Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Paksiw

With every carinderia or eatery here up north, you might had the chance to order Paksiw. Paksiw is a kind of  soup made from beef innards and papaitan. It is a favorite especially among Ilocano guys in which they add some vinegar with chilis for that extra kick. It is not only preferred by Ilocano guys but also a hit for an Ilocano family, given that the weather should just be either windy, gloomy or pouring. Paksiw can also be a comfort food for some, with its rich taste and aroma. 
In our home, paksiw had been a constant part of the menu especially during the rainy seasons, sipping a hot bowl of  paksiw in the comforts of your home while its pouring outside is absolutely heaven. My dad in particular is our in-house chef and is in charge of cooking in the weekends. With the windy and gloomy Sunday morning that day, my mom and I who usually goes to the market on weekends, decided to buy ingredients for Paksiw in time for the perfect weather.
Upon arriving at home, my dad, as ever, asks us what we'll be having for lunch, and I excitedly replied, PAKSIW!! He just gave me his infamous lopsided smile. Minutes after, he prepares everything that's needed, mostly chopping and seasoning. Paksiw consists of beef meat and innards, ginger and spring onions, salt and vinegar to taste. The cooking procedure is pretty much similar to other meat soups, just mix everything, boil it for period of time, and its good to go.
you can add more innards
First procedure, add the fats

Dad's Paksiw


It might be true that you cannot entirely imitate your favorite dishs' taste just like the way of cooking  from your fave eatery, but it is always good to do it your own flavor, reinvent and wish that it turns out good. You have your very own eatery in the comforts of your home. 

Kilawing Rabong

Labong or Rabong (Bamboo Shoots) are the edible shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground) of many bamboo species. This kind of food are mostly used in Asian cuisines like Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and the Philippines. In our country, it is mostly served pickled but the two most popular dishes for this are ginataang labong (shoots with coconut milk and chilies) and dinengdeng na labong (shoots in fish sauce with string beans and saluyot). 
In the locality, Ilocos Norte, rabong as we call it, is a favorite ingredient to the dinengdeng or some prefers it cooked with soy sauce and garlic or inadabong rabong. Personally, I am a fan of both dishes, but sometimes you get fed up with the same style of cooking, you would want to reinvent the dish that can excite your palate. That exactly what I discovered months ago, in the most unexpected place you can imagine, our classroom.
After our MWF morning class, we would always be sneakingly eating our lunch together, my professor, my classmates and some others in our own classroom. We'll be bringing our own lunch and share it with the others. My professor and a certified food genius, would be cooking her specialty for the day and shares it with us. That Wednesday lunchtime, she brought rabong, but its totally different from what I'm used to, it was boiled, drained, seasoned with generous amount of calamansi and salt, ginger and spring onions, chilled for a few minutes, and it's ready to eat. It is not pickled, but more of an "kinilaw" minus the vinegar and the seafood. It was indeed a fulfilled wish, when I was asking for a reinvention to the rabong dish. And so weeks after that incident, I tried my hand in somewhat making my own kilawing rabong.



INGREDIENTS:

Uncooked Rabong
Ginger (chopped)
Spring onions (chopped)
Calamansi 
Salt to taste

PROCEDURE:

1. Boil the uncooked rabong in a pot until it changes color or after 5-10 minutes, then drain.
2. After draining the rabong, put it in a mixing bowl, put the chopped ginger and spring onions, calamansi juice, sprinkle some salt to taste.
3. Kilawing rabong is best serve chilled.


FINISH PRODUCT


It was abrupt when I decided to try my hand in doing the kilawing rabong. I love food and I love watching cooking shows but I have not tried imitating any recipe's from other person, not until I discovered this kilawing rabong. With the sour and seafood-like taste of the dish, I immediately fell in love with it when I first tasted the dish months ago in our classroom.


With the success of my very own kilawing rabong, at the moment I am thinking of trying my hand in imitating dishes that hopefully will be successful as the first.

Versatile Lusay

            To us Ilocanos, we never pass a day without having our meryenda or snack, may it be on the morning, afternoon, or even in the middle of the night. Some prefer eating in fastfood chains, in food stalls, in fishball carts roaming around, their street foods like isaw and lalat, some even choose local foods like our Empanada, or even noodle soups like Miki and Hi-bol, which is a favorite especially to the Tricycle drivers who needs energy for that tiring hours of work. It is evident to us how we adore eating fast and affordable dishes. Take note of the Miki which takes only about 15 minutes to cook, and Hi-bol, merely 5 minutes, just put on some fresh noodles in a bowl, pour in some pork broth and garnish with some spring onions, and your good to go. But Ilocanos seem to discover something new every second, because after Miki and Hi-bol, they now created a noodle recipe called LUSAY.

          Lusay noodles with tomatoes, spring onions and boiled eggs           
                                        
             The topic was brought up one morning while having our discussion in class and then unintentionally diverted our subject to food, which is usual for us given that we are all food lovers. Our chef/professor, Ma’am Juliet Pascual told us, along with my other classmates Rechel and Bruce, about this Lusay which was a first to me and my friend Rechel.
            Lusay is not your usual Ilocano noodle dish, because unlike the noodles used in Miki and Hi-bol, Lusay can be serve with or without a broth, you can simply season it with some fish sauce or Bagoong, add some spring onions, tomatoes, and top it off with either smoked fish or Chicharon and its good to go as a snack or meal. It is in fact a favorite side dish among guys for their merry making along with a cold bottle of beer. Lusay is thinner and tastier than the ordinary noodles bought at the Public Market. It is usually sold at a few noodle stores open in the wee hours of the morning, around 1-4 a.m and it is selling like pancakes.
Weeks after our first Lusay conversation, the topic was again brought up while taking our lunch after class. Similar with our reactions, the third year Masscomm students were also clueless with Lusay, and so my curiosity sprung up and I persistently convince Ma’am J to bring us some sample on our next class which she immediately assured.


Ma'am J preparing the dish

                True to her words, on our next meeting, it was Lusay madness. She brought one kilo of Lusay complete with tomatoes, spring onions, fish sauce, and smoke fish as its garnish. Honestly, I had doubts while looking at it because it is not that visually appetizing, adding that it was seasoned with fish sauce, which is very unlikely to put in noodle dishes. But after taking a bite into it, I immediately understood why it sells like pancake. It’s a bit dry, but with the tomatoes, spring onions and fish sauce, it gives a life to the boring Lusay. Jayvie Baligad, one of the students of Ma’am J enjoyed the Lusay saying that it is a new twist to the noodle dishes that we love.
              On that day onward, the Lusay mania began. Few weeks after, a culminating activity was planned by Masscomm students. Along with some faculties and friends, we included Lusay in the menu to let people know more about it. We weren’t disappointed when they became interested and intrigued by the dish, our professors were mostly inquiring on the Lusay. An example was an incident when Mr. Jan Rich Guira, a faculty of the Language and Literature Department mistook it as rabong (Bamboo shoots), Ma’am Lao then happily told Mr. Guira , “Han ka Ilocano no han ka nakaraman Lusay”, and that statement made me smile.

can also be garnished with smoked fish
                                               
                        Along with the creation and versatility of this dish, it is indeed a disappointment that it does not gain as much popularity as it should be, but hopefully, with more people tasting and telling their friends how great it is, sooner or later it will gain the fame nationwide.

The Beautiful - La Preciosa

La Preciosa Fine Dine and Catering Services
Laoagueño’s or Ilocanos, tourists and tourist guides alike, or Balikbayan’s had been the constant patron for this fine-dining restaurant that serves not only foreign cuisines but also has its Ilocano flair that everyone loves, La Preciosa, or roughly translated as The Beautiful.

 What started as a small kitchenette on the late 70’s, La Preciosa has now become a successful restaurant and catering service situated at the main and  probably the busiest street in Laoag City, Rizal Street. This family business has expanded gradually with over 30 years of history. But in those years, one thing remained, good food and good service that they hope to retain for many more years.
My bestfriend Rechel eyeing the camera
Chinkee and Bruce waiting for their Bagbet
                 And so, one day, after a rigorous practice session for a speech choir competition, my friends, Bruce and Rechel, together with our other friend Chinkee and I, decided to dine out to La Preciosa to reward ourselves with a good food for our hard work in training hard-headed students, and also to be able to document more Ilocano foods for our food blog in New Media, hitting two birds in one stone.


 Upon entering the place, you can definitely feel the homey and cozy vibe of the restaurant adding the warm welcome of the staff, you become more excited for the dining experience. It has two floors, the first one mostly a café style and on the second is for the fine dining, it also has a veranda part where couples could have their private moment. When we got into the restaurant, we already planned out that we would only order Ilocano foods, no more, no less, but knowing our fickle mindedness, we got into an argument that we should also order some of Bruce’s favorite, lemon fish, and after 30 minutes of picking out food in the Ilocano menu, we all decided on four appetizing Ilocano Cuisine, Insarabasab (grilled pork and liver in papaitan sauce), Poqui-poqui (unique kind of tortang talong with lots of slice of tomato and onions), Bagbet (deep fried pork belly with pinakbet sauce) and Duyduy (squash and bitter gourd dish).

La Preciosa's homelike interior
               It was about 20 minutes wait before our order came, and as soon as they landed on our table, Bruce, Rechel and I simultaneously whipped out our camera’s and took pictures of our food, it was indeed a bit crazy. After few more shots, we dig in into our food. First I tried the poqui-poqui, it was a personal favorite of mine, but it requires a lot of cooking techniques to make one. It looked delicious, but for me, it’s not flavorsome enough, it lacks flavor than what I’m used to. Next was the insarabasab, just like the poqui-poqui it lacks on the flavor cause I prefer it to be more juicy, and it seems a little dry, with a few onions, it did a little to my taste, it doesn’t even help that most of it are liver, so hate eating lover. Next on my taste test was the Duyduy, growing up in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur, my grandma would always cook us some fine Ilocano dishes, and one of them is Duyduy or Dinuyduy, but unlike the restaurant where they use bitter gourd, my Lola would use of the vegetable’s leaf than the bitter gourd itself. Not that I’m comparing, but maybe, the style of cooking where just really different on what I’m used to growing up. And last dish left unattended on the table was the Bagbet. Not be mistaken with BAGNET, it is BAGBET, with a B. It was a new twist to our ever favorite bagnet which we usually dip in fish sauce with tomatoes and onions, Bagbet comes with Pinakbet sauce, and amazingly they complement each other, its all-in-one package, and the meat was tender, and the amount of sauce poured into the Bagnet was generous.

POQUI-POQUI

INSARABASAB

BAGBET

DINUYDUY

                     Our dining experience ended with a chocolate cake shared by us four, a P850 bill, some chit-chatting, picture takings, and an unforgettable dinner at La Preciosa that will surely be followed in the coming weeks. And I’m absolutely looking forward to it.

   
  
After 30 minutes
   
    Chocolate Cake