FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

I could be one of the last persons here in Iloilo who haven't been to Floyd's Famous Bbq. Located at the 2nd floor of the Atrium with a great view of the city, Floyd's started inside the University of San Agustin catering to its students. Now, its part of the Iloilo Supermart, Coffeebreak, Tinapayan, etc family being managed by one the Que siblings. My recent trips to Floyd's were treats from a friend who seems to be a VIP there ( we don't even line up and our orders served within 3 minutes compared to the usual 15minutes ). My first visit had seafood kare kare and pork barbecue to which seem ordinary in my own opinion. The pork barbecue was more on the "don’t like" scale since I don’t seem to like the barbecue sauce while the kare kare was nothing spectacular. Though both would have been picture perfect if I had the courage to take some photos. Having a table at the center of the restaurant during that busy lunch hour together with new acquaintances supp...

I don't know how it came to be called as such but to Ilonggos, these are tiny dried shrimps. Methinks its actually shrimp fry or baby shrimps. Mostly used as garnishing over kalo-kalo (fried rice); however it can be of many uses depending on the imagination of the cook. One of the more common ways of using kalkag is making a torta of out of it. Just mix it with some seasoning, egg and flour then fry. Or just sprinkle them over laswa or any vegetable dish, as garnishing and mild flavouring as well. Most of the time though, I just heat them over a pan (without oil) or just mixrowave, for around half a minute and mix it with rice.

Bought pork and chicken fresh lumpia, P15 each, at the Sabor Ilonggo stall in SM City today. Until now I'm still high so I'm letting the pictures speak though here's my original entry on fresh lumpia .

Finally I've visited Tibiao snack shop in front of The Atrium. I've wanted to have a blog entry focused on their short orders since I have more than enough of the bread, pastries and cookies. If my memory serves me right it was Tibiao that made me appreciate to eat fresh tomatoes (found inside their hamburgers before). Though their sio pao is more famous, their hamburger was one of the best I've tried before. Another reason for this visit was their pancit Molo since I'm planning of comparing (all) the pancit Molo of the local snack shops. With these hamburger memories and pancit Molo survey, an unlikely combination was born. As usual, while waiting for my order, I took some snapshots of the snack shop. Nothing fancy yet presentable; homey yet there's some hustle and bustle; great place for one or many. Nothing pretentious, just a plain snack shop. Then my number was called and I got my order at the counter, and as expected the pancit Molo was not yet photo read...

From being a trendsetter in batchoy, Deco's now bring something new. A one stop pasalubong shop! Situated beside its flagship batchoy store in La Salette building, this must go to shop brings around 12 local pasalubong brands for everybody's convenience. It has even an entrance to its restaurant and playing almost every time on the LCD tv are feature presentations about Iloilo. From Dinagyang to batchoy to golf, its an infotainment visit as well as gastronomical. Half of the shops perimeter is lined with choiced among the city's pasalubong brand and mostly it has biscuits,cookied and sweets of all kinds. One can get Biscocho Haus' butterscotch and yema to Mama's Kitchens' chewies and crunchies to Trappists products plus other varieties and brands, literally, within steps. The middle portion has two shelves having some bottled pasalubong, dried seafood, shirts, keychain and other sweets. For variety and convenience, this is a top recommendation where to buy pas...

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.)

Bilong-bilong , as what it is called, is a silvery flatfish. It can be fried, sinabawan , pinamalhan, binuro and sinugba. I found a similar entry at marketmanila.com which says .. ".... an amusing looking fish called Bilong-bilong or Chabita or Kadis. A Moonfish (now isn’t that a descriptive name?) of the Family Menidae, it inhabits coastal waters, has an incredibly flat body and oval shape with low fins. Locals love to serve this paksiw style with ginger, vinegar and onions, or deep fried where if small enough, everything is munched on, I am told..." Fried bilong- bilong Pinamalhan na bilong bilong Binuro nga bilong bilong from iLOVEiloilo.com How to make Binuro nga Bilong bilong (adapted from LEE's comment in the PINAMALHAN entry) 1. Clean bilong-bilong with water then drain. 2. In a container with lid, make alternate layers of the fish and salt, the latter in the bottom layer. 3. Cover and store in a cool, dry place (not in the fridge) in the next few days. 4....