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 ‘chico’
Those Sweet Fruits
January 25, 2010
It has been a refreshing break for me here in Iloilo and the abundance of fresh fruits not found in North America abounds here. Unlimited supply of local fresh fruits makes this post exciting and interesting at the same time. We Filipinos, at times are more fixed to American apples that we forget that we have ample variety of apples locally. There is star apple (caimito), wax apple (tambis & makopa) and sugar apple (atis) to name just a few. There will be more of this posts in the next couple of days.
I have been wanting to eat exotic varieties of bananas like lakatan (background) and the locally known latundan (front).
Papaya (murado variety), verry sweet and refreshing.
Star Apple (caimito), this is the purple or murado variety.
Some people may wonder why they called this fruit star apple. If one slice up the fruit cross sectionally, a star pattern is revealed in the middle.
My favorite chico (sapodilla) is almost always available all year round.
Tambis (water apple, Malay apple, wax apple). This green variety (usually pink to pinkish red), unsually interesting kind, was seen first posted in Flavours of Iloilo blog. It differs from makopa for its shallow furrows and less firm flesh.
The pink and red variety of makopa are apple to the eyes. This one is unusually elongated in shape and deeper pink to red in color and tarty if flavor compared to tambis.
The yellow variety of watermelon is always a treat for me since it has milder flavor but sweet as the red variety.
Everyone's favorite, the red variety of watermelon (sandiya).
Tropical Fruits Galore!
June 16, 2009
In just a few days, summer will be ushering in officially … June 21st! Signs of summer are all over the place already. If one frequently visits Chinese-Vietnamese stores, the abundance of tropical fruits is a definite sign that summer has already arrived unofficially! My upstate New York and midwest friends should fret no more… tropical fruits are abundant here in southern Ontario RIGHT NOW! Though they are imported and a bit pricy, the tropical fruits will surely quench one’s longing for them! Don’t wait too long, the bonanza won’t last long!
A cornocopia of tropical fruits!
Lanzones
Rambutan
Chico
Atis
Loquat
Mangosteen
Did you know? That the number of sepals at the bottom of the mangosteen fruit will determine the number of fruit segments one will find inside the fruit? Also, did you know that the lowly batuan belongs to the mangosteen family? Info from Market Manila.
Moral of the story? When buying mangosteen , choose one with lots of sepals (5-8) as it will give more segments and less hard seeds. Then you will enjoy the fruit and you can swallow the segments unlike santol (info from Market Manila).
Foods of the World- Part 1
March 8, 2009
In the following series of posts, I will share to you how Canada is blessed with diverse people of the world, who, with their cultures, brought their unique FOODS as well. Unlike in the U.S., Canada allows almost every foods of the world (one can imagine of) to inhabit grocery stores and specialty food stores nationwide. Filipinos in particular, are quite well known for its versatility and ingenuity in the culinary realm. Because we share similar food staples among our Asian brothers, cooking and eating Filipino foods become a breeze here in Canada. Having said that, it brings back memories two decades ago when there’s scarcity of simple ingredients for sinegang or to pacify one’s craving for local fruits such as ripe mango. Now, there’s a barrage of Asian fruits and vegetables available locally which where unheard of few years back. My fellow bloggers from Jersey and California turns green of envy when I mentioned to them that we’re quite fortunate here in Canada of having the previledge eating certain Asian fruits not available in US due to their stringent agricultural regulations. But of course, one has to pay for its pricy tags. To quench one’s craving for atis (sugar apple) for example, one should be willing to pay $5.00 each! Quite expensive especially when you try convert it to Philippine peso (about 190 pesos a piece!). That amount of money can buy you 1 kilo of that fruit already back home. So, here we go….
Mangoes, variety Ataulfo, from Mexico ($14.99/dozen)
Mangoes from Mexico, not as sweet as Philippine mangoes, but better than nothing at all!
Star apple (kaimito) from Thailand ($1.98 a piece)
Star apple, very sweet and close enough for me!
Sugar apple (atis). Got it at a bargain price 2/$5.00 (0ne small, one big).
Chico and banana. Chicos are as expenive as atis. This photo was taken form the Philippines but both fruits are available here now.
Watermelons are abundant in North America. Again, this photo was taken during my recent Philippine trip.
Cantaloupes (melon) - $3.99 a piece
Avocadoes - 99 cents a piece
Homemade pepper pickles (artem in Ilocano)
Siling Labuyo- we used to get them underground (you know what I mean)
Atcharang papaya - can be homemade because green "cooking" papaya are available now locally.
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