DEJA VU IN ILOILO (The Graduate Part II)

May 2015 dinner at Tatoy's Manokan and Seafood Restaurant: Although small in size, the lechon native chicken was so good we ordered another one to go with the sinugba nga managat, lato salad and steamed talaba.

June 2019 dinner at Breakthrough Restaurant: The fried soft-shelled crabs dipped in sinamak was perfect and crunchy, the kinilaw nga tanigue seasoned with coconut milk and vinegar was fresh and heavenly, the talaba steamed right in their shells was plump and tasted of the sea, the KBL [a stew of Kadyos, Baboy, Langka that is similar to the sinigang] soured with batwan is not as glorious as I expected, but the binakol [native chicken cooked in coconut water ala tinola] with young coconut meat strips, carrots and potatoes was spectacular! 

The title of being Iloilo's best restaurant is a close contest between Tatoy's and Breakthrough, and the bragging rights is ours in having dined in both. 

May 2015 breakfast at Ted's Old Timer La Paz Batchoy: Iloilo is batchoy country and we had our first taste [special, super special and extra special] just beside the feminist Molo Church.  

June 2019 breakfast at Cafe Panay: Our search for Ilonggo cuisine brought us to Megaworld, the former airport that was transformed into a Business Park, where we broke our fast with the highly recommended Tsokolate de Batirol and a platter of turon, cassava cake and ibos [deep fried sticky rice] topped with a bowl of Pansit Molo that is actually a soup with meatballs in wonton wrappers. 

After breakfast, we whiled time exploring the mall and could not resist a plate of boneless lechon pork belly which turned out to be mostly fat but we cleaned up nevertheless, before Bulan came back from his lunch date with his professors for a quick tour of Jaro's Millionaire Row.

We finished the Lizares Mansion, the Mansion de Lopez otherwise known as Nelly's Garden, the Sanson y Montinola Antillan House and were on our way to the old Jaro municipal building that resembled a Masonic Lodge and the Graciano Lopez Jaena Center when I fell into an open ditch that called off the rest of the afternoon due to my bruised knee and ankle.   

June 2019 Pre-Parangal dinner at Punot: The swelling eventually subsided so we had dinner at Punot [who claims to represent the modern flavors of Iloilo] mainly for the Kansi which is the Ilonggo equivalent of our bulalo [although theirs is soured with batwan] which we paired with an unforgettable Pomelo Balingon [a salad of pomelo, lettuce, cashew nuts and anchovies/dilis/balingon] and a jar of batwan juice. We had Sizzling Indong [eel] and Seafood ala Punot [a platter of assorted grilled seafood] too which are beyond okey but the Seafood Karekare is not karekare without the tripes and oxtail. And that is how we came late to the Parangal for UPV's graduating class of 2019.   

We toured Calle Real for the sec ond time after returning from Bulan's graduation in Miag-ao with Balong's giant chicken pose in Mang Inasal's first ever store as the only new episode, then walked to what may be our last dinner together in Iloilo City.

May 2015 dinner at Roberto's: Of course, we had the famous siopao, and meatballs and halo-halo too although Roberto's was the unintended consequence of our futile search for Rawit's Native Litsong Manok.  

June 2019 dinner at Jo's Inato: It is actually linner, or dunch which is a meal served between 3-5 pm, so we tided ourselves with a shared take-away of Roberto's siopao [no match with the Binondo versions] and over-extended samplers of its lumpiang shanghai and meatballs. Food finally at 7 pm in the form of chicken inato [grilled] and grilled pork belly. I ordered for myself a really superb kinilaw nga malasugue for my beer and that plus the coconut halo-halo are the highlights of the night.  

A TRYST IN BINONDO (The Graduate Part I)

"Manila's 12 Oldest Restaurants" according to Esquire are:

[1] New Toho Restaurant (established 1866), [2] Ambos Mundos (established 1888), [3] Ilang-Ilang Restaurant (established 1908-1910), [4] Ma Mon Luk (established 1920), [5]  Ramon Lee's Panciteria (established 1929), [6] Aristocrat (established 1936), [7] Ongpin Manosa (established 1940), [8] Boy Ching Woo (established 1939), [9] Max's Restaurant (established 1945), [10] Little Quiapo (established 1949), [11] Chuan Kee (established 1940s), and [12] Shantung Restaurant (established 1958). 

In Binondo we converged, I from Bangkok and they from Nueva Ecija, and walked to a Sunday dinner of pancit canton and fried chicken at No. 5, and paella in No. 2.

No. 3 is still closed when we came the next day, and so is No. 1 where I previously lunched on pancit canton and lumpiang shanghai, and No. 7 too where I once snacked on ma-chang.

We instead broke our fast with bangus tausi and beef mami at Ang Tunay Beef House which although almost 40 years old is not as old, and stopped for a congee and lechong kawali at No. 11. 

We've had meals at No. 4 (siopao and mami), No. 6 (adobo sandwich and chicken barbecue) and No. 9 (fried chicken+) before so that leaves only No. 3, No. 8, No. 10 and No. 12 to be explored soon.     

And yes, we paid homage to what remains of the Panciteria Macanista de Buen Gusto of El Filibusterismo before travelling to the airport for our flight to Iloilo.

SURAWONG

The Red Planet in Surawong will be my 7th (after Timog, Asoke, Binondo, Mabini, Makati and Ortigas) since I was introduced by Oskar Haq to the Asian hotel chain.

The convenience, flexible rates and elegant simplicity of Red Planet suits my preference and they don't offer breakfast too which spares me from the monotony of hotel breakfast buffets. 

I booked myself at Red Planet-Surawong for the 34th ASEAN Summit after being allowed to arrange our own accomodation due to capacity issues of they who used to be it. 

Surawong is a striptease and its first revelation is being one of Bangkok's oldest roads that is actually parallel to the more popular Silom Road, both leading to the Bang Rak District which is a gateway to Yaowarat (Chinatown).

And if there is history, there most be good food and that I found in an alley whose names are demarcated by an old market squeezed between Surawong and Silom, Soi Pradit from the Surawong side and Soi 20 Silom from the Silom side.

The thing is, the alley is street food galore from both ends and that is what matters to me. 

I had almost all my Surawong dinners at the Pradit Market: a nice omelette and soso spicy pork neck salad at Mama Mia on Day 1, a sad looking grilled fish at Cheaper and Better on Day 2, a surprising traditional grilled pork at the Trip Advisor-starred Siam House Cafe on Day 3, and the famous Som Tam Jay So grilled chicken wings in the Silom area on Day 4 as the only exception.   

Breakfast is exclusively my favorite fried crispy pork, super sweet Thai coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice that are all sourced from the food stands of the Pradit Market.  

Surawong is accessible by train through the Chong Nonsi Station of the Silom Line via the Siam Station if transferring from the Sukhumvit Line and it is through this interchange and the urgent need to pee that I got introduced to the eclectic food hall of Siam Paragon where high end fine dining collided with classic street fare.

I was of course drawn to the roasted duck and crispy pork stalls but it was the smell of roasting rolled northern Thailand sausages that got my gustatory senses going and right there, I decided to take the train to the airport so I can use my few remaining Bahts to partake 100 grams of the sweet burning meat (and the fresh crisp cabbage leaves that came with the pack) for my lunch.    

Surawong is more than food too and right across the Pradit Market part of Silom Road is the ornate 100-years old Sri Maha Mariamman Hindu Temple while at the corner of Surawong Road and Soi Pradit is the historic Neilson Hays Library.

My stay at Red Planet-Surawong did not end well and my [Neilson Hays] library photo on the right below can illustrate how I felt  after receiving my Red Planet guest folio which triggered an exchange of emails with the front desk...