FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Dainty Restaurant is among the famous old school Chinese restaurants in Iloilo City. Aside from serving their specialties in their mezzanine floor they also have this snack house in the ground floor that is combination of a turo-turo, short order, bakery and take out store. Taking almost centerstage in this part of their store is a display of baked goods and here's a batch of their "tinapay" I bought days ago for the purpose of blogging first before gastronomic pleasure. I just love their hopia monggo especially when hot off the oven or just came from the microwave. It's not your usual looking hopia yet tastes much better for me. It's a monggo-filled flattened flaky bread if it can't be considered as hopia. Though this one wasn't as good as the ones I had before. Just the usual hopia baboy made bigger and better. It has the more recognizable hopia look and filled with teh same "baboy" filling we all are familiar with. What can I say but they...

The Iloilo Dainty House Restaurant and Bakeshop make a hopia somewhat different from the usual that becomes special in my case. It is like a piaya that got lost in gastronomic translation and thinks of itself a hopia.  But nonetheless it still is hopia - flaky outside and filled with monggo that has a sort of "good smelling taste". Its not a "typo" but it's how I describe the some abstract taste of this particular hopia.  Its more in the fact that it somewhat has its own taste dimension that one gets overwhelmed to process the actual taste.  Each hopia costs around PhP8 but I advise you toget more than one. You might just love it the way I do. Dainty House Restaurant is located along Iznart Street, Iloilo City,.  a few steps away from Amigo Plaza mall and Shopping Center.

The first time I got to taste this hopia, it was really heaven. It looks and tastes very different from the hopias we know, this one made me crave (and rave) for days. I've been going back to Dainty eversince but most of the time they are already sold out or not available at all. From its perfect golden brown outside to its soft flaky, almost filo pastry like inside, to its monggo center, the pictures say it all.

A popular Chinese restaurant in the past, I remember it being located in an old building in front of the JM Basa side of the Socorro drugstore building. It had a grand staircase which welcomes every visitor inside. Sadly I cant recall those times we actually ate in the resto since my memories of Dainty resto are limited to "taking out" my then favorite, asado roll. Years later, it transferred to a new location along Iznart street. Its a two level resto with the lower level having a bakery, shorts orders and serving turo turo style cuisine. The second level serves as their main restaurant. More.... At present there's still their asado roll but it seems that I have outgrown it. They also have this pan de leche which is compact yet soft. Their monggo hopia which is unlike others since its more of a mongo-filled pan de leche. They also have this very simple ensaymada yet big in size and filling.