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 ...

I was in Roxas City over the weekend to join CAPIZtahan 2013 . Now on its third year, this years celebration marks the 112th Foundation Day of the civil government of Capiz and the 65th Death Anniversary of the President Manuel Acuña Roxas. I was particularly involved in the Seafood Culinary Competition where in around 10 participants battle it out for the Best Seafood Dish that reflects the gastronomic bounty the Seafood Capital of the Philippines. It was through my fellow judge, Mr Eugene Jamerlan, that I got this stint in the first place and through him, my first Capiz experience turned out one memorable weekend as it involved non-stop eating and meeting a lot of very interesting people like our host - Maam Sonie. For the whole weekend, we had a lot on interesting food trips - from seafood to steaks, from home-made specialties to restaurants best sellers and more. But for this particular blog post, as the title says, I'll concentrate on the wonderful bangus specialti...

Just a rundown of the gastronomical part of today. It was a last minute thought that this title came to mind and I can't help but laugh. So what did you have today? This simple sauteed ubod came out sweet and more like an unwrapped lumpia. Bangus is simply the best fish to b made sinigang, for me. Despite it's unappetizing appearance, this pork adobo was actually very flavourful.

I just can't stand the sight of raw ( and most especially bloodied ) fish in my blog so I had to post this asap . Enjoy!

A few sticks of (very commercialized) pork barbecue, lechon manok, fried pinakas nga bangrus (daing na bangus) with bananas and mangoes for dessert.

This is one of those we call "recycled" dishes mainly because the main ingredient is left over grilled fish particularly bangus or milkfish. But we seem to love this so much, that most of the time, we don’t wait for left over to make linagpang, we purposely grill bangus. Surprisingly, it seems that the linagpang I grew up with is very different from the ones I found online. But this post certainly will feature the one I love. Unlike the ones which requires much cooking, our version of this dish is very simple. In fact it requires no cooking at all, taken for granted that one is using left over grilled fish. Just slice and mix together the two basic ingredients; onions and tomatoes, though optional, onion leaves add more flavour and color. Add your grilled fish of choice (manually "chunked") and sprinkle a little salt (you can adjust later). Finally add boiling water, mix everything and adjust the taste of the broth.

Even with five celebrants, it was a just a simple lunch. A mix of old favorites, a new recipe from a magazine and some out of the blue ideas made this year's Mother's Day luncheon. Linguine with baked chicken with creamy mushroom sauce from Yummy magazine's May 2008 issue. Old favorite Valenciana. Fried bangus in tausi sauce. The usual vegetable side dish, chop suey. Melt's in your mouth, pata adobado. Grilled liempo. Cupcakes galore

Sinugba na bangus. Simply my favorite! Just take out the innards and grill, no need to stuff it. Its the "sawsawan" that will bring out the best and its always calamansi-soy suace-sili for me. Fried with tausi sauce Sinigang with puso ng saging I really love this combination. The sour and milky soup plus fleshy puso ng saging and ofcourse bangus belly. Yum yum! Escabeche Paksiw I also love bangus cooked this way. Paksiw is more commonly referred at home as "pinamalhan" (cooked until almost dry) but actually is "swimming" in vinegar and soy sauce. A simple recipe would call for a vinegar, soysauce, garlic, ginger, and a little oil when almost cooked dry. But most of the time we eat with it's "sabaw"