FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

The district Jaro, Iloilo celebrates biggest fiesta in the region characterized by the pageantry and the grandeur of the occasion paying homage to Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria , the patron saint of Western Visayas. Every February 2, all roads lead to Jaro as Ilonggos celebrate the feast of O ur Lady of Candles in different aspects - religious, gastronomic, enterprising, and more. (For) 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. For the second straight year, I was at the Jamerlan household (thanks Sir Eugene) to celebrate the gastronomic part of the Jaro Fiesta. And just looking at the spread alone, it is indeed a grand way of celebrating the fiesta with one of the prominent Jareño families. And the gastronomic journey started with these a...

Forget the sauce, these fresh lumpia are very delicious on its own. The aroma alone can already make you salivate and what more when you finally sink your teeth into them. I've grown up with these kind of lumpiang ubod that I shy away from those that come with peanut sauce or something. A good fresh lumpia for me must have the right blend of a garlicky flavour and subtle sweetness though the trend right now especially to those homemade ones is there is "light, medium, strong" garlicky taste. So, vampires beware! Making one seems simple enough - just saute garlic, ground pork and ubod with some seasoning then add sugar. Then wrap into special kind of lumpia wrapper - a thinner one since this it is "no-cook" that what makes it "fresh". The heat and moisture from the filling eventually makes it softer and it is eaten best - cold.Garnishing like onion leaves are added to have more flavour and visual dimension to this simple yet truly delectable ...

What makes Ilonggo style fresh lumpia different from others is that it can be eaten on its own. No need for a sauce since the ubod filling is already packed with flavour and seasoned well enough. It's also convenient to be eaten on the go and here in Iloilo, it is more of a "street food" rather than those served in plates with all the trimmings. Individually wrapped and sold in most native restaurants, native food stalls and even pasalubong and bake shops. When I crave for fresh lumpia, I don't even think of JD Bakeshop . I never really tried their version of fresh lumpia again since, if my memory serves me right, the last time I had their fresh lumpia it was mediocre even when compared to those generic ones sold in stalls. The many times I've been to any JD store, their fresh lumpia would never make it in front of me. But I became curious then, a friend brought back these fresh lumpia back to Manila to satisfy the cravings of his lola . So when I was at...

A few weeks ago, I met a friend from Manila and toured her and her kids around Iloilo City hours before their flight back home. It started with a breakfast that tuned out to be a brunch after all. We went to JD Cafe and Bakeshop at The Roadhouse and as usual our peso went long way. The pancit molo came in a medium sized bowl and for the prices I paid (PhP21++) it was already worth it. Not that it was spectacular or tasted very good, but you can't get a more decent bowl of pancit molo than this at the same price. It has around seven large pancit molo balls and enough chicken strips and flavour too to make it worthwhile. Their chicken ala king is among the most popular. For Php27++, it's just a few slices of toast topped with a creamy chicken and vegetable concoction. Just a light snack and perfect side to some pasta or soups they have. And lastly their fresh lumpia was a rediscovery. I got some not so good memories of their fresh lumpia before - I never really liked how i...

The lure of diwal (angel's wing clams) brought us to Breakthrough Restaurant along Villa beach one afternoon. I often have a "staple order list" whenever I dine at this seaside restaurant but during this visit, it was overlooked for some other food items. Ilonggo style fresh lumpia became our appetizer despite the fact that we dont need one since we were already hungry. It was a very late lunch at past 3pm but it was worth the wait. This lumpia requires no sauce at all since it's already packed with flavours. This grilled blue marlin is among the best I had. Very fresh and perfectly grilled inside out. It was as though freshly caught, cleaned, sliced and grilled but it in reality it was sitting on ice inthe freezer when we looked at it. Appetizing to look at but in contrast to the blue marlin above this plate of lechon almost had been sitting there for hours. The skin was still crisp though but what lies underneath is a cholesterol bomb waiting to be ignited. T...

Located in most major shopping malls, this stall specializes on Ilonggo delicacies and native food products. A good move in making these native local products be readily available since most of these only just live in our memories but thanks to some entrepreneuring spirit, we can actually live and taste these memories. It was fresh lumpia that lured me today at their SM City branch (at the Food Court) and thinking about my blog, I added linupak and supposedly inday-inday but turned out to be bucayo (the attendant's mistake or my ignorance?) It looks like I just opened a treasure chest for my blog since its a native food galore at Sabor Ilonggo. Fresh Lumpia Linupak Bucayo (grated coconut cooked with sugar until dry)

Another satisfying visit at Breakthrough Restaurant when I accompanied and toured a friend around Iloilo. It was more of a gastronomy tour since he was also here few weeks ago - without my knowledge. When in Iloilo it's automatic that one of the must try cuisine is La Paz batchoy but he's no pork eater so we had a seafood "binge" at Breakthrough Restaurant. Actually I was torn between Breakthrough and Tatoy's that time - I havent decided where to go even though we're already travelling to Villa beach. It was then I decided that ambiance must play a big role to first timers in Iloilo thus we went to Breakthrough. A good decision since we got a hut near the beach with a good vewi of the sea and Guimaras. There was even someone riding a jet ski that time. And the food never failed as well. The usual sizzling crabmeat, grilled scallops (surprisingly they're bigger than the usual, but i still prefer Tatoy's timpla ), my favorite shrimp kilawin , this crust...