FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

An out-of-the-blue experiment that turned out to be delicious! But it's really not that surprising since pineapple-cheese as a sandwich filling is already yummy, so how much more if it becomes an ice cream? The creaminess of the cheese and milk is balanced by the sweetness of the pineapple making the combination something different with hints of familiarity. Here's the recipe that I experimented with in making this pineapple-cheese ice cream

Now, who doesn't love danggit? The crunch, the saltiness ( yikes high blood! )  and how it complements the taste of vinegar, makes this dried seafood an ultimate favorite.   It's probably one of the most popular dried fishes together with the many varieties of tuyo/pinakas and dilis/balingon.  And fried danggit is the bomb! With just vinegar or calamansi as dip or some fresh tomatoes as side dish, it often makes you say "Extra rice, please!". I love the meatier type of danggit wherein you can actually bite some of the dried flesh of the fish.  Compared with the thin and smaller ones where in its just it may seem like just dried plastic (most often the prepacked ones in the groceries) and often are sharp enough to cut you gums, meatier danggit is la delight in every bite.  While, dried danggit is more often fried, I also prefer cooking it right on top of charcoal.  Aside from being  oil-free, cooking ...

Laswa is to the Ilonggos as what dinengdeng and pinakbet  are to the Ilocanos. These are mainly vegetables based dishes with a few meats and seafood. What makes laswa different is that guinamos or bago-ong is not part of the recipe. In both Ilocanos dishes, bago-ong is a major flavour enhancer giving both dishes a distinct bago-ong taste. Laswa , on the other hand, is a tamer version since guinamos is rarely used and it just relies on garlic, onion and tomato plus a little salt as flavour enhancer. Thus, it is a perfect combination with fried or grilled fish or pork! Here's the basic recipe for the Ilonggo favorite - Laswa Ingredients Kalabasa cubes Okra slices Eggplant slices Sigarilyas slices Patola slices String beans Saluyot Takway (optional) Puso ng Saging (optional) Alimasag, dilis, shrimps, daing na isda (optional) Garlic, crushed Onion, quartered  Tomatoes, sliced Salt Water How to cook Laswa Wash all the veget...

So, how was your Mother's Day gastronomic celebration yesterday? Whether it was a family gathering at home or a socially-distant eat out at a favorite restaurant, as long as we all pay tribute to our Mothers in our own ways, it's always a meaningful celebration. Ours was just a simple family gathering of four and we prepared what we can think of days or even hours before. It was a mix of meat and seafoods as well as vegetables with pasta, salads and desserts for the finale! How about some fried chicken, grilled bangus belly and fish barbecue resting on some turbo-broiled hash browns? These would go well with a sili-mansi-toyo dip or that big batch of kimchi (which I forgot to take a solo pic), beside the cake on the main photo above. More seafood, in the form of the simple Linusgusan nga Pasayan or Halabos na Hipon. This is basically shrimps cooked in water and salt or some use clear soda for an added sweetness to the shrimps. After noticing that we sort of lacked s...

One of my favorites, this dried seafood is made from "cured" fish meat which they say is salmonite . Often seen as "red circles" sold in the market, it is always with curiosity that buyers ask what they are and when they do know, they actually buy it for that. Cooking it might be tricky since too - you must have the right heat since too much will burn your cooking (there's sugar in it) and too low, you might not be cooking it at all. But when its perfect, you'll have a dried seafood that's crisp yet meaty and the saltiness complements the sweetness of it being a tocino. Sold mostly in packs  (check out the red ones) that cost around PhP150 more or less, which is great for pasalubong. But you can actually buy these packs by the kilo, just ask the vendors at the market. And I just love having   fish tocino meal for breakfast now, and then. Enjoy! Here's an adapted recipe on How to Make Fish Tocino from Business Diary...

This bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen is the most affordable Japanese noodle soup we've ever seen so far! Given that most ramens cost from PhP 180 to PhP 250 here in Iloilo to around PhP 450 in Manila. Not to mention the almost PhP 950 bowl I had in Hong Kong (missing Ichiran). Now back at home, Mushin Japanese Cafe along Arroyo Street in Santa Barbara near the town's public market, offers this Japanese noodle soup for only PhP 130 a bowl with add-ons ranging from PhP 10 to PhP 55. This hole in the wall cafe offers two kinds of ramen - Tonkotsu and Syoyu/Shoyu. Tonkotsu ( NOT tonkatsu) has a soup broth based on pork bones and other ingredients, which are typically boiled for several hours, and the dish is traditionally topped with sliced pork belly and served with ramen noodles that are hard in the center.  Syoyu (soy sauce in Japanese)  has a clear brown broth, based on a chicken and vegetable (or sometimes fish or beef) stock with plenty of soy sauce added resu...

I recently attended an event at Punot Restaurant at the Riverside Boardwalk just beside the Iloilo River Esplanade. It was for Victorias Foods Corporation's " A Taste of Negros" campaign for its products specifically Victorias Spanish-style Sardines and Bangus. There, Chef Tope of Punot satisfied our appetites with his level up "de-lata" creations ranging from Pizza and Bruschetta to Pasta using the much-loved Victorias Foods products which were c reated from a heritage recipe born in a Negrense kitchen and cherished through generations. You may check out Chef Tope's creations in this blogpost . Pizza, pasta and bruschetta all made with Victorias Foods Spanish Style Sardines and Bangus in Soya Oil. Complementing his collaborative creations, we were also serve a number of Punot Specialties to balance our gastronomic repertoire. To whet our appetites, Punot restaurant offered a duo of their best selling salads which coincidentally two of...