FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

After all the cholesterol-laden gastronomy this Holiday season, chances are we are looking forward to some fiber enriched diet. And here's a simple vegetable salad made with easy to get ingredient (that is if your based in the Philippines). Made with steamed okra and kamote tops with local langgaw (vinegar) with fresh tomatoes, onions and chives as garnish. It was a play of colors, textures and flavours all in one plate. But I may tweak the recipe a bit by adding some guinamos ( bago-ong ) to the vinegar dressing and/or olive or sesame oil. Now my mouth just waters at the thought ...

I never actually dared to try apan-apan before knowing it was a local delicacy made with grasshoppers. I could just hear the crunch of it's legs and other body parts. But now, apan-apan is more popular as an apptizer made with kangkong sauteed in guinamos (the local term for bago-ong). And I get to enjoy it more and crave for it at times. Cooking apan-apan is like making adobong kangkong only with guinamos. But at times, it doesn't really matter since I almost interchange the method being an experimental cook. So it usually starts with the sauteeing of garlic and onions then adding guinamos - I often add chillis for a kick. Then I add vinegar, soy sauce and kangkong leaves and the upper portion of the stalk. Then it's just simmering it until the stalks are soft enough to be eaten. ( Click for Recipe-style post ) I like tweaking the recipe by adding (ingredients I love like) calamansi and sesame oil. The former brings more tang and the latter the dif...

Inubaran  basically means the dish is cooked with ubad . No, it's not a typo error, it is really ubad not ubod Different from but practically the same. Confusing? Well ubod is the pith or the center of a coconut tree while ubad is the pith of a banana tree. To have an ubad means a whole banana tree has been cut down and stripped to bare its center. So goodbye to banana fruit, leaves and heart. To make this dish, one has to prepare an ubad for cooking - first thinly slice, around half a centimeter, the cleaned pith (must be very white and sized like a fluorescent lamp to be sure of the quality.) . Then using a barbecue stick, remove web like fibers "interconnecting" these slices (these are actually hardened banana sap). When finished you can crush is into smaller pieces and add to your cooking. This particular recipe also makes use of (young) libas leaves as a souring ingredient. Just saute pieces of (native) chicken in ginger,ga...

While the most popular Ilonggo recipe for Adobo has istiwitis or achuete / annatto, sometime experimenting on other region's adobo recipes an open up our taste. So what is "white" adobo? It is basically the usual adobo recipe minus one major ingredient - soy sauce or toyo . I like it especially when the garlic mixes with the oil and vinegar concoction - a burst of flavorful aroma that you could almost taste. Here's a simple recipe for Pork Liempo White Adobo

The municipality of Santa Barbara, Iloilo embarks on a culinary journey focusing on heritage, traditional and sustainable food. Promoting and utilizing local produce and recipes, the LGU led by the Municipal Tourism Officer Irene Magallon with the support of the Baranggay Nutrition Scholars and department heads held a cook off of local Ilonggo dishes and typical "sud-an"    with ingredients sourced out from the local market.  Tasked of preparing one dry and one "sabaw", groups prepared assortment of typical "sud-an" favorites and various methods of cooking which includes pinamalhan, tinola, sinugba, sinabawan, ginat-an, relyeno, ensalada, tino-um among others. On a special note, if the dish involves a souring ingredient, it required the use    "catmon", a local citrus fruit which was the old name of the town. Fresh ingredients were sourced out from the town market which is just a few steps away from the venue. The...

One of the favored treats when I was a kid was this deep-fried dough clustered balls rolled in sugar crystals called serafina . You probably know thay serafina look exactly like goat's poo - just with a different color! Actually, it's nothing spectacular but for kids, food that appeals to the eyes is already considered delicious. And of course, sugar works well with kids, I must add. I remember one particular incident during my kiddie years when were we enjoying a pack of this treat while strolling around backyard of a neighbor. We suddenly came to the goat's pen and suddenly stopped eating them. 

A confession to start this blogpost - I consider MUASI as one of my hated native delicacies given its bland taste even with the sugar dip. But that was back during my childhood days. Maybe be because I may have used less sugar or might have completely forgotten to "dip" it at all. Yet nowadays, I have learned to appreciate it especially when its freshly cooked with the muscovado teeming the aroma of roasted sesame seeds. So let's make some MUASI

It was a typical fiesta scene in a barrio that I got to taste this cholesteroliffic and delicious pork dish. I can still vividly remember that decades old gastronomic memory - very tender and almost fall of the bone pata, vivid orange sour and sticky broth, large chunks of unripe  langka;  all in one big large  kaldero !  And it's been really a while since I've tried to recreate that taste memory and a few days ago, it was worth another try. Here's my simple recipe for Pata Lauya

My posts about my mix and match Century Tuna recipes are among my blog's most viewed entries. There, I share my experiments on how to make the canned tuna more special - though I also love having it straight from the can. I've had Century Tuna sisig , sisig-adobo , sinigang , fried rice, ala king and healthy adobo flakes , among others . But I haven't experimented for quite sometime now ...  Until this new recipe came right into my "doorstep". This isn't my recipe but I found this being served at home for quite sometime now. It's gonna be the first salad in my Century tuna recipe collection - Tuna flakes Ampalaya and Pineapple salad . The reci pe's quite simple - just mix tuna flakes, pineapple tidbits with some juice, white onions and thinly sliced ampalaya. It is recommended to use canned pineapples to be assured of the sweetness, but if fresh pineapples do come sweet, then its a go. The pineapple makes ...

Tino-um is basically a cooking technique where in the ingredients are wrapped in banana leaves then cooked. Among the most popular tino-um  dished is the tino-um nga manok of the town of Cabatuan. You can also to-um other ingredients including shrimps and vegetables.  Here are some uhong or native mushrooms which can be bought in the wet market or at times at the grocery.  After washing and cleaning, its just layering them together with the other ingredients.  So you put a little oil in the pan then place the banana leaves with layers of tomatoes, onions  patola and mushrooms.  Just season with a little salt, pepper, soy sauce and more oil. Fold the banana leaves, tie them and cover the pan and cook in medium fire. After around 10 minutes or so, remove from heat, let it cool for a minute or two then serve. The juices from the vegetables will serve as broth. You can also experiment this basic recipe by adding shri...

Every February 2, all roads lead to Jaro, Iloilo as Ilonggos celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Candles in different aspects - religious, gastronomic, enterprising, and more.  It is the biggest fiesta in this part of the country characterized by the pageantry and the grandeur of the occasion paying homage to Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria - the patron saint of Western Visayas.  As early as December the Jaro Plaza is teeming with the Jaro Grand Carnival with activities like carnival games, food stalls, fruit stands and ukay-ukay, among others.  It culminates on fiesta day with the coronation of the Fiesta Queen, chosen among the lasses of Jaro families. But it was rather different this year though without the latter... But what is/was consistent is that for the past 7 years, I was at the Jamerlan household (thanks, as usual Sir Eugene) to celebrate the gastronomic part of the Jaro Fiesta. And the gastronomic grandeur of the Jaro...