ILOILO FOOD TRIP

Delicious and flavourful - beef mami could satisfy any hunger almost all the time. Complete with carbohydrates, protein and the vitamins and minerals you get from vegetables it may come with, its a complete meal unto itself. Whether you enjoy it at your favorite place or one you can make at home, enjoy beef mami the way you like it!  Here's a simple recipe for Beef Mami with Egg

One of the most common fruit trees in our yard, we might have around 10 and the question that still remain unanswered is that what is star apple in the local dialect? Kaymito is the Tagalog name but I've grown calling this to be star apple ever since. And there are two varieties, the purple and the white with green skin. The former is the most common and is perfect with condensed milk as dessert or freeze a little bit then it becomes a fruity ice cream!

A refreshing and healthy cooler, this red kamote juice is made with red kamote tops with calamansi juices. It is very simple to make yet tricky as finding the right kamote tops would sometimes be a challenge. Good thing the local wet market has almost a steady supply of red kamote tops most of the time, so we can enjoy this delicious juice anytime we want. Here's how to make Red Kamote Juice

Macaroni Salad is a staple dessert during special occasions. Aside from being easy to make, it is also versatile to easily suit your taste and budget And whatever your end product maybe or how it will look like, it still is a salad and chances are they will be asking for more! So here's a basic recipe of a macaroni and fruit salad.

There are many ways to make Sarciadong Isda  thus a generic name for this recipe. It is basically fried fish topped with sauce made mainly of tomatoes and it can be also like a sweet and sour recipe . But this one is simpler and takes less ingredients at the same time easy to tweak to suit your own taste. Here's a basic recipe for Sarciadong Isda

Tulapho can be considered to be Ilonggo chicharon dating back to the Spanish colonial period. It is an old tradition of using animal fat to fry other foodstuff and tulapho could have been the by product of extracting fats from pork. They say some bakeries (in Molo) use the fat ( lard ) from the tulapho in making biscuits. Tulapho is perfect in adding crunch to various dishes like pinakbet  just like the Ilocanos add bagnet to theirs. It is also a good partner when making ginisang guinamos (the Ilonggo bago-ong ). Here's the simple recipe of making Tulapho

The Holidays are almost over and when you check the fridge chances are, left-overs from the season of gastronomy still lurk behind. And luckily left overs re my specialty when it comes to making mix and match recipes, most especially after the Christmas and New Year. If you still have ham left from your Noche Buena and Media Noche feast they would come perfect for this fried rice recipe call Hawaiian Kalo-Kalo (fried rice).

I love mais and it's usually the tinanok ( nilaga ) that I crave for. But upon passing by my suki mais corner, I happen to be captivated by the aroma of their sinugba nga mais so without much though I bought 4 pieces upon knowing that its only Php15/2 piece. Now that's really bargain and I will surely be back for more! Do you like plain grilled corn? 

Pancit Molo is among Iloilo's culinary specialties and a great contribution to the Philippine gastronomic scene. Named after one of the city's districts, Molo, the dish has an obvious Chinese influence being like the wonton . No wonders there as Molo is a rich Chinese enclave where generations of old Ilonggo families in the area have family ties to the Chinese - from other parts of the country and to China, itself. One of the first questions always asked is "Where's the Pancit?". With  pancit  as a sort of "prefix" to the name of the dish, first timers always for the noodle-like component of the dish. It's then explained that the  pancit  is actually the molo ball wrappers which is basically of the same mix as any pancit/noodles. And here's one basic recipe for this much beloved Ilonggo soup - Pancit Molo

We've been frying " pancit molo " ever since for two reasons - a more convenient way of sending these sumptuous balls over great distances (as pasalubong) AND it also tastes great like an all meat lumpia . Its basically pancit molo balls that instead of swimming in a savory broth, they find themselves browning in hot oil. And of course, the curiosity level is up when one sees "fried" before pancit molo.  Here's the simple Fried Pancit Molo recipe

Pancit Bihon is probably the most common of all the pancit dishes in the Philippines. From home to caridnerias, pancit bihon is a staple for its also the easiest pancit dish to prepare. Made with rice noodles with assorted meat and vegetables, pancit bihon guisado is one delicious noodle dish even those who haven't cook can easily prepare. Here's a simple Pancit Bihon recipe

Pancit Malabon is almost like Pancit Palabok but the noodles used makes the big difference. It makes use of thicker rice noodles and the sauce is also somewhat thicker plus it has lots of seafood toppings given the place where it originated (Malabon) is a coastal city. The noodles and sauce are already mixed when served with lots of toppings one can imagine. Here's a recipe for Pancit Malabon

While kangkong is mostly associated with Pork Sinigang , Apan-apan  and other recipes, it makes a good appetizer and snack when fried ala tempura and partnered with a delicious dip. Here's a recipe for Crispy Kangkong

One simple recipe at home where it involves a few ingredients and easy cooking is soup made with balunggay ( malunggay or moringa), balingon ( dilis or local anchovy), tomato and egg. Though it can be considered as a cardillo recipe because of the addition of fresh egg. Here's the recipe for Malunggay-Dilis-Egg Soup

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

Give the usual steamed okra, kamote tops and other vegetables a more visually appealing and more appetizing make-over with this simple salad recipe. It just takes a few more minutes of preparation than the usual but gives one big gastronomic satisfaction. Here's a simple recipe for Okra and Kamote Ensalada

What lobo-lobo is to the Ilonggos is called d ulong in most parts of the Philippines. These are tiny silvery fishes often referred to as baby dilis in some places. It is often found in wet markets sold in "cups" or in groceries inside ready to cook styro packaging. And most of the time they often end up either fried as torta or steamed inside banana leaves. Here are two recipes for Lobo-lobo - Torta and Tino-um

I love dried danggit and I'm pretty sure, you do too! Now, who doesn't?  It's probably one of the most popular dried fishes together with the many varieties of tuyo/pinaka and balingon/dilis 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 and often are sharp enough to cut you gums, meatier danggit is a delight in every bite.

What makes this pan de sal interesting is the "prefix" pre-war that got me very curious then when a batchoyan started offering them years ago, along side with another iconic bread - pan de sal ni Pa-a . As the name suggest thus pan de sal may have been the typical recipe decades ago before the war. But it may have just caught up commercially in the 70s. Good thing that there are still bakeries here in Iloilo that makes the original pan de sal and among them is the Los Filipinos Bakery along Iznart Street across the Iloilo Central market. Each costs PhP 1 and it is among the most compact pan de sals I've tried and perfect with soups like Lapaz batchoy. Bakeries in towns still make this kind of bread like this one in Santa Barbara, Iloilo which is bigger but still light yet compact. It is basically on the sweet side plus it has that signature "dusting" that makes it stand out. It is also perfect coffee or chocolate drinks.

A comfort food, perhaps? One of the simplest breakfast (all around) staple is sauteed canned sardines. It can be as simple as just plain ginisang sardinas or you can add vegetables and tweak the recipe as I always do so that even though its just canned sardines it can taste different every time. Extra rice, please! Here's a simple yet special recipe for Ginisang Sardinas with Okra and Malunggay

There’s an unwritten rule in the house – leftover fried fish will become cardillo while broiled fish becomes linagpang . While cardillo involves a more complicated process of making an egg-based broth for the fish, making linagpang is just easy as 1-2-3.  It has become quite a dish in the house as there’s no need to wait for leftover fishes – bangus in particular, in order to make linagpang . Here's the recipe for Linagpang na Bangus

Eggplants are among the most all around vegetables found in a variety of dishes. It can be fried as a torta, deep-fried like chips, cooked in sinigang and pinakbet , baked into pasta dishes and pinirito  partnered with bago-ong  casseroles,  or just plainly grilled. An off-shoot recipe from the grilled eggplant is Ensalada na Talong which is an easy to make appetizer or side dish for grilled meats and fish. Here's a simple recipe for Talong Ensalada (Eggplant Salad)

I often experimented with this recipe based on the taste memories I had of my last sweet and spicy dilis snack. Good thing, balingon or dilis is always available inside the fridge and so as the other ingredients. And making one is very simple, just frying and mixing - it's really that easy. So here's my very simple recipe which you can tweak to adjust to your own taste. I don't usually put in the measurement for most of the time I just thrown in what ever there is and adjust it during the process. Sweet and Spicy Dilis Recipe

Atsara is the Filipino version of pickles popularly made with grated unripe papaya though others use assorted vegetables,  labong (bamboo shoots) or dampalit - a weed. It is often served as a side dish for fried or grilled foods such as pork barbecue, chicken barbecue or any  inihaw  na isda.  The recipe varies from regions around the country and even from household to household. Here's a basic recipe for Atsara na Papaya .

Sorbetes is the traditional Filipino ice cream peddled in almost street corners across the country. Childhood memories are often recalled with the ringing of the bells by the neighborhood ice cream with his cart. Ube Sorbetes served with macapuno and sago pearls Take your pick from the moist popular flavors - buco, ube, keso or combination of the three. Served in plastic cups but you can opt for it one a wafer cone or placed inside a pan de leche for a literal ice cream, sandwich! Here's a Sorbetes recipe from Food.com .

When there is more than enough okra, it becomes a mainstay on the menu at home. Be it on pinakbet, sinigang, laswa and other dishes or just simply nilaga and other simple recipes which I tend to experiment on most of the time. I even just pop them inside the microwave oven at times for an instant side dish!  Easiest among these is Nilagang Okra with Bago-ong  - just partner boiled or steamed okra with ginisang bago-ong for a simple yet fulfilling sidedish. Or you can just by ready to serve bago-ong at the groceries.  I often mix it with a little calamansi so that the sour and salty taste combination would make it even more appetizing. A little chili pepper would spice it up a bit too!

Mangoes are available all year round but it is during summer that it is in season and cheapest. And when there are some many mangoes around, it is time for one of my favorite summer coolers - Mango con Hielo! Simpler to make than halo-halo , it is just as delicious and refreshing.      Here's a simple recipe for a Mango Con Hielo

Though not a native fruit to the Philippines and can be considered as exotic in some ways, persimmon is one fruit of curiosity for me. Good thing it's available at Iloilo Supermart from time to time. I just had my first bite of persimmon a few days ago and it tasted like a hard gelatinzed star apple or kaymito . It was curiosity - more than satisfied!

When there's more than enough green mangoes at home, they often end up as  binuro nga paho  (burong mangga) so we can enjoy their green-ness for a longer period of time. Making "pickles "out of these fruit differ from household to household, so it depends on the recipe you grew up with or if you have none, the one that you find online. Here's a simple Binuro nga Paho (Burong Mangga) recipe

Halo-halo is most probably the most popular Pinoy dessert not only here in the Philippines but also abroad. It's a visual feast of colors of its different ingredients, a melange of flavors and texture, and a perfect cooler/dessert.  There are a thousand and one ways of making halo-halo but basically it's just a mix of crushed iced, milk, sugar and "the works". The latter includes  leche flan , ube halaya , kaong, nata, sago, sweetened beans, minatamis na saging, sweet potato, fresh fruit , and a whole lot more - yeah lots of it.). It is also often topped with ice cream, most popular of which is the ube (purple yam) flavor.

Often a perfect partner of fried or grilled fish and meat, ginisang monggo is a straple in Pinoy gastronomy. There many ways of making this mung bean soup as the recipe varies from household to household. Its just a mix and match of the leafy vegetables and sliced veggies plus the subak or meat/seafood add-ins.  Here's a simple recipe for Ginisang Monggo with many variations to choose from.

I love boiled saba bananas especially those ripe bordering on being over ripe. Its soft and sweeter thus more appetizing for me. And it gets even better with a butter spread oozing from its warm and smooth surface. Even with bananacue , I still prefer the over ripe one as it gets even sweet on every bite. So what's your nilagang saba like?

Guinamos is the local shrimp paste usually used flavouring dishes at the same time a favorite dip for green mangoes, when sauteed. Kalkag , on the hand, are dried "baby" shrimps usually half an inch long. They both come from these baby shrimps, with guinamos (it is salted and pounded until it becomes a paste) and for kalkag (it is salted and sundried).  Here's a recipe combining guinamos and kalkag into one crispy-licious treat!