World Class Chefs
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Ramilo (Ram) Villaluna
Ram is a budding chef from Iloilo City (Molo). He gained his training in Culinary Arts at the Center for Asian Culinary Studies under food guru Gene Gonzalez, Institute of Culinary Education (formerly Peter Kumpps) in New York. He took up bread making, and he studied food styling under Delores Custer of the Culinary Institute of America. It all started in Antique where his father owned a restaurant many Antiquenos learned to love. He continued the culinary legacy of his father and now, Ram owns a catering business, Cindy\'s Catering. Food is Ram\'s life, seriously speaking. I am short in saying that he is married to the food industry that, he spends most of his time teaching and mentoring at the Department of Culinary Arts at the University of San Agustin in Iloilo. If one cannot find him in the classroom, Ram will be on the road crisscrossing Iloilo and Antique having first hand in the management of his thriving businesses from both provinces. He also has a once-a-week TV show in GMA 7 \"Food Trip\". I met with Ram once before and he exudes perfectionism, the character that will beam him up to the limelight of culinary arts. At present time, Ram is extremely busy in Manila. I believe he is one of the finalists in The National Food Showdown 2010 sponsored by ABS-CBN. We wish you all the luck, Ram! Maybe, after this showdown, Ram will have the opportunity share favorite recipe here at ILONGGO LIVING.
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Posts Tagged ‘bingka’
Delectable Native Delicacies
May 21, 2010
Over the years, my craving for native delicacies such as bingka and puto is cloaked with memories. It will always remain in a suspended animation awaiting to be refreshed every time I visit our dear country. Nonetheless, that memory is still intact and, sinking my teeth to the actual native delicacies and a wisp of the sweet aroma surely awakens my slumbering taste buds. I always look forward for this encounter with delectable native delicacies. All of the shots shown here were taken during my last trip to the Philippines (January 2010).
The banana leaves maintains the freshness of suman latik and puto lanson and, at the same time, adding a subtle aroma and flavor.
Suman latik, one of a kind and only in Iloilo. This is comparable to suman sa liheya but without the moist bucayo (grated young coconut) toppings. The toppings makes a world of difference to the suman.
Puto Lanson. Another exclusive native delicacy from Iloilo. Nowhere in the Philippine one can find this aromatic cassava specialty. As one eats this puto, the texture and sweetness of the cassava wants you to crave for more, especially when eaten warm.
This kind of bingka or bibingka can be found anywhere in the Philippines. They are particularly served during town fiesta and Christmas season.
RCJ bingka from Banate, Iloilo. The people of Iloilo gets this special treat during Jaro town fiesta. It comes in two sizes: small regular size and, the large 8-inch size.
What makes RCJ bibingka yummy is the amount of coconut they added in it. One can easily notice the difference of this bingka.
Buko World!
February 1, 2010
There is no match to BUKO (young coconut) when it comes to diversity in preparing them. Let alone the plant itself and the mature coconut. Buko is so versatile that only one’s imagination limit its utilization as food. Eaten plain (kulabo) or cooked (bukayo) was the norm for buko few decades back. Now, buko has come a long, long way. I admire Filipino’s ingenuity in preparing this nut, back-to-back, as a meal food and as a dessert at the same time. Because of its size, buko standout among the rest of the nut family, i.e. peanut, almond, etc. Well, without further ado, here is buko, the star of the day!
Chicken Binakol (Manok sa Buko). Finally, my quest for a super-binakol has been satisfied. This one is from Jo's Chicken Inato in Gen. Luna St. in Iloilo City. This one has to be matched, yet!
Super Buko Halo! A halo-halo concoction in a buko shell itself. One can scrape the young coconut meat and mixed it with the halo-halo or eat the meat iself at the end of one's halo-halo adventure! Have your pick. This one is from Jo's Chicken Inato.
Buko Pandan Pie (Nang Palang's). Got the chance to visit Oton, Iloilo just for this buko pie. I will post it separately.
Buko Pandan salad (Emilion). Another way of preparing buko as a desert. A very rich and creamy kind of dessert.
Bingka (RCJ). No other bingka can match this very delicious rice cake loaded with strips of buko.
My Bingka Memory
April 9, 2009
Bibingka season is on back in the Philippines especially during the Holy Week. The thought of it lingered few days ago as I was surfing my favourite blogsites, namely, Flavours of Iloilo, Pinoy Cravings , Casa Baluarte, and Overseas Pinoy Cooking. Right there I said to myself, why not feature it here as well since I’ve got pictures of different kakanins from my recent Philippine trip. I included guinata-an and fresh buko salad to top the different kinds of Pinoy merienda! For the Bingka Monster out there (just like me), ENJOY!
Bingka, Purple Puto, Puto Manapla
White Puto
Suman Latik
Bilo-Bilo Guinata-an, Corn Baye-Baye, Fried Banana
RCJ Bingka, Nang Palang's Bingka
Fresh Buko Salad
Bibingkang Sapin-Sapin
Malagkit na Suman
Bibingka with grated coconut
Puto Bongbong
Synopsis of My Trip to Iloilo – Part 1
My recent memorable trip in Iloilo culminated about three weeks ago. Due to technical difficulty encountered with my previous web host, I was not able to post in Hapit Anay the remaining half of the pictures I had taken during the trip. So, I decided to relocate, renovate and rename my previous website.
So, I will start where I left off at Hapit Anay.
Dulgies Trip, Again?After spending a wholesome lunch at Breakthrough, Marcos, Jorp and I decided to pick up our order of the famous bingka in town at Mohon. Surprise! Someone picked up our order by mistake and we ended up with nothing. That’s STRIKE ONE! Empty-handed, we then proceeded to pick-up our order at Nang Palang’s, a fair distance from Mohon. Initially, we where gratified as we got all our orders from there. Only to find out later that their good-looking bingka was a flop! That’s STRIKE TWO! Then on the way back to Jaro to pick up RCJ’s bingka, someone pick-pocketted my borrowed cell phone. That’ STRIKE THREE! We had enough bad experiences for a day. Though we found out the last two later before we went to Dulgies. Marcos splitted from us, so it’s Jorp and me who went to Dulgies.
JAPANESE CHEESECAKE. Once glazed with strawberry toppings, they looked and tasted good.
BREAD PUDDING with ICE CREAM. Drizzled with caramel sauce.
RCJ BINGKA. This is the larger size, costs 80 pesos and rated the best!
NANG PALANG'S BINGKA. They looked so good but don't be deceived by it because the taste was a flop.
BUKO-PANDAN PIE. This delish pie redeemed Nang Palang's image. They also comes in buko-pineapple flavor.
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