Aside from passion for cultural heritage and amiable nature, Ilonggos are known food lovers throughout history. They love to cook and rediscover new recipes reflecting their own culture. When it comes to scrumptious cuisines and gastronomy, Ilonggo food is popular among visitors and tourists. There’s a certain amount of passion and distinctly unique flavour when it comes to Ilonggo food that makes Iloilo as the food haven of Western Visayas. Take a peek on some of distinctly unique Ilonggo food that you can savor upon visiting this vibrant destination...
Tinu-om Chicken
Tinu-om is a native dish from the town of Cabatuan, Iloilo is made up of native chicken seasoned with onions, tomatoes and lemon grass (tanglad) wrapped in banana leaves. It is served with broth that builds up inside its wrapping following a heavy steaming. Tinu-om in native language means “balot”, so Tinu-om na Manok means “binalot na manok” or wrapped chicken cooked in perfection and so much passion. The town of Cabatuan even held their own Tinu-om Festival inspired by their native food.
Apan-apan
This Visayan province that once claimed to be the “Queen City of the South” takes great pride of its regional version of Adobong Kangkong (Water Spinach Adobo), popularly known to them as Apan-apan. The word "apan-apan" actually means "grasshopper". Farmers used to catch grasshoppers thriving in and infesting the rice fields. They would cook these insects for sum-suman (finger food) to pair with their alcoholic drink. How it became associated with adobong kangkong is quite vague except probably that grasshoppers resemble the appearance and the color of the water spinach plant.
Kansi
Basically an Ilonggo version of Bulalo, Kansi is prepared much like its common counterpart without the tassels such as cabbage, potatoes, beans and other ingredients. It’s a straight up beef shank soup but with a tangy note that comes from a batuan fruit, an ingredient unique in this region and an orange hue which is done by boiling atsuete with the broth. One of the best version of Ilonggo Kansi is served at Pat-Pat’s, a restaurant located in Jaro.
Ginat-an nga Tambo with Bagongon
The mere mention of “Ginat-an nga Tambo” would certainly make Ilonggos and fans of Ilonggo cuisine salivate over this vernacular way of cooking of tambo or labong (bamboo shoots). With coconut milk and greens like tagabang (saluyot), takway and okra plus other delicious ingredients like shrimps, crabs or bago-ngon (local snails) – this would automatically induce a lot of cravings perfect for a usual Ilonggo meal.
Takway
Photo from flavoursofiloilo.blogspot.com
“Takway” is what Ilonggos refer to the part of the gabi plant that grows sideways, termed as tendrils. When scraped off of its outer skin and thoroughly cleaned, takway is often a key ingredient in vegetable dishes like laswa and the ginat-an dish consisting of the gabi tendrils and tubers with coconut milk and local snails known as bago-ngon. Another way of cooking it is making of Adobo nga Takway. Much like the usual Adobo, it is cooked in perfection with soy sauce, onions and other key ingredients but instead of chicken, takway is substituted. The result would be a sumptuous adobo made of takway.
Laswa
“Laswa” is an Ilonggo vegetable stew which is healthy, inexpensive, and really easy to prepare. Most of the vegetable ingredients for laswa are grown in backyard gardens so they’re free. If you have to buy the ingredients they are affordable so you won’t spend a lot of money to prepare laswa. You also don’t need special cooking skills to prepare laswa, just boil the vegetables and season with salt and you have a healthy dish.
There are different variations to a laswa recipe since the ingredients depend on the vegetable in season. Common vegetables are squash, okra, papaya, eggplant, string beans, alugbati, tugabang (saluyot), malunggay, takway, kulitis, winged beans, patola, etc. Some people use shrimp, crabs or guinamos (shrimp paste) to add more flavors to the laswa. It is best to leave the head and shell of shrimps intact so they retain much of their flavor.
Ilonggo Adobo
Photo from flavoursofiloilo.blogspot.com
Ilonggo Adobo is so very popular in the Philippines that every home has the mastery of cooking such a dish. Adobo makes everyone eat so much rice. It is a dish of chicken or pork marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, crushed garlic, whole black peppercorns (paminta) and some bay leaf. Its savory taste depends on the proportion of the ingredients and the procedure. The color is usually golden or dark brown.
Pancit Molo
Pancit Molo or Filipino pork dumpling soup is a type of soup using wonton wrappers which originated from Molo district in Iloilo City. It composed of a mixture of ground pork wrapped in molo or wonton wrapper, shredded chicken meat, and also shrimps. The piping-hot soup is ladled into serving bowls, and garnished with green onions and fried garlic bits for another layer of flavor. This dish resembles the Chinese wonton soup but the array of ingredients and flavor makes this dish stand out.
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