ILOILO FOOD TRIP

There are many ways of cooking adobo - be it pork, chicken or vegetables. And the recipes varies from region to region and even household to household. One of the variation of this favorite Pinoy recipe is  using achuete (annatto) to give a distinct flavour, color and aroma making it more visually appealing and of course more delicious. Here's a recipe for Chicken Adobo with Achuete and one can tweak this recipe to suit his own taste and/or with the availability of ingredients especially those with limited sources.

Puto Lanson is also called aripahol nga balinghoy (kamoteng kahoy or cassava). It is made with this grated root crop, coconut plus sugar then steamed and sold in banana leaves. It has a rough finish opposite that of the more popular puto but it packs in more flavour that I eventually finished a pair in just one sitting.

I just love fishballs! I can finish 10 sticks of this deliciously appetizing meryenda or even more. The combination of the crispy fried balls with the savory sauce (make mine hot!) makes every bite a burst of exciting flavors that I rave and crave for. My fave fish ball stand is Joann's Special Fishballs at Molo Plaza and they are second to none! Here's a simple recipe for Fish Balls which could almost "mimic" the fishballs Joann's sell, in some ways.

One of the simplest breakfast (all around) staple is sauteed canned sardines with miswa . It is an easy to cook recipe with plain ginisang sardinas  and miswa but you can add vegetables and tweak the recipe as I always do. Extra rice, please! Here's a simple yet special recipe for Ginisang Sardinas with Miswa

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 -  ubod is the pith or the center of a coconut tree while ubad is the pith of a banana tree. 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. Here's a recipe for Inubaran na Manok

Sambag (tamarind) candy is an acquired taste as it is a combination of "screaming" sweet and sour flavours in just one bite. Another version of this well-loved sambag candy is one shaped into balls and rolled in sugar. Sweet potato or kamote is used as extender at the same time giving it body to form into balls.  Here's the recipe for Sambag Balls Candy

Balut is often regarded as the Pinoy contribution to the world's list of exotic food. Though, it can be found in some south east Asian countries, it is often associated with the Philippines. And in our country, it is found almost everywhere with Pateros as "ground zero" for this "boiled developing duck embryo"  industry. I love balut but its just limited to the sabaw , egg white and yolk - thus I'm just a " balut sa puti " eater. And its always with a pinch of salt to season my balut .

I just love kamote tops, whether in a sinigang dish or just plain steamed, I just love simple taste of this green and leafy vegetable. So with salted egg which is almost, always just mixed with fresh tomatoes. As if a gastonomic inspiration just popped in my head, I decided to combine both in one dish that had me salivating - event while making this blog post. What I did was just to "crush" salted egg then add vinegar and black pepper for this "sauce" that eventually be part of some special occasion menu. Of course having salted egg almost everyday is sort of not really good for the health because of its salt content, thus the "special occasion".  Here's the simple recipe for the Salted Egg Sauce.

Suman Latik is one of my favorite native delicacies. Basically, its just plain suman stopped with sweetened coconut strips or bukayo . Most of the time those sold in the markets have this two (suman and bukayo) already in one wrap and all you have to to is devour it. But most of the time, the bukayo portion is bitin that I wish theres more. So why not make our own suman latik so you can have all the suman we want with all the bukayo toppings we desire! Here's a simple recipe for Suman Latik 

Sinigang is a very popular Filipino sour soup dish and there are a hundred and one ways of making sinigang . From pork, beef and chicken (more commonly called sinampalukang manok because of the use of the sampalok or tamarind) to seafood like fish and shrimps. And using shrimps, you can make your favorite sour soup in a few minutes. Here's a very simple recipe using just store bought sampaloc mix and it's for sinigang na hipon .

Bago-ong or guinamos is a favorite Filipino condiment at the same time cooking ingredient. As condiment, you'll most likely picture slices of green mango being dipped or steamed vegetables like steamed okra, fried eggplant or steamed kamote tops. As a cooking ingredient, let's not go further than pinakbet  and kare-kare  -though its more like a dip for the latter. As simple as it gets, it is perfect for bago-ong fried rice. No matter how you eat bago-ong , it's surely  as good as it gets! Here's a simple recipe for Guisadong Bago-ong with Pork.

Linugaw  ( ginata-ang halo-halo/bilo-bilo ) is a staple during Pista Minatay (Undas) in the province. Though it knows no specific occasion, it is always highlighted during All Souls Day at home . But Undas or not, ginata-ang halo-halo is a delicious treat. Here's a simple recipe of making Linugaw

An obvious Chinese specialty, this dimsum have evolved for years and made it into the Filipino gastronomy. Now, almost everywhere across the country from restaurants to fastfood, there are so many versions of sio mai. And you can make yours too. Here's a simple recipe of making Siomai

I just love the delicious and gummy feel plus the butter and sugar toppings that I can eat five of them in just one sitting. Even with so many hotcake mixes brands or places serving them, I still prefer and love these hotcakes sold in the streets especially during town fiestas or in town fairs.  Most premixed hotcakes recipes comes out soft and fluffy, while this one gummy. Here's the simple recipe for this favorite streetfood

Miswa is one of the easiest noodles to cook with. In fact, it's like having an instant noodle with just a different look and without the seasoning that comes with it. Making dishes involving miswa is just limited by one's imagination as there are as many as the strands of noodles in a pack of miswa. One of the easiest and yummiest is Miswa with Sauteed Sardinas  and my on the spot -  Miswa with Okra and Egg Noodle Soup . The popular Lapaz Batchoy even has a Miswa Batchoy ! And here's another simple miswa recipe that is just as delicious. Here's a simple Miswa Soup recipe

Pork is probably the Pinoys most favored meat as there are as many pork dishes as the 7107 island making up the Philippine archipelago. Whether grilled, fried, sauced up, ground pork or in broth, there's one recipe that will surely tickle your tummy and fulfill your gastronomic fantasies! Here are some links to several Pork Recipes posted on this blog

So what's in today's LunchBox? For appetizer, there's Cucumber-Tomato salad in vinegar dressing perfect to whet your appetite. Cross between appetizer and side dish is Radish with Ground Pork yet it can become an ulam on its own. There's a Healthy Torta made with lobo-lobo fish (dulong) which is not fried at all! And the main gastronomic events are the  Pinakbet  and  Chicken Inasal  - a perfect combo of meat and veggies.   Click for the Recipes Pinakbet   |  Chicken Inasal  |  Torta nga Lobo-lobo     Ginisa nga Labanos

Most likely you've encountered labanos or radish in a Sinigang recipe or as an appetizer with vinegar dressing. But on its own, I love its peppery-bitter (or how might you call it) taste. If it's in season or if its really cheap in the market , we'd have like a "Labanos Festival" at home. And here's one of the simplest recipes using radish. Here's the recipe for Labanos Guisado with Ground Pork .

Passed by these "fresh fishes for sale" stall at the Iloilo Terminal Market and I can't help but take a snapshot of this "fishy" scene. It seems that they are screaming with freshness (the Iloilo Fish Port Complex is just nearby) to every passerby. And with these fish in mind, I recall and summarize some of the fish recipes (just click on the caption in each photo) on this blog and I hope you find them useful. Fish be with you...

Bilong-bilong is a flat silvery fish often called moonfish as it is round and silver as the moon. It is also called chabita outside the Ilonggo region. Most often it is made pinamalhan or just plain fried or grilled. But another recipe called binuro is also well-loved. Here's a simple recipe on how to prepare and cook Binuro na Bilong-bilong.