Iloilo City, the Philippines
April 18 and 20, 2011
Though the name Iloilo may have come from the word ilong, the vernacular for nose, the province was known for another facial organ – the tongue. Not only because its local cuisine was a delight to the taste buds, but for a molluscan species endemic to the waters around the island: diwal, a name derived from the Ilonggo verb, “to stick out one’s tongue.” It perfectly described the appearance of this sea creature. When its shell was pried open, its elongated body would hang out limply like a tongue.
It had been years since I last tasted diwal. The species disappeared for a decade or so; I figured it had gone the way of the dodo. It was a relief to see it on my dinner plate at Breakthrough Restaurant. Diwal didn’t disappoint. Both tender and chewy, the seafood was brinier than usual this time though. I used to flinch at the sight of oysters and other bottom feeders; diwal was my first bite into the sinful succulence of this non-kosher seafood. I had since developed a stronger tummy and an unrepentant tongue.
But the devil was in the dessert. Known for Iloilo’s best sweets, Mama’s Kitchen, aka Sinamay House, was the perfect pasalubong place. Sinamay, a kind of fiber better known as abaca, was used for many things, such as making clothes. It got me scratching my head – was it a confectionery or a haberdashery? It turned out that the two-storey Victorino Chavez ancestral house was more a museum and the home of a weaving cottage industry, managed by the fourth-generation descendant of Chavez, than anything else. (So with apologies to my writing teachers, I digressed.)
We were led to the second floor into a typically airy living room of a heritage house. The windows were wide and the walls topped with ventanillas with calado patterns. My sister, the fashionista in the family, had a field day modelling shawls and kaftans and checking out yards of fabric made from a combination of natural fibers: sinamay, piña (pineapple), and jusi (banana silk) – the stuff that our national costumes were made of. They were crisply elegant and sufficiently airy for tropical weather, though uncomfortably stiff. We used them when we wore our national identity on our (for women, butterfly) sleeves.
Mom, a fan of fans, got one with calado design, a kind of embroidery with spaces between elaborately woven patterns. Other than fabric, there were heritage items that could occupy the attention of those not sartorially inclined, such as a still-functional loom and the family vintage car. Mom picked up the receiver of a rotary wall phone and was surprised to hear dial tone. It was still working!
But the place was also a house of sinful sweets. The mango chewies, thick cookies with mango pulp bits, delivered in both flavor and consistency. From the island next door known for our sweet delicacies, I must say the chewies could hold their own. Its tempered sweetness and chewiness made it addictive. I demolished a box in one sitting.
Sweets and seafood aside, Iloilo was notorious for its baneful bowl of batchoy – a soup with stir-fried porcine innards, chicharon (crispy pork rind), shrimp broth, some vegetables, and round noodles, usually sprinkled with soy sauce. In other words, death by cholesterol. Nail that coffin with an extra serving of raw egg as topping.
Before heading to the airport, we couldn’t pass up Ted’s Oldtimer Lapaz Batchoy, a local chain that served various styles of batchoy: special, super special, and extra super special (casket choices?). I went for the kamikaze superlative, the richest broth with all the good bad things thrown in. By the time we got to Manila, I was staggering with a nasty migraine while mom barfed still-recognizable batchoy ingredients into the toilet. Corporal (thank God, not capital) punishment was meted out swiftly.
The delectable dietary debauchery of Iloilo cuisine was a fall from grace of good grub. My blanket advice to foodies: Just charge it to human nature and have your maintenance meds, and perhaps a barf bag, handy for deliverance.
Thanks from the pit of our stomachs to my cousin and his wife for leading us into the tasty temptations of Iloilo. Amen.
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i didn’t know we now have banana silk. Do they also make it into a Barong Tagalog?
Banana fiber is also called jusi. Barong Tagalog and Baro’t Saya are made from these fibrous combos. 🙂
Diwal sounds foreign to me! I hope I get a strong tummy like yours. :-(. And I never knew we have banana fiber! Thanks for sharing!
Oh, if you eat tahong (pun intended, haha!), you wouldn’t have any trouble with diwal. 😀
i love diwal, glad to know they are available again. for the longest time, they went awol. but did you say it is more briny this time around? hmmmm. these bottom dwellers sure make you gather much courage to eat them.
That makes two of us. I suppose overfishing was the reason for their AWOL and they needed time to repopulate. As for the briny taste, maybe it was in the cleaning.
Stop eating, more and more species are disappearing. Save Mother Earth, eat paper like I do.
Rob dear, paper is made from trees. So you’re not really saving Mother Earth with your paper diet. Just eat your words! 😀
Ah, you left me wet and drooling (no pun intended). I haven’t heard any of the items you have mentioned in this post. The abrupt change from food to fabric was a bit confusing. Maybe that was exactly how you felt and now, you want us to feel it as well, I presumed. You succeeded!
The mango dish had me drooling so bad that I almost touched the screen (hoping that it would come out of the screen!!).
Great culinary adventure, Age.
Joy always,
Susan
Yeah, from food to fabric then back to food. Sorry about digressing, Mrs. Sus. I couldn’t NOT mention it since the house wasn’t just about the fruity cookies. I did warn my readers. 🙂
Oh, and these foods are examples of indigenous Iloilo cuisine. Batchoy, though, has become popular throughout the country. You can have it anywhere here.
This is such a wonderful post AJ! I am not sure I like all the food that you are showing 🙂 I get such a warm and fuzzy feeling when I see your Mom in the photos. She must be an amazing person!
Ps. love the snow flakes on your blog 🙂
They’re not for all tastes. 🙂 With the exception of mango chewies, I can’t have them on a regular. They’re ok once in a blue moon, hehe.
Oh yes, Mom is the most amazing person I know! 🙂
very kinky ng first photo. ewan ko kung bakit. bwahahahah!
I miss batchoy! Sarap kasi nakakapagpainit – labo ng mga comment ko. hehehe.
Kinky and nakakapagpainit – hmmm in heat? 😀 The post is about gluttony, kaw naman lust. Maghunos-dili ka, my mom is in the post, hahaha! Anyway, masarap talaga ang batchoy, but it makes me sick.
Hello Ed! =))
Gawin bang landian forum ang blog ko. Hmmm sige puedekels. 😀
Batchoy = death by cholesterol. tama!! But who would have the courage to decline such a delightful cuisine? syempre hindi ako.. hehehe
At hindi rin ako. 😀 Pero siguro half a bowl na lang. Ayoko na magka-migraine.
When it comes to food, your blog never let me down (no other intentions, though). You successfully made me crave for sweets this time again. I wish I could taste Mango Chewie;,simple but looks so delicious.
Thanks for this delicious post!!
There’s more to Visayas than Cebu, Karry. You should visit neighboring islands where more sweets await you. Good luck to your blood sugar! 😀
didn’t know there’s a sinamay house in iloilo. mabisita ka nga yan. 🙂
Mental note. 🙂 Here’s the address: 16 Osmeña St., Arevalo, Iloilo City.
Why do I always feel hungry after reading your posts?
It’s all in the mind, Kris. 🙂 Never thought slimy bottom feeders and a bowl of swine intestines and skin would make a westerner hungry. 😀
Haha. Well you aint met this Westerner… (I may have the appearance of a weak and feeble woman but I have the stomach of a concrete elephant! – Quote from a brilliant UK TV show called Black Adder)
IKR! You’ve conquered Patagonia…alone, there’s no reason to fear a little upset tummy. 🙂
No fear I´ve eaten sheep brains and drunk snake wine nothing edible, nearly edible or inediable, cooked or nearly dead is safe. Muuhaahahaaaa Recently tried chicken feet. urrggh. (IKR?)
You should live in China! They love chicken feet over there. I was on a train sitting in front of this dainty Chinese girl who was lost in her snack – chicken feet. She’d scrape (with her teeth!) the rubbery skin and claws off the thing to its crunchy bones. I just stared at her, shocked.
Btw, congratulations for posting the 2,000th comment in this blog! 🙂
Did I really? I´m honoured!
haha horrific. The woman I was with told me if you don´t like skin or cartilage then you probably won´t like chicken feet. I´ll try anything once but have a major problem wiith slupy eating sounds. Were you in China? I feel sorry for you!
Yup, nowhere else but China. Had lotsa weird-funny experiences there, like finding LIVE frogs and other creatures in a supermarket and LIVE snakes peddled by the roadside.
“This is a nice post AJ, I luv it,” says a fellow blogger who simply posted on your blog so that people can discover his own blog. Wink wink. You can call people like him as “Hooker Blogger.” Kidding aside, the food looks exotically delicious and I hope to read this post out loud to you when you’re in the hospital after suffering from a stroke. It’ll be like “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” I love your mom’s pictures 🙂
Hahaha, careful careful Rob. Joan Crawford eventually had the last laugh, so don’t go all Bette Davis over me just yet. 😀
The picture of the diwal looks a little disturbing for me. I wonder if I could take that thing inside me! 😀
You’re not the first person to find the sight of diwal disturbing. 😀 Swallow it live and it would wiggle down your esophagus. Feels a bit ticklish, hahaha!
Your mom is really adorableeeeeeee! I love her silver hair! ❤
I'm not a fan of oysters. I tried the Tamilok sa PPS and didn't like the texture. But the Diwal looks interesting. Makes me wanna play with it before consuming it whole. =))
She’s a golden girl with the silver hair. 🙂 Gah, the imagery ha…you playing with diwal before swallowing. Teka, whose diwal ba are you talking about? 😀
Its like tongue but first i thought it a fish ..different one ,so what’s it taste like ?? Your mom pic looks grt ..i guess she is an all rounder
Have you ever eaten scallops? It kinda tastes like that, just brinier maybe and definitely more chewy or rubbery. I hope that explains it clearly.
My mom is such a trooper, right? 🙂
Thanks Sheril! Happy holidays!
Being Ilonggo.. I crave for Batchoy from time to time..
Hirap dito sa Manila, konti lang ang branch ng Teds Lapaz Batchoy at Ilonggo Grill, so kailangan ko xa I hunting minsan.
Diwal went AWOL for sometime.
Thanks for featuring it!
My hometown Roxas City takes pride in this delicacy.
And as always, your Mom is such a trooper! Nice ng feeling pag tinitingnan ko yung pics nya.
You’re from Capiz pala. I’ve yet to visit that part of Panay and have my fill of diwal. 🙂 Oh, and mom does not usually ham it up in the cam, but for some reason she was up to it in Sinamay House.
Ay sus, puli bala sa bacolod, kadto to palapala sa may 18th st, damo to diwal. Steamed and drizzled with butter and garlic. Si tita, pagkakita atong phone blurted out… “AyPhone!!!” He he he
Ay sus, ti san-o mo ko i-culinary tour sa Negros? Kaladlawan sa imo Cacho. Tani makit-anay na ta. 🙂
ayun nanaman si mommy at kinukunsinte ni ate… hahahaha…. love your mom talaga….. I should try these when I go back to Iloilo…. sa bundok kase kame nagpunta the last time and not for a trek but to a visit someone…. btw…. is there such a word as diwalwal?
You should take Mum with you in your next trip! She loves travelling and the camera loves her. 🙂
I think Diwalwal is a mountain in Mindanao.
I want to travel there!
This isn’t fair! I’m in the middle of nowhere, reading about succulence and culinary heaven. I almost breathed a sigh of relief when you went on detour, but before I knew it, you were torturing me again. 🙂
Sorry naman. The title should’ve warned you. 😀 You should also do a post on Sudanese cuisine. I’m curious what they eat in your neck of the woods (or in your dune in the desert).
nice place
Your mom is a great model!
Iloilo is really known for food. When my siblings went there for a vacation last summer, all they did was hop from one restaurant to another.
Thanks Swexie! Mom knows how to strike a pose. 🙂
I am totally amazed with the family continuing the business…The mango chewies l like and interested with their sinamay house since I am into fashion…. Thanks for the info and gotta start my research for it…:D
Oh yes, their Filipiana dresses, shawls, and accessories are all woven by local women using traditional looms. They’re doing a great job in preserving our heritage. A must-see for a designer like you, and enjoy the sweetness of mango chewies on the side.
i’ve never tasted diwal. hindi ka ba natakot to taste it nung una? haha. it kinda looks creepy to eat, parang buhay pa. Haha.
waaaaw! batchoy! i love illonggo batchoy, sobrang sarap compared to other versions!
The best way to eat diwal is to close your eyes. 😀 Yun lang, you can still imagine it wiggling in your mouth. It’s called tongue-to-tongue. Diwal means tongue after all. 😉
I enjoyed the story, the food, the trip! Good one!
I miss having those formal fans. I’ve always found them beautiful, even when I was just a young tot. The vintage phone is pretty cool 🙂
i want those steamy bulalo and batchoy..perfect for this rainy season..
That Batchoy picture looks so yummy!
I love woven items, and I got to appreciate it more when I tried doing the manual machine. Very interesting.
you know what AJ, your style of writing continues to amaze me…what did you take up in college? I have always taken Iloilo for granted and never took upon myself to explore the city everytime I go there. This is ironic because both sets of my great grandparents lived here before moving to Negros and Manila. In fact, my paternal great grand lolo and lola are both buried there. Reading this reminds me that I should take that sentimental journey soon.
Hahaha you won’t believe it – I took up Dentistry.
Is it a Bacolodnon thing? Cuz when I was growing up, I just went to Iloilo once, despite the proximity. My maternal grandpop was from Leon, but I visited it for the first time last year. Really, more Negrenses should hop over to Iloilo and discover its delights. 🙂
i am missing batchoy now! totally love it! and the fans looks so vintage for the young’s ones i guess hehe but I’m glad they feel also in singapore . xx
You lost me at the fans. #saywhat? 😀
I don’t think I’ve been to Iloilo, but if I would go there this year, I’d def try out that diwal thing. The sinamay also looks like a good pasalubong, esp as shawls.
Wow… I miss bachoy but I never been to Iloilo which reminds me of putting this one on my vacation list this year. Great article.
It’s been years since I’ve last visited Iloilo.. Hopefully on my next trip to Iloilo, I’ll be able to go on a food trip and taste all those yummy treats! 😀 Especially the diwal, since I haven’t tried it yet.
Sumi, you should try it at least once in your life. Dunno if you can find it in Manila. I haven’t.
The lapas batchoy looks nice, so are the mango chewies. I’ve been wanting to try this Diwal dish at Mesa, but it’s always out of stock (diwal = seasonal) bummer 😦
Yes, diwal is seasonal. And I don’t mean in a year. It disappears every 3 to 10 years. It’s the seafood holy grail. 😀