TURO-TURO WITH CECILE LICAD
When in Iloilo, try St. Martha’s on Fundidor Street in Molo. Don’t expect much from the place, it’s a turo-turo, with a whole spread of about 50 dishes to choose from, ranging in price from R25 to R90 per dish, but make sure you come early in the day because by lunch there would be very little left.
I discovered St. Martha’s last year, thanks to Ilonggo chef and Ilonggo cuisine advocate better known as Chef Tibong, who is working very hard for Iloilo to be recognized as a food capital with its bounty of fresh ingredients from both land and sea, including nearby Guimaras, from which the province sources its harvest of mangoes, cashew, rice, and a variety of seafood, such as crabs and lobster.
This year, though, St. Martha’s has earned a new layer of meaning for me. While in Iloilo to watch the three-night concert engagement of New York-based transnational Filipino classical pianist
I had the extra privilege of joining her at post-concert samplings of Iloilo’s culinary delights.
The first night, immediately after the recital at the late-1920s mansion Nelly’s Garden, the Lopez Heritage House in Jaro, our small party of seven—Chef Tibong, music critic and concert producer art patroness
theater luminary and Dulaang UP founder
Richmonde Iloilo resident manager Cecile, and myself—trooped to Breakthrough, “the undisputed king of fresh seafood in Iloilo,” where, thrilled by Cecile’s visit, the owner gifted us with a platter of the very seasonal diwal, the prized angle-wing shellfish.
The next night, following the concert at Molo Church, the Gothic St. Anne Parish, we took a brief stop at Hotel del Rio for the welcome reception for Cecile before proceeding to our desired destination, Chef Tibong’s Spanish restaurant, Rafael’s La Cocina del Sur in Alta Tierra, a smaller party of us this time, just me, Cecile, Tibong, and Pablo, to enjoy Chef Tibong’s callos, lengua, paella negra, gusok or pork ribs and the libations for the evening, San Mig Light for Pablo and vodka for the rest of us.
True to the Filipinos’ quirky habit of talking about food while eating, which some cultures find impolite, food did dominate our conversation as much as did,
Rafael Jadeleza, Jr., Cecile Licad, Pablo Tariman, Irene Marcos Araneta,
Alexander Cortez, Nat Lim, Frédéric Chopin
whose works Cecile interpreted in this year’s concert tour. It was while we were gushing about Iloilo’s culinary traditions that are incredibly focused on natural flavors that I first told Cecile about St. Martha’s. Her interest was piqued, especially as I emphasized that it was cheap carinderia food, and immediately she planned a trip to the eatery.
Alas, I was no longer in Iloilo when the plan fell into place and I only shared the experience vicariously through Facebook when Cecile re-enacted my own experience of St. Martha’s, which, in one post, she dubbed “Arnel’s Karenderia.” Her experience was so much better, though, because she used her precious, world-class fingers to enjoy the dishes, those same fingers that have flirted and made love with piano keys playing the music of the masters in the most revered concert halls in the world, from the Cultural Center of the Philippines to the Carnegie Hall in New York.
Let me share with you the dishes at St. Martha’s over which Cecile raved, what she called "10 dishes for 10 bucks" on Facebook, and that, to this day, as she told me when I ran into her at the
(ox tail and knuckles soup with libas leaf, batwan, jackfruit, and annatto oil)
8. Lechón ni Sario
(lechón with pure liver sauce by Sario of Villa Arevalo, home of Ilonggo lechon)
9. Cecile’s favorite:
nga Takway
(taro vines cooked annatto oil)
Inadobo adobo-style with
10. Mongo nga may Lison nga Uga (mung beans with yellowspotted trevally or giant kingfish)