I initially thought of doing home cooking and to bring ‘baon’ to my workplace ever since I started to learn some of the local dishes. This is one of the ways to tighten my budget and also to control what food I eat. This is highly possible since the ‘super’ market, which basically got all the ingredients I need, is just two blocks away from my bhaus. The next question is: how much cooking budget do I need for the week?

Let us start by figuring out what is the menu for the week. That is planning out the dishes to cook and is specific on the range of consumption in the number of days. Here are some quick steps:

1. Monday menu – What dish to cook and then the no. of times of its consumption (lunch, dinner, etc)?
2. Assuming it will reach until Wednesday’s lunch, the next dish will be cooked that night. What is the dish again and its consumption period?
3. By Thursday night, I will then cook for Friday and Saturday. That Saturday’s market goods will be for the menu on Sunday-Monday.

I will then plan the expected range of prices of the ingredients and total them according to my budget. I would base those on my previous grocery and market receipts & then I’d usually cut those unnecessary components as I am not really choosy on the dish I cook if it is by some sort of standard or something like that. I range the budget to about P300 per dish that is good for 4 to 5 meals. The dish variance is pretty basic lutong-bahay such as Adobo, Laswa, Pancit and the like.

The next concern is time. Since it is now a full-blown work schedule at the office as compared to the GCQ days in the previous months, I would then need to drop by the supermarket after work, buy the ingredients, and then cook them right after arriving at home. Before that though, I would need to thoroughly clean each one that was exposed or open with the plastic cover.

Since we are using the traditional uling stove, this will take additional time to setup plus the messy smoke pollution. Anyhow, preparation and cooking time usually takes about two hours for common dishes and so I will just eat some for dinner. The rest are placed in small containers for refrigeration and serves as ‘baon’ for the next day.

I have not yet come up with a menu list but I will try to do so for the remaining of this week. Please wish me luck that I can pull this through and post a cost breakdown by next week.

Until then.

The current pandemic crisis has brought most of the local and popular restaurants here in Iloilo city to reduce their customer capacity and resort to online ordering and delivery in order to sustain their business.  In the past months, my newsfeed has been filled with friends and co-acquaintances posting food and menu items for online orders as well as non-food stuff. Some even resorted to the old school barter system, hence, the rise of the Iloilo Barter Community.

I have joined the Ilonggo vloggers club and noticed one of their recent drives to help the local business especially the food sector in regaining or at the least make their business stay afloat. They initiated some volunteer members to do free promotion of the restaurant or online shop in their Youtube vlog channels and Facebook pages. I then decided to do my own version. Whenever I do an online food order, I will do a short video of the restaurant info, the online order app or platform, and the food dish ordered.  I then do a short rating based on my personal preference and also on my food trip history.

I named this vlog series “Eat-from-Home Iloilo” and there are currently two videos under this playlist on my Youtube Channel. Check them below.

The first episode was when I tried their Ramen at Kizuna Curry at the Food hall of Festive Mall.

The second one is the good ol’ Ocean City Bistro, an icon in the local Ilonggo restaurants in the city.

*Banner image from Rappler.

I can say at this moment that if given the time, I will visit Akamon Ramen Bar and try each dish on their menu. I mainly prioritize their various Ramen menu over their Don or rice bowl toppings (obviously a fan and is drooling every day for each bowl).

My second visit was with my Magic: the Gathering playgroup after our Wednesday night tournament. I ordered only one bowl of premium Ramen to satisfy my cravings at that time as I needed to sleep early.

This was then followed by another visit with an officemate. We ordered two bowls with an extra side of kimchi and their bestseller Karaage which is a Japanese style fried boneless chicken.

The pics of my food trip sessions posted below.

Just last December, I decided to be part of the business partnership with a few close friends and we came up with a Tapsilogan business. We rented a spot beside a residential house in Brgy. Villa Anita, City proper, and assumed that location to be ideal as it is surrounded by dormitories and boarding houses.

We expected to be competing with the nearby barbeque stands and carinderia but the planned student price in our menu might become attractive to the local populace.

I got involved on the first day of canvass and buying our materials, products, and appliances needed and it was quite exhausting. We spent most of the day roaming around the city and searching for the items on the list and also on the suppliers of the processed foods that we will be cooking in our menu. The experience was tiring but I learned a lot in terms of handing a food business.

For short details of our silogan info, we named it “Bisan Ano Lang” and it serves student-price budget silog meals as well as premium silog meals. By budget includes hotdog, chicken bilog, chorizo, and beef loaf. Our premium meals have smoked sausages, bacon, spam, and hungarian sausages which make it somewhat increased in value but not that pricey.

Here below is the complete list of our menu:

We operate from 6:30 am to 9:00 pm, Monday to Saturday and our location map is shown below.

It has been two months of operation and so far we are not hitting our sales target. January was hard on the local businesses and most suffered. I do not know the exact reason for that but I am hoping that we can recover this coming March. This food business is really tough and we had to consider other options in order to increase sales.

We will see what other plans we can come up with after our planned meeting this week.

Authenticity is one of the major things I am looking for whenever I dine out, whether its Japanese, Chinese, European or even Pinoy dish served. Of course it comes with the price but then you need to gauge the actual value from what you are paying for.

One of the Iloilo city restaurants that serves authentic Chinese dishes is Master Chua Food Haus. Their first location is at the downtown Calle Real area in JM Basa street. Later on they expanded a second restaurant at 1688 Mall in Quezon street across Robinsons City proper. The location is in the line of restaurants fronting the Quezon wing of the mall.

I have discovered the resto the first time when I checked on Google Maps on its Explore option for nearby restaurants from my office. It is just a few blocks away and so I decided to check the reviews posted. So far they were all 5-stars and the comments really testified that they serve authentic Chinese cuisine.

I decided to check the place on a lunch break. The look outside seem to be an ordinary turo-turo stand but with the Chinese dishes served. They also have the usual Chinese food like lumpia, siomai, dumplings and they have list of menu for the various Chinese noodles. Each noodle dish are priced from P80 to P100 each serving.

My first order as I have remembered was a rice meal for P100 where you get to choose two main dish and partner it with a cup of rice. There is also an option for one piece of fried chicken combo meal for P120.

I took some pictures of the dishes I have ordered in every visit and you can check them in the Google Photo album below. Enjoy!

Lastly, here is the Google Maps location of Master Chua Food Haus in JM Basa street. Most of the city-bound jeeps (Jaro CPU, Jaro CPU Ungka, Jaro Liko, Lapaz) pass by this major street in the downtown.

In recent weeks, I have been frequently eating Batchoy. Be it during lunchtime, an afternoon snack, or an early dinner, I took my time to visit my favorite place and buy a bowl of the “extra super” serving of that savory noodle soup partnered with a Pandesal or Puto and a bottle of ice-cold Coca Cola. Truly an Ilonggo delicacy.

For the comparison of the best Batchoy stalls or restaurants in Iloilo City, I would still consider those located in the wet markets for the mere reason of genuinely quality of the ingredients and the broth. You must not disregard the broth as it is sort of the soul of the cuisine.

Next in the category is the noodles in which we usually have two choices of Pancit, and Bihon. I would prefer the former as it reminds my taste buds of that of the Ramen noodles. The toppings, of course, are also important. It is usual Pork bits, liver, and chicharon but a little extra is much appreciated.  I needed to chew on something while enjoying every sip of the soup.

My favorite Batchoy destination is at the Iloilo Central Market, particularly at Joel’s or Popoy’s Batchoy. They are usually located just side by side with the other two Batchoy stands (Mia’s and I forgot the other one). You will notice as you approach the place as there will be people that will call you and ask if you are eating Batchoy and insist to eat at their stall.

It is quite annoying but you cannot blame them as they compete with having more customers than the other. Anyhow, you can just assert that you are going to Joel’s or Popoy’s and they will just guide you on getting there. Once you are there, take a seat, state your preferred bowl size and add-ons and wait for a few minutes before they serve that Ilonggo bowl of goodness. Oh and don’t forget to ask for extra soup or caldo and make sure you finish the first one.

Late afternoon up to early evening is usually the peak hours of these stalls as a lot of people, from students in a nearby university to office workers and even some tourists go there for the Batchoy. Given the quality, it is also affordable as the Extra Super only costs 60 pesos and with the 10 pesos for the Pandesal or 15 pesos for the Puto. Add up the 15 pesos for the soft drinks and you are good to go. Total bill: 85-90 pesos. Solve.

Overall, it is below a hundred-peso budget for a delicious Batchoy meal. A pretty typical price for a quality dish that sometimes those branches in malls are lacking to maintain. Authenticity and price can go hand and hand. What the important thing is you can say “Namit, nabusog gd ako.” post-meal.