FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Chances are, you might already be munching and enjoying a lot of native delicacies in your province as today, Nov. 1 is when most Filipinos go visit their dead in cemeteries despite the fact that it's actually All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day is still a sleep away. It's an unexplained tradition why the mix up just like why native delicacies are the staples of the season. Some say it's Filipinizing the Halloween that instead of candies and other treats, we have these native delicacies to share. they say it started in the rural areas, with the abundance of rice and coconuts, make these kakanin's the staple. And that this tradition may have caught up with the urbanites who at some point of their lives have took part of this traditon, adapted it in the big city. Whatever the case or occasion maybe, these native delicacies are always anticipated as it brings back not only the the taste memories one had in his younger years but they are really good eats i...

Ilonggos celebrated the 115th Philippine Independence Day with much history and more baye-baye at SM City Iloilo! The Jaspe family and their gigantic gastronomic creation! Measuring 8x16 feet, more than 100 kilos of baye-baye were made by D' Original Jaspe Special Baye-Baye from Bgry. Cabugao Sur in Santa Barbara, Iloilo to create this gastronomic masterpiece. Baye-baye is among the most popular native delicacies in Iloilo. It is made from pinipig, which is pounded rice and mixed with coconut and sugar, among others.  It was among the highlights of the mall's Freedom Day celebration that had cultural, musical and gastronomic components. Santa Barbara Mayor Doc Dennis Superficial (left)  and Gilbert Domingo, Asst. Mall manager of SM City Iloilo led the ceremonial slicing of the giant baye-baye.  Afterwich mall goers had the chance to partake of the popular native Ilonggo delicacy.  Here are the SM ladies donning their Filipiniana attire overseei...

 Baye-baye is among the most popular Ilonggo native delicacy. It is made from roasted rice known as pinipig

SM City Iloilo hosts an annual event called Fiesta in the City to boost the local tourism industry. In cooperation with the city and provincial governments, the event features the best of what Iloilo has to offer. From the festivals and native products to cultural shows and of course food. Years ago, the highlight of the gastronomic part of the said event was letting the Ilonggos see and taste, the biggest baye baye . No less than the mayor of the town Pavia was the guest of honor in the said event. Pavia is known as the baye-baye "capital" of Iloilo. So, what will this year's event bring on? Let's just wait and see.

With nothing much to do during the long weekend of Fiesta Minatay and seeing a lot of baye baye on the table, in the fridge and even in my dreams (lol), I decided to try my hands on some reinventions of my own. Inspired with the innovations of baye baye during the T igkaralag Festival of Pavia a few days, most of my creations mirrored what I saw and tasted during that competition. Using ingredients I found inside the fridge – a pack of pecan nuts and some dulce de leche, I reinvented the native delicacy not only with a twist but with a little “sophistication”. Inspired by the sesame seed crusted entry, I made a pecan nut crusted baye baye by rolling it over grated pecan nuts. An easy reinvention but using a not so common nut made it more intriguing and giving it somewhat classy remake. Though eating proved to be somewhat messy as some of the pecan nut crumbs fell before reaching one’s mouth Baye baye halves filled with pecan nuts and dulce de leche mixture and topped with half a peca...

One of the better commercial bakeshops in the city, Tibiao is actually a name of a town in the province of Antique. It has a wide range of breads, pasalubong items, pastries and cakes with branches in SM malls. Some stand alone branches serve short orders like pancit molo , hamburger and one of their best selling items, sio pao. Royal Bibingka

Even after having breakfast less than an hour that time, we couldn't say no to this lot of native delciacies that welcomed us in Guimaras. First and foremost, Guimaras best known produce is their sweet mango famous almost worldwide. And it comes with it's best partner, ibos. This brown baye-baye variety is made from toasted rice thus giving it a more disctinct flavour compared to it's more "caucasian" cousin. I like the one wrapped in banana leaves compared with the one in plastic for it gives it a more native feel. So when you're in Guimaras, be sure to check out the markets for these native delicacies that can make your trip more gastronomically satisfying.

Baye-baye is known to be a perfect match for coffee or sodas. It is also well-loved by children because of its sweet consistent taste. It is a mixture of scraped young coconut meat,sugar and pinipig (pounded rice grains). Some prepare it in simpler ingredients of coconut meat, sugar, grounded sticky rice (pilit or malagkit)or corn grains. But above the different kinds of preparations the best known baye-baye is in the town of Pavia. Pavia's baye-baye is one of the oldest industry that originated from Barangay Cabugao Sur. It is also the smallest barangay of the town. Other than the baye-baye, it also manufactures pinipig or roasted and pounded rice grain. The barangay owns a 48-year old 'ligis', a locally-made machine made of the trunk of the Mabolo tree, used to pound the rice grain. Pavia's best baye-baye is made from carefully selected ingredients. The choice of coconut, kind of sugar used and how well the pinipig was made counts a lot in the cooking. It's mixtur...

What makes the bayi-bayi of Miagao unique from the bayi-bayi in other parts of Iloilo? Aside from the delicious taste, it’s the packaging. Mostly they are only wrapped in cellophane. Though there may be some bayi-bayi makers in other parts of Iloilo who do wrap in banana leaf, still their packaging is different. Miagao has an attractive way of wrapping the bite-sized bayi-bayi in shiny, bright green banana leaf. They look like miniature, fluffed-up green pillows. Using banana leaf as its wrapper started since the very first bayi-bayi in Miagao was made and that was surely a long time ago. Read complete article Photos and text snippets from an article written by Franielyn Tagolgol published online @ iLOVEiloilo