The food part of Iloilo

THIS is the food part of an Iloilo trip which I wrote about in my column last week. I am quite aware that this is the Lenten season, and it may be somewhat out of tune with fasting and abstinence. So, this is for action at Eastertide, not now.

Iloilo City has been granted the Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) designation as a Creative City for Gastronomy. So, one must pay attention if not homage to its culinary offerings in case of presence there.

To begin with, Iloilo City has seven districts, some of which are very distinctive — La Paz, Mandurriao, Arevalo, Molo, Jaro and the city proper. Aside from that, the province of Iloilo itself has very distinctive towns from San Joaquin farthest away down to Guimbal, Oton, Santa Barbara, Miagao and Cabatuan. These were also to be visited and their gastronomical treats tried.

Who has not heard of pancit molo or the Panaderia de Molo with its distinctive biscuits? What about La Paz and its identification with batchoy?

But here are the details. Our first stop right from the airport was to visit the Cabatuan Church. And so we were in Cabatuan, and after the visit noted a modest Tableria along the national road. So we stopped and entered, and lo and behold there was merienda in full swing. There were a bunch of medical technology students having cups of chocolate with puto, bibingka, and kalabasa and malunggay chips. We decided to be copycats.

Conversing with the daughter of the owner, she informed us that the cacao beans were being cultivated in small plots by farmers to meet a big demand in cacao to make chocolate products. Hotels and businesses were branding these products with their logos and selling or giving them as compliments to their guests and customers. In effect, there is a revival or an expansion into cacao farming with everyone happy.

Our merienda came in a tray with a cup of steaming thick chocolate, puto, bibingka with a side of the kalabasa-malunggay chips, small squares that were nongreasy but crunchy and tasteful. They also seemed healthy enough to countervail the chocolate and carbo calories. Whatever, it was our first taste of Iloilo in a provincial town with no traffic, people working at their tasks, including church and med tech workers.

We started roaming around the towns instead of checking into our hotel. Soon enough, the hotel called to find out if we had arrived and when we were to check in. We did that but immediately set off for Tatoy’s, a beach-side restaurant, which has its main eatery across the street. Because it was very late, we were sent off to the main place where we ordered a grilled apahap, adobong kangkong, steamed prawns and garlic rice.

We had originally asked for fried hito, but they said they had run out. But at the last minute, they produced one cooked to perfection. We were hungry but discriminating, and the seafood was fresh, cooked exquisitely and served with welcoming courtesy sending us to absolute delight. We did notice that there was a bahay kubo in the premises which we took to be an interior decoration. We found out later that it held a charming tale.

The owners of Tatoy’s who are highly successful and staunch citizens (they sponsored the recent sailboat race off Iloilo) believe that certain dwarfs helped them to success and that they are present in their business premises from day one in that bahay kubo. So every day, Tatoy’s puts out some food for them. This is a beguiling trait of appreciation and reciprocation that is humanity at its best. It expresses faith and love.

Breakfast at the Seda Hotel in Atria Park where we stayed was a sumptuous buffet of traditional Western and native breakfast offerings. The first day, I had waffles, the next day cereal, and the last day puto, bibingka, suman and danggit with fried rice.

After our quota of museum visits the next day, we hied off to Balay Remedios, a Villanueva heritage mansion that has been persuaded to set up a restaurant with heirloom recipes and an events place. We had pancit bami, which is an outstanding two-noodle dish cooked with achuete. We also had a puchero cooked with achuete. Achuete is an enhancing and colorful condiment much used in the Iloilo area.

The Villanueva house is a 20th century period house of mansion proportions which has been kept as is and fitted out as a restaurant without alterations needed due to the large spaces it originally had. The owner was very friendly and gave us a lot of information about what to do in Iloilo. Indeed, people were very friendly from police personnel, barangay officials, museum personnel and tradespeople. Requested directions were always met with hospital-

ity and a smile along with the information.

Naturally eating heartily and perhaps a bit too much made us feel it was time to pause after our museum visits and sightseeing. So, late the first day after visiting the Celso Ledesma art deco house, the streamline moderne Lopez Boat House and the Molo Mansion with a Kultura store tastefully ensconced in it, we went back to the hotel and up to the seventh floor outdoor bar and restaurant where we relaxed with cocktails and canapés while watching Iloilo light up and experience the late afternoon breeze come through. It was a day well spent in a livable city.

The next day, we made the far-off trek to San Joaquin to see the church. We had many stops, so we got there after lunch hours, about 1:30 p.m. in a provincial town. No restaurant was in sight. Mang Inasal had closed for the afternoon siesta and so were the other food places. We started asking around and were directed to a side street to an old one-story house with an unadorned floor. It was Aniceta’s Carinderia.

It was obviously past lunchtime, and their customers had come and gone except for a small table of chatting ladies with time on their hands. I looked at the display case of food and saw three small fishes, a red (with achuete) meat dish that was said to be adobo and an ampalaya with egg gulay.

I pointed at the fish (carinderia orders are done by pointing) and the gulay not sure about the adobo but my daughter decided she wanted the adobo. There were four of us, including the driver, and the carinderia said they had run out of rice. But then someone piped up and said she would get some. She came back with enough cooked rice for us.

We did request an omelet seeing the eggs on display and one was whipped up with large cuts of tomato and onion. We were hungry but in truth the fish was delicious and apparently steamed in something good, the ampalaya was as expected, and the omelet was a hit. Soon, everyone was raving about the adobo. Aniceta’s came through with a gourmet lunch on a side street in a somnolent siesta hour. Unesco should try her, too.

Leaving Aniceta’s, we came across a vendor selling camachile. I have not seen a camachile in decades. So much so that to my daughter it was an unknown quantity.

Camachile like achuete, camote, sayote and singkamas came to us from tropical America via the Manila-Acapulco Galleon.

I had just seen that piece of information in the Iloilo Maritime Museum. So, of course, I bought the camachile. It is an acquired taste, and it brought back summer memories. My daughter still has to acquire the taste as she puzzled over my joy after tasting it. It is not sweet, not sour, not bland but has its own distinctive texture and taste.

Another gourmet find was at Assumption Iloilo with its beautiful campus by the river and a real cherry tree (from Japan from one of the Assumption nuns there) that was beginning to bloom. It has a huge trunk, so it must have been there for some time and is acclimatized. They say it blooms all over once a year.

What we found there at the Assumption by way of food were Assumption tarts, the famous Assumption comfort dessert with guava jelly. Assumption Iloilo does it best, and it comes with its own distinctive box with a nun’s image. They were brought home and shared.

We did miss the plate-size siopao of Carlos in the city because it was a Sunday and they were closed. But then we did have our Panaderia de Molo finds and more to savor back home.

Our last night was spent at Punot Restaurant, near the river esplanade. From the second floor, you could see the strollers taking in the night breeze, the exercisers doing their runs and the families walking and talking. The Punot laswa is ceremonial. They pour the broth on the vegetables in the bowl in front of you with a flourish.

For me, it was a meal though lumpiang ubod and chicken inasal made me go for them, too. Everything was delightful — the food, the families and their children in the restaurant as it was a Saturday night, the wait staff and the view of the esplanade in the early evening darkness.

On the way to the airport, we had our last stop at Sobredo’s Batchoy near Santa Barbara (also known by its second name Jazmin) with its requisite plain floor and furniture, and clientele of tricycle drivers, students, foreign and local tourists (us). It was the perfect goodbye — steaming bowls of the meat bits, two kinds of noodles, vegetables and Iloilo around you.

All of the above to be acted on at Easter time and not now, which is Lent.