FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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...

Mention Tatoy's and a picture of their native litsong manok will certainly flash in everybody's mind. Ofcourse it's their claim to fame specialty when it started in a small hut along Villa beach decades ago. Now, it's a complex of buildings, cabanas and structures make the Tatoy's Manokan and Seafood Restaurant. But they have their delectable native litsong manok to entice your sense even when you are just entering the restaurant. Full of flavour in every bite, the petite chicken is a must have when dining at Tatoy's or you'll be having an incomplete Tatoy's experience. But a recent food trip made me discover that there's more to Tatoy's than their signature native litsong manok. Starting with the appetizer, we had green mangoes served with sauteed guinamos (the local bago-ong). The guinamos was very good that ordered another just to have another go with the guinamos. That instant I made my own bago-ong rice and ev...

. Kiong Hee Huat Tsai! Gong Xi Fa Cai! Kung Hei Fat Chai! No matter how they are said, these greetings for the Lunar New Year or more popularly referred to as the Chinese New Year are among the most said and heard during the biggest celebrations during the first two months of every year. Together with Valentine's Day and for the Ilonggos, Dinagyang Festival, these events shaped our malling, shopping and eating weeks or days leading to these events. So it's like an extension of the December holidays with a more thematic gastronomy served in and out of our homes. A few days before the Chinese New Year, I received a basket from Iloilo Supermart filled with lots and lots of Chinese delicacies and snacks one can find at their grocery stores. Ranging from the CNY staple Tikoy that came in various sizes and variants, there was also some hopia, rice & peanut rolls and kiamoy among others in the snacks basket. That became a sign that welcoming the Year of the Metal was t...