Into the heart of Ilonggo cuisine

MANILA, Philippines - Pauline Gorriceta-Banusing, well known for the gastronomic treasures of Iloilo that she successfully brought to the limelight beyond her hometown of Roxas City, was not always into Ilonggo cooking.

As an enterprising young adult, she set out into the world – to the Culinary Institute of America, New York and the Institute of Culinary Education, formerly known as Peter Krump’s New York – to train under chefs of global stature in the most sophisticated of settings. And yet, instead of pursuing a promising career abroad, she chose to come home and set to bring international cuisine to food lovers in Iloilo City.

“Many people were shocked at my audacity when I started 16 years ago and put up an Italian restaurant, Al Dente Ristorante Italiano, a first in the city at that time. It did extremely well,” she says.

Inspired by its sucess, she opened several other establishments under the Gruppo Al Dente roof.  Among these are: Al Dente, which serves Italian classics with a contemporary flair; Steps of Rome Café in the lively Plazuela de Iloilo that offers a sumptuous buffet of baby back ribs, imported sausages and cheeses, gourmet burgers, pizza and pasta for a younger, ravenous crowd; 101 Luna Prime Steaks Restaurant with a menu consisting of the best of  the continental cuisine of the Americas and Europe; Citrus Global Bistro and Wine Bar with a lineup of gastronomic favorites from around the world; Rooftop Brewery, the first and only beers of the world bar in Iloilo City; and Maki, which offers an extensive selection of Japanese fare.

“As more satisfied customers enjoyed my cooking, they began to ask me to cater for their parties. And with this came incessant requests to serve Filipino dishes, most specially Ilonggo delicacies. I thought and believed then that the local food wasn’t something you went to a restaurant for, as they were painstakingly prepared by our very own mothers with recipes passed on from generations back or lately by the well-trained kusinera, but I was wrong. Very wrong.  Many of my happy clients wanted – the word is more like desired – the familiar, authentic good old dishes,” she declares.

To accommodate her loyal clients, Chef Pauline, as she is commonly known these days,  began her rigorous research and documentation of traditional Ilonggo dishes. Once she decided on this course, there were absolutely no shortcuts. She felt that to be able to serve the cherished recipes of her childhood, she had to  learn the procedures step by step, do everything from scratch exactly the way it was done by generations of women preparing these culinary heirlooms. She thrived on going the extra mile, knocked on doors and patiently interviewed as many as she could, including several of the old family cooks she found, and carefully recorded their valuable accounts. “I was very blessed because they very generously shared everything with me,” she says.

She also did extensive studies on the not-so-familiar ingredients that went into all the tried and tested – and most of all loved – recipes she compiled. The pages of the old and rare cookbooks she acquired throughout her long and rewarding journey are covered with her notes on how to enhance and not fuse certain culinary traditions.

“I have nothing against fusion. I simply just don’t do it. I prefer to stay within the confines of the traditional methods of cooking Iloilo food and thus keep the prized heritage dishes as they have always been. This is the heart of Ilonggo cuisine. I innovate on the presentation and plating to make it more attractive to present-day diners’ preferences,” she claims.

She then set up two establishments that serve  the best of the bounties of the sea that Iloilo is famous for – Freska Ilonggo Seafood Restaurant and Inasal and Villa Regatta Seafood Restaurant right on Villa beach where guests can have the catch of the day grilled to perfection as they enjoy the surf.

It was at the Mandarin Oriental’s Paseo Uno where I first met Chef Pauline and had the chance to initially savor this particular Visayan region’s iconic delicacies she prepared for the Ilonggo food festival dubbed as “Manamit!”

For this debut in 2006, she delighted many visitors with a medley of her hometown’s signature Ilonggo cuisine such as steamed oysters, batchoy, chicken inasal, the succulent diwal or angel wing clams, appetizing street food, sweet local delicacies and traditional drinks, for those with the most discerning taste.

On one of my visits to Iloilo, I was lucky to have a taste of the chicken pancit molo, a dumpling soup made of wontons from rice flour, which was named after one of the prominent old districts of Iloilo; the Roxas oysters from Roxas City in Capiz which I must admit to be among the best in the country – fresh and juicy; steamed capiz shells, also known as windowpane oysters, a bivalve mollusk with a tiny body and translucent shell, locally popular as lampirong or bay-ad; lukon na may aligue kag paho, medium-sized prawns from Kalibo topped with sautéed crab fat and slices of green mango, and alimango na may ginisa na guinamos, crabs from Capiz deep-fried then mixed with guinamos, the Visayan version of bagoong made with all kinds of small fish or krill or shrimp fermented with no preservatives or artificial coloring.

I indulged in manok sa gata na may estiwitis kag tultul salt, native chicken from Guimaras simmered in a special sauce made with coconut milk, tultul and annatto seeds. Tultul is a hard, brick-like, grayish piece of salt from Jordan, a municipality in the island of Guimaras. It is made from seawater mixed with a small amount of coconut milk, then boiled for a day in a vat until a hardened rock salt is produced.

I noticed two gentlemen, obviously good friends, skipped the buffet and simply concentrated on kadios, baboy at langka and chicken inasal. The former is a soup dish most friends say is uniquely Ilonggo, made with kadios beans, pork leg and jackfruit soured with batuan seeds. It is similar to sinigang. Ilonggos are very fond of this specialty and serving this dish on special occasions is their way of showing their warmest welcome.

The latter, arguably Iloilo’s most popular dish, are chicken slices marinated with spices and vinegar and grilled. The basting sauce makes it extra special.

Hurry and revisit Iloilo City. Do enjoy the sites such as Miag-ao Church, Museo Iloilo and Nelly’s Garden. Savor the gustatory feasts and perhaps, as an added treat, have an animated conversation with Chef Pauline.