FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

I just had a hearty lunch of steaming rice topped with a creamy and flavourful concoction of ginata-ang bago-ngon, takway and dagmay. Bago-ngon is a local snail with good with any vegetable dishes like this or laswa. Takway is the tendril jutting the sides of a gabi plant while dagmay is a rootcrop related to gabi and ube. Mix them all together and one gets this native Ilonggo vegetable dish that will not only satisfy but also brings back gastronomic memories.

This would be my second blog entry for dagmay . I cant seem to pass the chance of taking more pictures when native dishes present themselves aside from having big servings.

A simple dish named after a variety of gabi (yam) used in cooking. It also has takway, coconut milk and local snails known as bago-ngon. I've grown up with this dish though cant be sure if I liked it then as much as I like it now. If not for the carinderia beside our house, I may not have remembered this dish.

This local snail is probably the most exotic food that made its way on our dinner table. Sold by the "tumpok" at the town market, it requires simple preparation before cooking. The ends are removed using the blunt side of an all around knife. This is necessary since it is at this end that the excesses of the snail are stored (plus it makes it easier to suck out the meat). Then brush the shell to remove dirt and other dirty material that might have stick to it. Then it's ready for cooking the way you wan it to be.Most of the time, bago-ngon goes well with coconut milk dishes just like this dagmay with gata dish or at times, tambo with saluyot. But these bago-ngons made its way to a "gata-less" dish, a simple laswa dish with saluyot and kalabasa. (I dont know why I decided not take take pics of that.)