FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

It was a curiosity order via an online buy and sell community chatroom. And for only PhP20 a piece, these Kalamay sa Buri were worth the sugar high and the calories.  Also called "parak" or "pinarak" in the local foodie dialect, Kalamay sa Buri is a sweet native delicacy made from the sap or juice of the buri palm tree.  The stately Buri Palm Buri is among the largest and most common palm found in the Philippines which can live up to 30 years or more.  ( Text and above photo source ) While the leaf is considered the most important part of this palm tree - which is made into hats, ropes, brooms, mats, bags and more, buri also offers a lot as a food source. Boiled Budyawi Buri buds locally known as  budyawi  are eaten boiled, raw in salads or processed into sweets like kaong. It is like boiled corn with each kernel enclosed in a pod of its own. Budyawi Pods signal the death of the buri palm The trunk of the buri tree contains a good quality of starch

FOOD (well, almost everything) in HongKong 🇭🇰 is EXPENSIVE. A rice topping combo meal with drinks from typical roadside restos is usually around ₱500,  pastries cost almost ₱250/piece as well as bottled soda/juice/etc around ₱90. Char Siu and Soy Chicken Rice Toppings Food at malls and at HK Disneyland (₱1,200 for my Hulk burger combo) will make a dent on your budget… plus many more. Hulk Burger Combo with Large Fries and Drinks  Good thing I found one turo-turo in Tsim Sha Shui called Eat More More that serves affordable food (for HK standards). For only HK$ 33 (roughly ₱250) you get 1 rice and 2 ulam (becomes HK$40 with 3 ulam) Though it is still expensive when converted but it is already cheap when you spend in HK$. They said that these RICE + ULAM shops started during the pandemic when most chefs were out of work and to make ends meet, they made food from their homes and sell - carinderia-style. While most of these turo-turo are TAKE OUT ONLY (like the one in TST), I found anothe

K.B.L. or Kadyos, Baboy, Langka is the ultimate favorite dish of most Ilonggos. It is also one of the most missed native dishes as kadyos and the souring ingredient, batwan , are hard to find when outside of the Ilonggo region.  Basically, it is boiled/stewed pork dish owing its "deliciousness" to the combination of the soft and tender pork, the tamed sourness of  batwan  and the  malinamnam na sabaw .  One of the "secrets" of the malinamnamn na sabaw , is the fact that the pork, whether just the plain meat or pata (hocks) are first grilled or broiled. This gives the broth a rather smoky taste that makes it more appetizing.. Learn how to make the Ilonggo dish KBL (Kadyos, Baboy, at Langka) with the recipe below. Ingredients 1 kilo Pata (pork hocks) or pork cubes, GRILLED and sliced into bite size pieces  1 unripe Jack fruit, cubed 2 cups pigeon pea (kadyos) 6-8 pieces batwan fruit  (or tamarind powder) 1 piece pork broth cube (

Finally, after four trips to Hongkong, I found myself at the restaurant I’ve been meaning to visit since my first visit back in 2016. Despite with its “not-so-HK” sounding name, Australia Dairy Company is a culinary institution and has often been described as an iconic Hong Kong restaurant. The company was named by the founder as such because he had worked in an Australian farm in the 1940s and now, his resto is one of the most popular “ chaan tengs ” or HK stye cafe or diners most common as breakfast places. Its sole branch is located in Jordan in Kowloon along Parkes Street. And it has always been plagued with a long queue especially during breakfast as locals and tourists vie for seats to start their day with their specialties. The restaurant is notable for its efficiency as even during the rush breakfast hour when I visited, my orders came out in less than a minute. While it is also infamous for its rude service, I didn’t experience it that time. Maybe they just improved over the y

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 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.)  Ubad sold in local markets. You will only use the white center/core portion.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. Here's a popular recipe using ubad... Ingredients 1 whole (native) Chicken, cut into bite-size pieces 3-4 cups chopped Ubad, prepared as described above 1 stalk Tanglad (Lemongrass) 1 thumb size Ginger, sliced  5

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.