YOU cannot visit Iloilo and go home without exploring and savoring the local flavors of the place. No matter how busy your schedule may be and how short your stay will be, you must squeeze in some time to savor the flavors of Iloilo. My husband Raff and I always do when we’re there. Just last month (November 2013), when we visited Iloilo again upon the invitation of Iloilo’s very own Chef Rafael ‘Tibong’ Jardeleza II to serve as members of the Board of Judges for the 3rd Tabu-an Western Visayas Ilonggo Heritage Cuisine Cooking Competition, we embarked on another food trip around Iloilo in between our judging chores. Despite the fact that we have done many such food tours in Iloilo, it still surprises me that there’s always something new to discover in the province that I’ve come to love.
Three days in Iloilo – and our Ilonggo food cravings are satisfied well beyond our expectations!
Got in late morning of November 22, 2013 (Day 1) with the rest of the judges from Manila, including Philippine Daily Inquirer’s food columnist Micky Fenix and senior lifestyle reporter Vangie Baga-Reyes, Bandera’s Ige Ramos, restaurateur Chef Myke ‘Tatung’ Sarthou, food historian and culture maven Felice Sta. Maria, cookbook writer and magazine writer Angelo Comsti, Philippine Star’s food columnist Stephanie Zubiri-Crespi. Celebrity chef Pablo ‘Boy’ Logro had arrived in an earlier flight that morning, and we were to meet up with Cebu’s travel writer Boboi Costas later on. After checking in at Amigo Terrace Hotel along Iznart corner Delgado St. in Iloilo City and having a few minutes to refresh ourselves in our respective rooms, the food trip actually began – with lunch at Gloria Maris Seafood Restaurant on the ground floor of Amigo Terrace Hotel.
CHINESE LUNCH
An Iloilo franchise of the Gloria Maris restaurant chain, the restaurant treated us to a Chinese lunch. In the usual tradition of Chinese restaurants, we took our seats around a round table for 10, and the food was served lauriat style. Which meant one family-serving dish at a time, with the lazy Susan in the middle of the table being spun around so everyone can get some food. The seven-course lauriat began with Spinach and Seafood Soup, which warmed our tummies and got us all ‘psyched up’ for a hearty meal of Taro Puffs, Hot Chicken Salad, Birthday Noodles, Pata Tim, Scallop Rice and Almond Jelly with Lychee.
Energized by a good meal, we were all ready for the first round of competitions, which was the Dessert Competition of the 3rd Tabu-an Western Visayas Ilonggo Heritage Cuisine Cooking Competition, over at The Shops at Amigo, the shopping mall that stood right beside Amigo Terrace Hotel.
ILONGGO COMFORT FOOD
As the competition got on its way, we checked out all seven competing teams’ working areas and then gathered together in the next-door Judges’ Lounge for the tasting and scoring. The judging ended just as Chef Boy Logro started his cooking demo, and Chef Tibong had Raff and I whisked away to Esca’s Garden Restaurant for a shoot with its owner and executive chef, Miguel Cordova.
Esca’s, which was the venue of the 1st Tabu-an Western Visayas Ilonggo Heritage Cuisine Cooking Competition back in 2011, started 11 years ago. It’s named after Chef Miguel’s great grandmother, Francesca ‘Esca’ Jardeleza. Its initial goal was to serve Ilonggo comfort food in a nice and comfortable garden setting, and its Ilonggo heritage dishes, such as Chicken Inasal, Binakol and Kansi, are to die for. Eventually, though, Esca’s became even more popular as a catering company, so that it now focuses more on catering, accepting as many as five to nine catering events daily, but the restaurant is still open for diners who like to come down to Esca’s for a good Ilonggo meal at any time of the day.
SWEET INDULGENCE
Then Raff and I met Chef Mae Pido and her artist-assistant Faith Guarra. Chef Mae’s the brains behind Dulgie’s, one of the top dessert shops to go to in Iloilo. Dulgie’s has a store along Delgado-Valeria St., in front of SM Delgado, and people really go there for its cupcakes, cakes and other delicious desserts. Chef Tibong once posted an appetizing photograph of Dulgie’s assorted cupcakes on Facebook, to which I couldn’t resist making a comment, so that the next time Chef Tibong came to Manila for an official function, he took it upon himself to bring me a box of exactly what I saw on Facebook – assorted Dulgie’s cupcakes, and they were so unique and so good.
But if you’re wondering who Dulgie is, she’s not a person. Dulgie is just short for ‘indulgence,’ which is what you’ll be doing if you find yourself unable to resist the temptation of its sweet goodies.
SEAFOOD FEAST
Breakthrough in Sto. Niño, Villa Arevalo, Iloilo, is another big name in dining when in Iloilo, and that’s where the group had dinner on our first night in Iloilo last November. It started as a small eatery at the Jaro Lopez Arcade in 1987 but after the place got burned down three years later, the family of Mia Robles, who now runs the business, acquired the property in Villa Arevalo and moved the business there. People thought the place was a jinx and no business would flourish there, but the family proved them wrong when Breakthrough became a big hit.
It’s like a turo-turo restaurant, with cooked food, mostly fish and seafood, ready to be served at the turo-turo station upon order. There are also different types of fish on ice which diners can purchase and have them cooked the way they like. Now, live seafood is likewise available, and despite the freshness and the service, Breakthrough’s prices are quite affordable. For a table of 4, for example, a budget of Php650 would be enough to feed everyone . Managat fish, which is a specialty in Iloilo, can be had for Php650 a kilo, and one fish can be made into two dishes – the head is cooked into a sinigang soup dish, while the tail can be grilled. Abalone, all 300 grams of it, is Php275 per order.
For dinner, the group had Kinilaw na Isda with Tausi, Fresh Lato Salad (seaweed), Sliced Abalone, Managat Soup, Clam Soup, Stir-fried Crab, Grilled Managat, Shrimps and Pinangat, and everyone went home with a bloating full stomach.
A LOVELY NIGHTCAP
But a food trip isn’t a food trip without a nightcap, especially if the group is made up of chefs and food writers. So, from Breakthrough, we proceeded to Maridel’s at Plazuela de Iloilo, which is just next to SM City Iloilo.
Now, Maridel’s is another great place to go for desserts. Its cakes are well-known all over Iloilo, and although the shop is rather small and the indoor dining area is limited, people do not mind hanging out outside just to have a bite of Maridel’s Frozen Lemon Meringue, Snickers Pie, Potato Praline Cake, Banoffee, Frozen Mango Brazo, Salted Caramel Cake, Crema de Fruta and Chocolate Strawberry Cake to go with coffee or tea.
BREAKFAST FARES
The next morning (November 23, 2013), we had light breakfast at the second-floor landing of Amigo Terrace Hotel, which was set up for a buffet breakfast for in-house guests. Raff and I went for the local flavors, and we found Puto Manapla. Our main breakfast was Scrambled Egg and Crispy Danggit with Garlic Rice, which was not really Ilonggo, but it didn’t matter since we were going to squeeze in a short, half-day food trip before the second day of competitions started at 1:00 p.m.
We made a short stopover at Panaderia de Molo in Molo district, Iloilo City, which two sisters, Heather Joanne Maloto and Hyacinth Catral, own and manage. They’re now the fourth generation owners of Panaderia de Molo, which dates back to the 1800s. Then and now, it produces and sells authentic Ilonggo breads, biscuits and native delicacies, such as Otap, Lubid-Lubid, Ugoy-Ugoy, Paborita, Kimanonsil and Bañadas. It also retails other Ilonggo delicacies, such as Piaya and Chicharon. That morning, Panaderia de Molo had Tulapo, a special kind of chicharon which is made from pork skin whose fat has been rendered or extracted for lard and so it should be lighter and lower in fat.
We didn’t stay long at Panaderia de Molo, since we were due at Kap Ising’s for Pancit Molo, which is a dumpling soup dish that’s very popular in Iloilo and originates from the Molo district. We went to the home of Kap Ising and enjoyed a big kaldero of Pancit Molo Soup in a delightfully casual outdoor ambiance. Kap Ising makes one of the best Pancit Molos in Iloilo, and people place regular orders for big kalderos, which can range from Php300 to Php500 per kaldero, depending on how many persons it’s supposed to feed. People usually call in their orders and have the kalderos picked up.
ANOTHER HEARTY CHINESE LUNCH
Our never-ending breakfast graduated to lunch at Markims My Kitchen along Diversion Road in Iloilo City. It’s a Chinese restaurant that serves the full range of Chinese dishes. It’s owned and managed by Tintin Que, whose uncle, Claude Yap, manages another very successful restaurant in Iloilo called Roberto’s Siopao. Roberto’s Siopao is hugely popular in Iloilo, as it comes in huge portions and is packed with filling. It regularly sells King Siopao (with ham, Chinese sausage, chicken-pork adobo with egg filling) and Jumbo Siopao (with Chinese sausage, chicken-pork adobo with egg filling), although it has allotted certain days as Queen Siopao Day. Its Queen Siopao is immensely popular, as it has bacon strips aside from all the fillings that can be found in the King Siopao, and people call in their orders just to make sure they get some on Queen Siopao Day.
Going back to Markims, this Chinese restaurant got its name from the combination of the initials of the names of Tintin’s siblings. It’s a Chinese restaurant, alright, but its interiors isn’t that of the typical Chinese restaurant’s.
Tintin was so generous that she served us Pork Barbecue, Squid BBQ, Scallops BBQ, Birthday Miswa, Pandan Chicken, Three Kinds of Mushrooms with Broccoli, Fresh Lumpia, Valenciana, Maki and Fried Pork Salt and Pepper for lunch. Nobody was complaining, though. We all had our fill.
Then it was back to Amigo Terrace Hotel for the work that we went to Iloilo for – to judge in the second day of competitions of the 3rd Tabu-an Western Visayas Ilonggo Heritage Cuisine Cooking Competition. It’s the Appetizer and the Main Course competitions today, and since there were two categories, the process of tasting and scoring took longer, too, so we spent the whole afternoon in the Judges’ Lounge and the evening in the dinner cum awarding ceremonies set up in the Grand Ballroom on the second floor of the hotel.
It was early to bed after the formal festivities were over, as we had a feeding program to attend to for the benefit of the Supertyphoon Yolanda victims in Concepcion, Iloilo, the following morning.
THE MORE SIMPLE, THE BETTER
We had a quick and simple breakfast at Amigo Terrace Hotel the following morning (November 24, 2013). Raff and I had Pancit Molo Soup, and then it was off on a three-hour road trip to Villa Gloria in Sitio Belen, Brgy. Kalamigan, Concepcion, Iloilo, for the feeding program, where we spent the whole morning and had lunch in the company of the recipients of our feeding program, the residents of the surrounding communities in Concepcion who felt the wrath of the supertyphoon.
The group of chefs and food writers shared their meals of steamed rice, stir-fried pork with squid balls and julienned vegetables, and meatloaf. The owners of Villa Gloria, Boy and Ruth Jarantilla, had also sent a platter of Paklay (ubod or heart of palm sautéed with garlic, onion and tomato).
The ride back to Iloilo City took about three hours, too. Along the way, we made quick stops to distribute Fudgee Bars and Tiger Biscuits (which our group member Angelo had brought along with him from Manila) to communities that we passed on our way back, and then most of us dozed off the rest of the way back to the hotel, where we made our last-minute packing for our flight back to Manila that evening.
CONTEMPORARY FLAVORS
The last meal of our trip was early dinner at Afrique’s, which is owned and managed by Tabu-an organizer Chef Rafael ‘Tibong’ Jardeleza II’s sister, Louise Jardeleza Cordova, who happens to be Chef Miguel Cordova’s mom. I had been judging in the Tabu-an competitions every year for the past three years, but this was the first time I was actually dining at Afrique’s in the happening place in Iloilo called Smallville, so I was excited.
Afrique’s started some 11 years ago as a small restaurant in Chef Tibong’s house. It began as a 20-seater restaurant with a small kitchen, but through the years, it has grown, and now it’s one of the most popular dining places in Iloilo. It serves different types of pizza and pasta and hearty Western-style dishes such as Fish & Chips and Baby Back Ribs. Garlic Parmesan Wings is also a best-seller.
From authentic local dishes such as Pancit Molo, Grilled Managat and Chicken Inasal to contemporary Chinese, Italian and Western flavors… From traditional breads and biscuits like Otap and Piaya to modern cakes and desserts such as Dulgie’s Japanese Cheesecake and Maridel’s Frozen Lemon Meringue… Iloilo has all these to offer – and more.
