It was a delicious foodie adventure at Newton Food Centre and I won’t mind  going there again ...

Overshadowed by the more popular KBL (Kadyos, Baboy, Langka), another classic dish that makes Ilonggos crave and yearn for that simple but delicious eats is the combination of kadyos, native chicken and ubad. The ever popular-to-the-Ilonggos-but-alien-to-others is kadyos – pigeon pea. Soft beans with hues playing from dark purple to black and gives a distinct violet shade to the broth it makes. READ MORE Chicken also provides protein for this dish and to make it more Ilonggo, most of the time native chickens referred to as “Bisaya” or "darag" are used. NATIVE CHICKEN LITSON And then there's ubad – it’s no typo error; yes it’s ubad with an “A”. Not to be confused with ubod, both are different yet share a similarity. Ubod is the pith of the coconut tree while ubad is the center of the banana trunk. To get the fresh ubad, one has to peel the banana trunk to obtain that fleshy and white core that looks like a fluorescent lamp. The prepare the ubad, the banana pi...

I often take pinasugbo for granted. Aside that I almost always ended up in a mess, I find it really sweet and often takes a toll on my teeth. But there are certain situations that I don’t wish for; it just comes at the right time.  A pack of pinasugbo from Deocampo suddenly appeared at home (who, when, where, etc still a mystery) and it just screamed to be eaten. So loud that in order to shut it up, I have to shove it in my mouth – lol. Pinasugbo is made from slices of banana (saba variety) slice length-wise, deep fried and smothered with caramel. Then a number of these slices are packed in paper cones for easy consumption.  But as the caramel hardens, it sticks to the cones and most often one might find himself eating a bit of paper. But luckily a trick I got from one of blog’s comments solved this problem – just heat it for a few seconds in the microwave and it slides off easily. That made me enjoy these pinasugbo from Deocampo that tim...

Every December, the town of Santa Barbara, Iloilo celebrates its annual patronal fiesta with religious as well as gastronomical activities. So here are some of the food and flavours of the Santa Barbara Fiesta from one of the houses we were able to visit. Valenciana Beef Caldereta Chicken Afritada Embutido Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta Pancit Molo Bangus Relyeno The star of any fiesta - Lechon Baboy Cucumber Salad Ube Halaya con Suman  

Be it chicken inasal or grilled pork chop to seafoods especially  talaba, a spiced vinegar is the perfect dip to further one's appetite. While every region in the Philippines has it's own version of a spiced vinegar and a name for it, when in Western Visayas especially - just look for SINAMAK . But one need not to look far as it can found almost anywhere for it is a staple dip in almost every household and native restaurants.  It basically sits on the center table in most dining places and you can't miss it! The recipe varies from each household and the percentage of the "ingredients" too but always present are siling labuyo (green and red for color variation and makes it more visually appetizing), ginger (locals used langkawas or galangal but regular ginger will do) and garlic. How to make Sinamak Ingredients 2-3 cups native (coconut) vinegar (adjust according to bottle size) 1 cup siling labuyo 1/2 cup ginger, s...

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 ...

It’s been a while since I featured (read gorged on) Iloilo's most popular Chinese bun - Roberto’s Queen sio pao . Aside from being unavailable most of the time (I think it’s now every two weeks rather than monthly), the restaurant is out of my usual way.  Priced at PhP105 and though the size isn’t that overwhelming as before yet still big compared to other sio paos in the city.  It was still hot when I got it from “Roberta” before (he's Clauds by the way, RIP 🕯) and around two hours later with some rainy escapade, I was surprised to sense it warmth when I got home. Aside from what’s inside, I really like the bun of Roberto’s sio pao. With a hint of gumminess yet soft to each bite, it greatly complements the filling.  Though I got a rather one sides sio pao with the filling almost bursting out the bottom part while the top was all bun.  But it’s one of the more photogenic ones I had so far – I halved it perfectly with without much damage to the...