World Class Chefs
-
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.
SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG
Seed Newsvine
Posts Tagged ‘dinengdeng’
Ilocano Favorite Dishes
Ilocano dishes has so many virtues that it is hard to know where to start listing them. Effortlessly, my chef will categorize Ilocano dishes into meat, particularly goat’s meat and, at the other end of the scale, vegetables. In between, one could fit in other food stuff such as bagoong and other sea foods. Just like other regions of the Philippines, Ilocanos has its own favorite dishes that appears to be their signature foods. The most popular ones are, pinakbet, dinengdeng and the pinapaitan. Lets dig it!
PINAPAITAN. In its truest form, pinapaitan is usually made of goat's meat, entrails and the papait or apro. For those who does not fancy goat's meat, my chef prepares this dish with regular beef in lieu of and, substitute papait (extracted intestinal juice) with apro or apdo (bile juice). Personally, I detest papait because of its strong fecal smell and prefer apro to give the dish its distinctive "pait" or bitter flavor. As one would notice, there are three distinct kinds of meat in it: the beef, tripe and goat's skin (dark). Ilocanos prepares them meticulously to mask the smell by adding onions, ginger and vinegar or lemon. Overall, I enjoy eating this Ilocano dish ONLY when prepared by my chef or her brother.
DINENGDENG. This is a very healthy Ilocano dish as it is made of mostly local vegetables. The sagpaw is usually grilled or fried fish and the soup base is made of bagoong.
PINAKBET. This dish is of Ilocano origin. As the dish became popular throughout the archipelago, each region prepares them differently. Again, personally speaking, I prefer my pinakbet Ilocano style. This unique dish stands out as purely vegetable dish concocted with bittermelon (ampalaya), string beans (sitaw), eggplant and okra.
Dinengdeng in New York?
After a grueling eight-hour drive from Hamilton, Ontario to New York City, we arrived early Friday morning. This is my 4th trip to the BIG APPLE and, I look forward meeting old acquaintances and family. No trip to the U.S. is ever complete without eating Filipino foods, U.S.A. version that is! Such as dinengdeng, an Ilocano version of our laswa, and, because it is Friday today, I promised myself to go meatless. I hope everyone is alright with the idea. Let’s check out my my “dream deningding“.
Now, you see what I mean. This one is loaded with different local veggies, namely: saluyot, baby zuchinni, lima beans and bungon. Who would have guessed that the "sagpaw" is canned mackerel?
Everyone would agree that this is a sumptuous dinengdeng. My Ilocano friends and readers will totally agree to that!
Laswa or Dinengdeng? As You Like it!
June 6, 2010
I would like to remain in the middle between my Ilonggo and Ilocano readers here in Ilonggo Living when it comes to figuring out which native cuisine is the best. I am in a difficult predicament as my chef is an Ilocano and the commentator (yours truly) is an Ilonggo. Over the years, some of my chef’s Ilocano culinary has been “fused” with Ilonggo style of cooking and, vice versa. Depending how one looks at it … ” a half full glass or, a half empty one”. You will be the judge and, you are allowed for your own opinion. But, remember, photos can be deceiving sometimes so, if you ask my opinion, the venerated “taste test” will settle the dispute.
Take for example, the grueling difference between LASWA and DINENGDENG. To some uninitiated eyes (and palate), one could be mistaken easily from the other by either an Ilonggo or Ilocano. Unless, one has truly savored laswa and dinendeng, then it would be difficult to distinguish one from the other. Let alone the different kinds of vegetables used for each dish. As I have mentioned before, the main difference is the soup base. That’s all there is to it! Dinengdeng is bagoong-based (salted fish), whereas, laswa is not. So, if one adds bagoong in laswa then , it becomes dinengdeng. And, vice versa, take the bagoong out from the dinengdeng, then it becomes laswa! I hope I did not confuse you, my dear readers! Let’s have a look at them.
This vegetable can be identified easily by an Ilonggo. O course, it is ALUGBATI... ONLY grown in the Western Visayas region, particularly in Iloilo. It belongs to the spinach family and come into two varieties, the red (above) and the green one. Ilonggo loves alugbati in their laswa or mongo dish.
Alugbati with pasayan (shrimps), a variation of our venerated laswa. Thanks to Jorp of Flavours of Iloilo for lending this photo.
The basic LASWA. The soup base is just plain water mixed with the different local vegetable seasoned with plain salt.
This vegetable can be spotted easily by Ilocanos. It's called bungon or alukon (Birch flowers). They are flowers from a tree that gets harvested in the Ilocos region. My first encounter with alukon was in Baguio and I instantly liked it. It has the flavor and consistency of saluyot (jute). When cooked it becomes slimmy! Here in North America, it's available frozen at your local Asian grocery stores.
Here, the dinendeng looks very sumptuous. One can easily identify the alukon combined with the other local vegetables. Take note that the soup base is made of bagoong, a signature of the Ilocano cooking.
Buridibod & Dinengdeng
March 31, 2010
These two delicious Ilocano dishes reminds me of good old university days in Baguio. I was so well-initiated to them for five years that, it became part of my gastronomic milieu since then. My chef, a genuine Ilocano herself, prepare these dishes frequently (once a month, at least). Let’s check out the difference between the two, or should I say, the common element between the two.
The venerated dinengdeng is a staple among Ilocanos. The basic soup base is made of bagoong and, one can add unlimited kinds of veggies. It's almost like our laswa in Iloilo (minus the bagoong, of course). Here, my chef used sigarilyas (winged beans), squash, string beans combi with shrimps and pork.
Another version of dinendeng with zucchini, patani (lima beans) and alukon (birch flowers) wth shrimps and fish as sagpaw.
Now, what is BURIDIBOD? It is also a dinengdeng BUT they crush the sqaush and or patani into bits and pieces. Thereby adding more flavor and thickness to the dinengdeng.
Another version of buridibod, this time with malungay fruits and patani plus salmon as sagpaw. Noticed the patani is crushed into bits and pieces to make the soup base thick.
Fusion Cooking
September 27, 2009
The beauty of living here in Canada, or in North America in general is, the flexibility in Filipino cooking. It used to be a taboo altering specific dish and would be strongly reprimanded by “senior staff” at home. But one has to keep an open mind and does not have to adhere at certain rules in preparing the dish. That’s where fusion cooking comes in and evolution of contemporary cooking! A hint of certain Filipino dish on top of an exemplary and unique flavor. That’s what my chef and I has been doing over the years. We discover certain food material that could fit in to another dish, making it more exciting and palatable! Sometimes, we ran out of name(s) to call them. Take for example the food that my chef has prepared lately. She does not know what to call it as she added pork instead of the usual fish. What do you call it?
The ingredients she used are: sweet corn, mushrooms, ampalaya tops, red pepper and ground pork.
She prepared it like dinengdeng but one cannot call it as such as she added pork in it.
It looked so delish and tasted superb! Wouldn't you agree? But this lowly dish has no name.
Dinengdeng Galore!
September 20, 2009
My first encounter with dinengdeng was in Baguio City in the late 70′s while attending Saint Louis University’s College of Medicine. Staying in a boarding house means cheap meals and endless replays or re-runs of food. Dinengdeng is one of them! Our landlord used to have a backyard full of sayote bush and, in the kitchen, a Caltex can full of bagoong. What a perfect match for dinengdeng! So, one can just imagine having (sayote, fruit or fronds) dinengdeng every other day, if not everyday for the next 4 to 5 years. At one point, after graduation, I promised myself not to allow my taste buds touch dinengdeng nor lay my eyes on it! Spoke too soon, I guess. I got married to an Ilocano maiden and I swallowed everything I said against dinendeng. Now, dinengdeng is one of my favourite Ilocano dishes. The reason being, my chef prepares it lavishly with variety of vegetables and sagpaws. That made a world of difference compared to what I used to have before! So, here are some variations of DINENGDENG one can make and enjoy eating. It’s almost like our laswa in Iloilo (without the bagoong, of course).
The most lavished of all the DINENGDENG, with two types of sagpaw (shrimps & grilled fish) and with fancy alucon (birch flowers).
Basically, the soup base is made of bagoong and the rest of the ingredients varies as to availability of different veggies. Here, my chef added patani, zucchini and alucon.
With fried tilapia as sagpaw and our favourite, alucon, oyster mushrooms & sigarillas.
A basic type of dinengdeng with no sagpaw but with zucchini, beans, patani and sweetpeas tops or fronds.
Dinengdeng can stand alone without sagpaw of any kind because of its bagoong-based soup. Here, my chef just added sweet corn, mushrooms, ampalaya and kalunay.
Here's the latest dinengdeng we had in Virginia, with grilled mackerel as sagpaw and eggplants and string beans.
Recent Comments