There's always a wide selection of delicious dishes to choose from, when you visit the West Visayas. Here are some dishes that complete the West Visayan culinary delights.
Adóbo - a dish of báboy (pork) or manók (chicken) or páto (duck) cut up or sliced, sautéed in a little mantécà (cooking oil) and garlic, and mixed with lánggaw (vinegar), bay leaf, pimiénta (black pepper), and estiwítis (annatto) - is one of the most popular West Visayan dishes. It can also be dried up by cooking out the liquid and concentrating the essence. Tákway (a taro root tendril) and lángka (jackfruit) can also be cooked in an adóbo way. The savoury sour taste of adobo is very scrumptious.
Bístek consists of lightly sliced cárne (beef) soaked in toyò or salsa de soya (soy sauce) and suhâ (calamondin) and then fried in a frying pan that is typically served with onions.
Dinuguán is a food consisting usually of pork (or beef) innards cooked slowly in pork (or beef) blood and vinegar and seasoned with katúmbal (chilli peppers). It is usually brown when cooked, like chocolate.
Pinamalahán refers to different vinegar-based stews that are at variance greatly from one another based on the kind of meat used. Pinamalahán nga isda uses fish, say tilapia, milkfish, perch, or búlgan (seabass) and usually includes the addition of ginger, patís (fish sauce), and maybe katúmbal. Pinamalahán nga báboy is a pinamalahán using pork, usually pork hocks, and often sees the addition of sugar, pósò (banana blossoms), and water so that the meat is stewed in a sweet sauce. A similar dish called húmba adds fermented black beans. Both dishes are perhaps related to páta tim. Pinamalahán nga litsón is made from litsón meat and features the addition of ground liver or liver spread. This adds flavour and thickens the sauce so that it starts to caramelise around the meat by the time dish is finished cooking. Though some styles of pinamalahán dishes are made using the same basic ingredients as adóbo, they are prepared in a different way, with other ingredients added and the proportions of ingredients and water being different.
In crispy páta, pork knuckles are marinated in garlic-flavoured vinegar then deep fried until crisp and golden brown, with other parts of the pork leg prepared in the same way.
Litsón manók is the West Visayan take on rotisserie chicken. (A rotisserie is a cooking appliance for roasting meat using a rotating spit.) It is usually a specially seasoned chicken roasted over a charcoal flame served with litsón sauce. Its meat taste is also enhanced by a roll of tánglad (lemon grass) slotted in the chicken.
Mechádo, kalderéta, and afritáda are Spanish influenced tomato sauce-based dishes that are to some degree similar to one another. In these dishes meat is prepared in tomato sauce, minced garlic, and onions. Mechado gets its name from the pork fat that is inserted in a slab of beef making it look like a mítsa (wick) coming out of a beef ‘candle.’ The larded meat is then cooked in a seasoned tomato sauce and later sliced and served with the sauce it was cooked in. Kalderéta can be beef but is also associated with goat. Chunks of meat are cooked in tomato sauce, minced garlic, chopped onions, peas, carrots, bell peppers, and potatoes to make a stew with some recipes calling for the addition of soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, chillies, ground liver or some combination thereof. Afritáda tends to be the name given to the dish when chicken or pork is used.
Putséro is a sweeter stew that has beef or pork and sabä (plantain) slices, potatoes, and pítsay (bok choy) simmered in tomato sauce.
West Visayans also eat tosíno (sweetened pork) and chorizo (sausage). Tosíno is a sweetened cured meat made with either pork or chicken and is marinated and cured for a number of days before being fried.
Chorízo is a sweet or spicy sausage, usually made from pork though other meats can also be used, and are often colour red traditionally through the use of the estiwítis. It’s packed in trepílya (the small intestines of a pig) and hung up at meat shops.
Sinámbagan nga baboy (pork in tamarind soup) is another delicious dish. West Visayan soups tend to be very hearty and stew-like containing large chunks of meat and vegetables or noodles. They are usually intended to be filling and not meant to be a light preparatory introduction for the main course. They tend to be served with the rest of the meal and eaten with rice when they are not meals unto themselves. It is usually made with either pork, beef, chicken, or seafood and made sour with tamarind or other suitable souring ingredients. Some variants for example can be made sour by the use of bayábas (guava fruit), bátwan (binucao), íbà (sorrel), lábug (roselle), páhò (green mangoes), sántol (faux mangoustanier), búgnay (salamander), and libás (pinnata).
Another dish is tinóla. It has large chicken pieces and slices of kapáyas (green papaya) cooked with chilli, spinach, and balúnggay (moringa leaves) in a ginger-flavoured broth. It’s very mouth-watering and moreish.
Ginátän nga támbò (sucker) is a dish of támbò with gatâ (coconut milk), pasáyan (shrimp), kaság (crab), or bágongon (telescope shell), tugábang (jute), and maís (corn kernel). It’s both low in calories and healthful aside from being very smooth. The jute thickens the soup of ginátän nga támbò.
Ginátän nga dágmay is dasheen (its corm and stem) with gatâ, bágongon, and ginámus. It’s gorgeous when the dasheen is tapól (purplish). Its stem is succulent and its crom, done to a turn. You can suck in the soft, greenish body of the telescope shell out - though its taste is in the chowder- after you’ve broken off the end of the shell; it’s called ‘bíntig’ in Hiligaynon.
Piniríto is chicken or fish cooked in fat over high heat. Manók nga piniríto is deep-fried chicken. Bángrus nga piniríto is fried milkfish; it’s not deep-fried. The bángrus is usually deboned in fillet, or in cutlet.
Linagâ is a beef stew made with ripólyo (cabbages) or jackfruit. It’s sold 24/7 in the West Visayan cities, in places near the plazas – or in crowded places.
Binakól is a warm chicken soup cooked with coconut water and served with strips of coconut meat.
Linágpang is a soup dish made of shredded broiled chicken meat or fish mixed with chopped hot chilli, tomatoes, and MSG, then poured with a scoop of freshly boiled water.
Noodle dishes are commonly called pánsit or talyarín. Pánsit recipes largely consist of noodles, vegetables, and slices of meat or pasáyan with distinctions often distinguished by the kind of noodles used. Some pánsit, such as mámi and La Paz-styled batchóy, are noodle soups while the ‘dry’ varieties are comparable to chow Mein in preparation. La Paz batchóy is a noodle soup garnished with pork innards and crushed pork cracklings; it uses míswa (fine vermicelli), tagiposóon (beef heart), tagimíslon (kidneys), and kasúdlan (intestines), but does not contain eggs or vegetables. Mámi is a noodle soup made from chicken, beef, pork, wonton dumplings, or intestines. Another chicken noodle soup is sotánghon (vermicelli), consisting of cellophane noodles, chicken, and sometimes óhong (mushroom).
Pánsit-Molo is one of the simplest, most popular and delicious foods in the West Visayan cookery. This dish is made with dumplings and meat broth. Similar to siomai soup, except that the dumplings in pánsit-Molo are not steamed but cooked in the broth itself. I suppose you know where it originated.
There are several rice gruels that are common in the West Visayas. One is arróz cáldo which is a rice gruel cooked with chicken, ginger, and at times turmeric powder, garnished with spring onions (chives), toasted garlic, and coconut milk to make a kind of gruel. There is also another much different rice gruel called champorádo which is sweet and flavoured with tablíya (chocolate) and often served at breakfast paired with ugá (dried salted fish).
Another rice-based dish is arróz a la valenciána, a Spanish paella named after the Spanish region Valencia. It is made of pilít (sticky rice), batikólon (gizzard), atáy (pork or chicken liver), pork, pásas (raisins), and guisántes (peas). It’s added with turmeric powder.
For veggies, there is pinahúyak, stewed vegetables heavily flavoured with ginamús (pickled shrimp). The basic vegetables used in this dish include native amargóso (bitter melon), talóng (aubergine), tomato, okra, balátong (string beans), chilli peppers, and balagáy (winged beans). Root crops and some beans like camote (sweet potato), patani (lima beans), kadios (pigeon peas) are also optionally added. The young pod of balúnggay is also added. It is usually spiced with ginger, onions, or garlic. It also includes calabáza or calabacéra (squash) sometimes. Most of these vegetables are easily accessible, and are grown in backyards and gardens of most West Visayan households. As its name puts forward, it is usually cooked until almost dry and shrivelled; the flavours of the vegetables are emphasised with ginamús. In some cases, litsón, tsitsarón (crackling), or other meats, most commonly pork, are added. It is considered a very healthful dish.
A kind of seafood salad known as kinílaw (ceviche) is made up of raw fish or pasáyan cooked only by steeping in vinegar, sometimes with gatâ, onions, langkawás, and kotíkot nga katúmbal (hot red pepper fruits).
Atsára is a side dish of pickled papaya, támbò, or pósò - strips similar to sauerkraut. It's a common garnish to fried dishes like ugá.
Útan nga lupô (manyfruit primrosewillow stew) is made of lupô, pasáyan, and tomatoes. Its greenish soup has a little tipoff of pleasantness. It smells delicious.
KBL (kádios, báboy, kag lángka) is a very simple dish made of pigeon peas, broiled pork, unripe jackfruit and greened with camote shoots.
Inásal nga pántat (roast catfish) is catfish roasted on a spit. It has a fairly strong and pleasant flavour which makes it good to eat. Bángrus and chicken are also good variants.
Binóro nga bángrus is salted milkfish. After the entrails have been removed and the milkfish is washed, the fish is placed inside a plastic bag with a lot of salt, which preserves it for a long time. It is cooked by frying it, having been washed to remove the salt.
Hípon nga linusgusán is krills boiled in water with salt in such a way that all the water evaporates before the cooking is properly done. The quantity of water required has to be accurately calculated beforehand. Shrimps, lokón (prawns), and alimángo (mud crabs) can also be cooked this way.
Kalókálo is cold rice warmed up and stirred in a pan either with or without cooking oil. It is sometimes added with garlic, peas, shrimps, or salchicha (hotdogs). It can match up with pinamalahán, at breakfast.
Cárne kag alugbáti (beef and Malabar spinach) is a delicious West Visayan dish. The sautéed beef is simmered until it becomes tender. The alugbáti is added along with optional ingredients (balátong, aubergine, and calabáza).
Amargóso kag ítlog is a simple dish of bitter melons and chicken’s or duck’s eggs. The amargóso is stirred in the oil and added with scrambled eggs. It is sprinkled with salt.
Talóng kag ítlog is a broiled aubergine, its seared skin peeled. It’s dipped into the scrambled egg and fried.
Eskabétse is a dish made of fried fish mixed with vinegar and spices. Alóy (skipjack tuna), bángrus, lagáw (threadfin), and tamúdyos (hard-tail mackerel) are best for this fare.
Manók sa úbad is chicken in the soft pith of a banana plant. It is more savoury when the poultry is of a Bisayà chicken, which is organically raised. The pith is chopped up and then squeezed to get the bitter juice out of it. It can be added with mónggo (mung beans).
[All spellings of Hiligaynon words here are based on Roger B Rueda's Hiligaynon-English Dictionary (11 X 8 1/2, 855 pp, Centralbooks, 2012).]
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