FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Inubaran  basically means the dish is cooked with ubad . No, it's not a typo error, it is really ubad not ubod Different from but practically the same. Confusing? Well ubod is the pith or the center of a coconut tree while ubad is the pith of a banana tree. To have an ubad means a whole banana tree has been cut down and stripped to bare its center. So goodbye to banana fruit, leaves and heart. To make this dish, one has to prepare an ubad for cooking - first thinly slice, around half a centimeter, the cleaned pith (must be very white and sized like a fluorescent lamp to be sure of the quality.) . Then using a barbecue stick, remove web like fibers "interconnecting" these slices (these are actually hardened banana sap). When finished you can crush is into smaller pieces and add to your cooking. This particular recipe also makes use of (young) libas leaves as a souring ingredient. Just saute pieces of (native) chicken in ginger,ga...

Though overshadowed by the more popular KBL ( kadyos, baboy, langka ), another uniquely dish that makes Ilonggos crave and yearn for simple but delicious eats is the combination of kadyos, manok and ubad . With no "monicker" of its own – ditch that KMU suggestion for this aint “labor-revolting ”, it’s just plainly named as such because of the three main ingredients. The ever popular-to-the-Ilonggos-but-alien-to-others is kadyos – pigeon pea. Soft beans with hues playing from dark brown to black and gives a distinct violet shade to the broth it makes. Chicken also provides protein for this dish and to make it more Ilonggo, most of the time native chickens referred to as “ Bisaya ” are used. These free roaming chickens are much flavourful than those raised in “captivity”. And ubad – it’s no typo error; yes it’s ubad with an “A”. Not to be confused with ubod, both are different yet share a similarity. Ubod is the pith of the coconut tree while ubad is t...

Ubad sold at the Santa Barbara Public market. This is different from ubod but practically the same. Confusing? Well ubod is the pith or the center of a coconut tree while ubad is the pith of a banana tree. To have an ubad means a whole banana tree has been cut down and stripped to bare its center. So goodbye to banana fruit, leaves and heart. To prepare an ubad for cooking, first thinly slice, around half a centimeter, the cleaned pith (must be very white and sized like a fluorescent lamp to be sure of the quality.) . Then using a barbecue stick, remove web like fibers "interconnecting" these slices (these are actually hardened banana sap). When finished you can crush is into smaller pieces and add to your cooking. Ubad is mostly used as extender to the usual meat and vegetable dishes, the most famous of which is the ubad-kadyos-chicken combination. Another dish that goes well with ubad is the usual ginisang monggo . With pieces of pork and malunggay as ...

Ubad is the pith or the inner core of a banana stalk and usually it's chicken that makes a good partner. This dish is really simple to cook but the actual preparations may not be as easy. Monggo has to be soaked overnight to soften the beans. Ofcourse malunggay leaves have to meticulously removed from the stem. And ubad preparation involves, well just go this post . When everythings' ready just boil chicken and monggo then add seasoning (mostly chicken broth cubes and little salt). Then add ubad and finally manlunggay leaves when almost done. The resulting dish is a fiber rich and nutritious soup dish.

Overshadowed by its more famous brother, the KBL , the combination of kadyos-manok-ubad is much healthier so to speak, sans the chicken skin of course. Prepared almost the same as KBL but without the batuan seeds (for souring ).