ILOILO FOOD TRIP

While watching these slabs of pork belly boiling in the pan, I envisioned it smothered in thick sauce. So an on-the-spot recipe was born! I then proceed to brown the pork belly then Googled a recipe for a tamarind-based sauce. Inspired by the recipe I found, I made some twist by adding ingredients my eyes laid on in the fridge and in the cupboard. Not bad for an experimental recipe... So here's my Braised Pork in Honey-Tamarind Sauce

A specialty of Cebu, Pancit Bam-I is a noodle dish that has been adapted in most parts of the country. It can be found in simple turo-turo and karinderyas as well as restaurants and hotels - each giving their own twist to the recipe.  But the common denominator for this pancit is the mix of two kinds of noodles - sotanghon (vermicelli) and canton (egg noodles). And just like with most pancit dishes, the recipe can be adjusted to satisfy your own tastebuds.  Here's a simple recipe of Pancit Bam-i 

While the original kilawin recipe calls for raw meat or seafood to be part of the dish "cooked" with  the acidity of vinegar, this dish is an offshoot adaptation of the recipe. Its more of friendly to those who don't want to ingest something "raw" but in some sense get the know how  kilawin  tastes. It's basically deep-fried pork (left-over   lechon kawali   is perfect for this recipe) served  kilawin -style.  Here's the recipe for Crispy Pork "Kilawin"

Bukayo is a native Filipino delicacy which is made mainly with coconut strips and sugar. There are two popular variants - moist and dry (also called bocarillo).  The former is typically made into toppings and fillings for suman latik and inday-inday, among others, though I just love eating it right from the container.  The latter is more candy type reminiscent of bandi, which takes a shape of its own and is more convenient to be eaten on the go. Both share almost the same recipe with some more or less tweaks to make the other. Here's a Recipe to make the Dry-type Bukayo. Ingredients 3 cups Young coconut meat, shredded 2 cups Muscovado Sugar, adjust 1/2 cup Coconut juice or plain water Vanilla extract Calamansi rind (optional) How to make Bukayo In a wok, place coconut juice or water and sugar then mix thoroughly. Adjust the amount of liquid so as to dissolve the sugar but not to runny.  Bring to boil then add coconut meat gradually to make sure i

Adobong Pusit  combines the Pinoys favorite way of cooking - adobo , with one of the most delicious bounty of the sea - pusit or squid, making it among the most popular ways of cooking this seafood. For some, the blackness of the dish is a sort of turn-off but to those who have discovered the gastronomic delights of this cooking; it's a taste of heaven - on a plate with hot rice! Here's a simple recipe for Adobong Pusit

I know you're fantasizing about Jollibee Burgersteak everytime you hear about "mushroom gravy". But you can always have this mouth-watering dish at the comfort of your home and it wont be limited to burger patties. Try any fried meat and you'll be asking for more. So how about some pork chops with this yummy mushroom gravy?

Now who doesn't love Kare-Kare ? The combination of tender meat and the savoury sauce, and yes the bago-ong - all scream for extra rice! But of course preparing kare-kare "from scratch" tends to be a labor intensive especially when you have to prepare the sauce using the traditional recipe - ground peanuts, toasted rice, achuete , etc. But good thing there are different brands of ready-to-use kare-kare mixes available that making kare-kare now takes a few simple steps. Here's a simple Kare-Kare na Pata Recipe

Kumbo is what Ilonggos refer to as banana fritters - saba dipped in batter then fried and sprinkled with sugar. I love it even more when the bananas used are ripe  as it give the kumbo some natural sweetness in every bite. Its  filling snack and easy to make at the same time tweak the recipe a bit to satisfy your taste and curiosity. Here's a basic recipe for kumbo .

When there's fried or grilled meat or seafood, a vegetable side dish is often its partner on the table. There are lots of veggie side dishes in my blog -  Okra-Kamote Ensalada ,  Apan-apan ,  Kamote Tops with Salted Egg Sauce ,  Adobong Puso ng Saging  and  many more . Here's another simple simple dish that even first time cooks can do in a flash. How about some  Ginisang Sayote, Talbos ng Kamote at Giniling ? Here's the simple recipe

Whether for a fiesta or any special occasion,  embutido  is a perfect dish to serve. Not only it adds presentation and flavour to any menu, it is also among the more familiar items that need no introduction.  And as there many occasions. there are many recipes as well as tweaks in making embutido.   Here's a recipe for Embutido

Giniling na Baboy is both a dish and is actually the literal translation of ground pork. It's among the easiest recipes and one that can be tweaked to suit you own taste at the same time cooked with whatever ingredients are available. While most often it is cooked with tomato sauce, it can be one with out it. Too add more kick to it, I often smother it bottled hot sauce.  Namit gid! Here's a simple recipe for Giniling na Baboy

It's been a while since the last I made a sotanghon recipe so I volunteered to make one during a simple birthday lunch. I love making sotanghon guisado one using shredded chicken with lots of ground pepper.  And cooking one is just very simple and this recipe can be used in making either a dry pancit sotanghin guisado or a soup version. Here's the simple recipe for making Chicken Sotanghon

There are many ways of cooking pata (pork hocks). I've made  sinigang , kare-kare , paksiw , ala " lauya "  and of course, there's crispy pata . Yet one of the simplest recipes but still very delicious, it making it part of ginisang monggo . The soft and almost fall-of-the-bone pata (slow-cooked) plus the familiar taste of  ginisang monggo makes the dish Here's the recipe for Pata with Monggo, etc