My trips back home to Iloilo will not be complete if I didn't get drunk. Of course I save a lot from drinking since I get drunk easily. During my last trip home, I had to sober up at Ted's Old Timer Lapaz bbatchoy and Luna's Arroz Caldo.
After my first night of drinking, we headed over to the new Ted's along diversion road since Deco's in Smallville has been closed. This Ted's has Dulgie's inside as well. I'll blog about Dulgies another time. I had the Super Special batchoy which has liver in it. To any Manila folks, batchoy is NOT Beef mami. Beef mami orginated from...actually I have no idea where this came from but batchoy definitely came from Lapaz Iloilo city. This consists of Noodles, usually meke (but you may choose to have bihon or sotanghon), boiled pork, beef, so sort of laman loob, liver and topped with crispy chicharon. The smallest bowl which is Special starts at 55 PHP, Super Special at 65 PHP and Extra Super Special at 70 PHP.
The batchoy at Ted's drastically improved since it's now tastier. My fave is still Deco's Lapaz branch since their chicharon remains crispy. Ted's is still good enough for me to satisfy my batchoy cravings and they're open 24 hours which makes them a good place to go after being drunk. You can get all the soup you want as well.
Another option I had was Luna's Arroz Caldo along Lapaz. This seems to be the only branch left. If there are other branches though, kindly let me know as I'm afraid of the Lapaz branch since it's beside a funeral home and I'm scared of dead people.
I had to concentrate on the Arroz Caldo though. The toasted garlic they placed on top made this very tasty although the caldo was already well seasoned in the first place. They use native chicken which is very tender. You can have some add ons to your Arroz Caldo for an added fee. My cousin Bibay and I chose to have Atay and Baticulon Arroz Caldo while my sister Titit opted for the Chicken Arroz Caldo Each bowl cost 55 PHP. We also had puto manapla with it at 15 PHP.
There are still other places to sober up in Iloilo considering Ilonggos have this great love for soup. There's nilaga everywhere in the city or you can head out to the Iloilo fishing port to have the fresh catch of the day made into delicious soup. It all boils down to preference.
Ted's Lapaz batchoy has several branches. The 24 hour branch is found along Diversion road. Luna's Arroz Caldo may be found in Lapaz before Gaisano City.
I've been behind with blogging since I had several things to catch up on after staying in Iloilo for almost a week. I had to drag my sister Titit to Tatoy's, one of our fave restaurants in Iloilo since I was craving for their kinilaw. We were surprised to see that they renovated another portion of the place and only 1 part of the place still has the sand floor on it.
We had our favorites on that day. We ordered the boneless bangrus (120 PHP). We loved how this is marinated and it trully is boneless since some of the bangus that we eat in Manila is quite ironic being named boneless but is a "major major" failure. The tyan is really fat and tasty, just how we liked it.
We ordered the porkchop (80 PHP) and this was perfectly grilled and very juicy. People from Manila may think we call liempo as porkchop but no..this is an actual grilled porkchop. As a kid, I refuse to eat anything at Tatoy's except porkchop. Little by little I started to eat the other food my parents will order. As a certified bratinella, if there is no porkchop at Tatoy's, they had to scout the other restaurants for porkchop so I would eat.
Of course we had talaba (45 PHP). Even if people advised not to eat talaba during the rainy season because they're not as good, we still ordered because we miss it and talaba is very over priced in Manila.
I had to order kinilaw na tanigue (90 PHP) even if Titit doesn't like it. I love how they blended the sweetness of the spices and how good everything became with the taste of the native vinegar. This is the best kinilaw I ever had.
We did not order Tatoy's specialty which is the native lechon manok since it's just the two of us. If you visit Tatoy's, make sure you order this. It is highly recommended.
Manong waiter was very nice to us though. Even if he hadn't had lunch yet (we ate late, around 2pm), he made sure to make paypay all the flies away. So extra tip for manong and this just shows, their staff made sure that customers enjoyed eating there.
I'll always love Tatoy's food. While writing this, just makes me homesick.
Tatoy's can be found along Villa beach in Iloilo city. When you reach the intersection of the road coming from Arevalo plaza upon seeing Breakthrough restaurant, turn right until you see Tatoy's.
For my third attempt in trying to cook for Marlon, I decided to make pancit molo, inspired by my mom's style of making it. Of course my sisters had some for themselves too. Pancit Molo is one of well loved dishes in Iloilo city originating from the town of Molo. These are ground pork and shrimp with spices wrapped in molo wrapper and simmered in broth. Each family from Iloilo have their own way of making this.
I had some prepared molo balls from Iloilo so I decided to make this.
I made chicken and shrimp stock from scratch. I placed the shredded chicken and peeled cooked shrimp in the broth then added the molo balls. Once the molo balls are cooked, I added chopped spring onions and toasted garlic for garnish.
My sisters loved the soup, it passed their taste. We didn't like the quality of the molo balls. Will look for another brand next time or maybe try to make this from scratch. Best of all, Marlon turned out to be allergic. So this attempt failed. At least I got the soup right and it looks good especially on a rainy day right? This is just the start of the Iloilo series.
Good food can come from a hole-in-a-wall. I discovered Ba Noi in the internet and decided that I should take my family there. So while Ike and Mie the chubby-high-standards parents were in Manila, Titit and I decided to treat them in Ba Noi since it said it was quite similar to Ba Wai's in Tagaytay.
After a chance to boss around our dad which way to go while he was driving (a rare opportunity), we got to Ba Noi's right before the lunch rush. It was a small place with simple interiors. The waiters seated us immediately and took our orders.
We ordered 2 kinds of Spring Rolls. Fresh (165 PHP) and Fried (160 PHP). The fresh spring rolls came with a really good peanut sauce which for us gave life to this dish. The wrapping was a little loose as well so it will be better to use your hands. We loved the fried spring rolls with the juicy pork and vermicelli. I came with sweet patis and lettuce leaves. The lettuce were a bit wilted though but the patis was really good.
We then had the Shrimp and Pomelo salad (195 PHP). Shrimps were succulent and the pomelo was sweet and juicy. The sweet patis with sesame was the dressing for this dish and you can eat it with the prawn crackers. This got my Mie's approval.
Next up was the Vermicelli beef bowl (175 PHP), this was just ok but good enough to share.
We had the Lemon Grass Chicken (205 PHP) along with steamed rice (30 PHP). The chicken was marinated well and juicy at the same time.
Lastly we got the Honey Grilled Beef with Fried Basil (310 PHP) which was the dish we loved best. The beef was tasty, soft and very juicy with the toasted sesame. The fried basil was really good too and eating them together gives a wonderful fusion of flavors in your mouth. This is highly recommended.
Titit ordered the Melon Shake (90 PHP), I was not able to try this though.
I ordered the Iced Vietnamese Coffee (95 PHP). I liked the strong taste of coffee in this one. Ike who loves coffee seems to like it when he had a sip.
The unique thing in Ba Noi is that they have this small signs in your table instructing you how your food should be eaten.
I would love to come back to this place. I think their Beef Pho deserves to be tried.
Ba Noi is located at Perea st. Makati. From Makati Ave (Coming from Ayala), make a right turn at De La Rosa st. then make a left at Perea st. You can park on the street in front of Ba Noi.
