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 ‘chicken binakol’
Part 3: Dinner (Panyapon)
March 19, 2010
Looking forward for dinner time is an exciting part of the day. It’s got to be a well-planned activity as space might be limited especially if one is planning to eat out. Nonetheless, home made dinner is still the best, as usual! Check this one out as this is the last installment of my series on Ilonggo’s meal for the day.
Chicken Inasal dinner at Jo Inato's.
I learned that Jo Inato's chicken is Dumaguete's style chicken barbeque. Up close, one cannot tell exactly the diffrence between Jo's and Mang's. Nonetheless, both are my favourites and chicken tasted great.
Chicken Binakol (chicken stew in coconut juice). I have tasted quite a few chicken binakol style before and, so far, this is the best tasting one I ever had (considering it's a restaurant-cooked native cuisine).
Buko-halo for dessert. A fancy-looking halo-halo as it's served in a real buko shell with real buko meat inside for people to enjoy during or after finishing the treat.
Home made dinner of bestek and binurong bilong-bilong. Thank you very much to my sister-in-law, Bebet, for preparing the meals during my recently-concluded vacation to the Philippines.
Rabanos (radish) salad with onions & tomatoes, vinegar with extra drizzle of kalamansi juice for a zing!
Sinugba (grilled) bukaw fish. What a delightful comeback for me as I have not tasted this fish for a long, long time.
Jaro Town Fiesta
February 18, 2010
It has been ages since the last time I attended my town fiesta. The town of Jaro has the grandest of all town fiestas in the Province of Iloilo. And it stands to reason why majority of the Ilonggos knows February 2 as town fiesta as it is marked in their calendars. Looking back during my childhood days, we used to eagerly wait up along Del Carmen St. to watch the parade of bands and muses a day before the festivity. During the fiesta itself, there’s another parade (procession) of muses again plus the church parish and floats of images of of the Virgin Candilaria, the patron saint. This is briefly followed by an extemporaneous adoration of the patron saint and some fireworks to mark the end of the procession. I learned later that they did away the latter for some reasons.
Across the Jaro cathedral is the kampanario (bellfry), destroyed by a strong earthquake in the 1920's and was rebuilt more than a decade ago.
The Jaro Cathedral, a land mark. The front balcony was utilized by the "diskorso" after the procession.
The cathedral at dawn with lights adorning the front.
There she was, the orator who speaks Hiligaynon and Spanish alternately. She's thoroughly coached by her grandma who know the history of the town of Jaro. Also, she's the niece of a fellow blogger who wants to remain anonymous.
The adorable muse of the 2010 Jaro fiesta, a grandaughter of the owner of the Biscocho Haus.
The entourage of the muse wearing ornate gowns with trains dragging along the way.
As usual, the walking band keeps everyone in pace.
The ornate karo or float that carries the statue of the patron Saint of Candilaria is clad with sterling silver pieces.
They close off major streets surrounding the town plaza where lots of entertainment and exhibits were found.
Got the chance to take a shot of a sweet corn vendor along the street.
As suggested by the anonymous blogger, we went to Carlito's restaurant where we culminated our EB. We ordered their pizza and pancit molo.
We're quite fortunate that the waiter allowed us to savor the home made chicken binakol brought by the said blogger.
On top of the binakol, she brought chicken & pork estofado. Very delicious! With these foods and EB, we had a great time with Anonymous Blogger and got plenty of tips for our next food trip. Thank You!
On my way home, I managed to grabs some bingka from RCJ.
I was overwhelmed initially as there were about half a dozen of them selling Balasan Bingka by the corner of the plaza facing JEC. But they can't fool me as I looked for the sign RCJ, the authentic Balasan Binka! Flavor and texture is unmatched!
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.
Memories of Ilonggo Foods- Relived!
November 17, 2009
My cousin Rose Hibionada-Flores and her hubby, Mike of Los Angeles, California are in Iloilo right now for a couple of weeks vacation. Based on the photos she posted in Face Book very recently, Ilonggo foods is in their prime agenda ( I can tell!). Allow me to share with you some of the photos she took and my thoughts about Ilonggo foods.
One peculiar observation I made during my last vacation there is that, Ilonggos are very “patriotic” when it comes to eating foods. I am very close in saying that they stay in their comfort zone and does not want to get out of it. Who would not be, when one grows with and satisfied with Ilonggo foods, why bother venturing out? Not to mention their peso value stretches a long way with Ilonggo foods! This observation was drawn first hand while I was having dinner at a Japanese and Thai restaurants in Smallville. Only a handful people inside the said resto could be seen. Whereas, just beside it or just across the street, or elsewhere, Ilonggo restaurants are teeming with people enjoying the inasal na manok or the siopao they love to eat. What a contrast I learned so quicky during my 6-weeks vacation there. Nevertheless, such scenarios are good for local businesses, assuring them of Ilonggo patronization and the survival of their businesses.
Mike Flores introducing Sabor Ilonggo.
Rose, my cousin, eating halo halo with gusto!
Suman Latik. All of the sudden I can't control my drooling as I look at this shot.
I bet, this is pamahaw with Ilonggo chorizo, ibos and puto.
Inasal na manok, fried crablets and chicken binakol.
Cup cakes galore!
Synopsis of My Trip to Iloilo – Part 4
One day, we decided to hunt the best pizza in town. Due to limited time and resources, we decided to narrow down our pizza choices to two.
Pizza from Piazza - the WINNER!
Pizza from Afrique - Runner up
- Marcos encouraged us to visit Fort San Pedro. The wait was worth the while as the sunset showed its glory for just few minutes!
Then we proceeded to THE BOARDWALK for dinner. We parted ways with Marcos, so Jorp and I went to search for Arroz a la Paella. I’ve been craving for this entree for a long time and it’s nowhere to be found still! We decided to settle in Red Paprika. There, we ordered lechon kawali, lingua estofado and chicken binakol.
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