Technique and Technology: The Blending of Heritage and Modernity

By Ted Aldwin E. Ong

[This feature story was originally published in the Technology Section of the coffee table book “Gastronomic Expression of Our City, Iloilo: Nature, Culture, and Geography” (December 2024). Republished with permission from the author.]

Technology and technique both play integral roles in the development of food and culture. They both serve distinct functions and purposes in llonggo cooking.

Multi-disciplinary artist, gastronomy educator, and owner of Wawa Heritage Restaurant, PJ Arañador, defines technique as encompassing the skills, methods, and traditions that drive creativity, craftsmanship, and attention to detail in the local culinary practice. Technology, on the other hand, provides the tools, equipment, and innovations for safety and efficiency.

The moniker “the past is always present” in Iloilo ruminates in the Ilonggo kitchen. There is a playful coexistence of old practices and new ways of cooking, as well as the use of old traditional tools and contemporary appliances and equipment.

Both old and new ways have science and technology with them, Arañador emphasized, and the modern world can learn from the primitive ways of Ilonggo cooking, which also conform to green processes and the use of clean energy.

Ilonggo chef Miguel Cordova of Rustica Catering Studio, on the other hand, explained that technique is often the skillful application of traditional methods that create the character of a local cuisine. The integration of modern technology through the use of equipment, however, expands culinary possibilities and helps enhance efficiency without compromising the essence of our heritage dishes, including the quality or safety of food.

The use of technology is also a matter of technique, like an invisible procedure that transpires in the kitchen. It makes Ilonggo gastronomy a living and breathing system that is being experienced every day and that continues to evolve with time.

COOKING TECHNIQUES

Sinugba: Simple yet Phenomenal

One of the simplest techniques in Ilonggo gastronomy that uses traditional cooking technology is sinugba (grilling) or inasal (barbecue or skewers).

Grilling can be applied to various parts of pork, chicken, fish, and other seafood. Establishments employ grilling techniques that are appropriate to the food. Fish, squid, and pork liempo (belly) are cooked using a parillahan, a flat metal, iron, or stainless steel griller, over an open flame of burning charcoal. But a whole native chicken is roasted using tailor-made mechanized rotating equipment that functions like a rotisserie.

Iloilo City’s seven districts have their popular barbecue junctions, where Ilonggos from all walks of life gravitate every day, invited by the wisps of aromatic smoke that swirl from the cooking of pork and chicken meat. Customers either dine al fresco by the roadside or buy their sinugba orders to bring home for dinner.

Among the notable sinugba joints in the city’s districts are Pablo’s and Corning’s at Valeria Extension in the downtown area, known for their dila (pork tongue) and bisaya nga manok (native chicken) barbecue. There are barbecue carts at the corner of Mapa and J.M. Basa streets, the food stalls at Fort San Pedro, and the outdoor fresh seafood paluto (cook-to-order food) at the Iloilo Fishing Port Complex. There are also sinugba stalls in the fish and meat sections of public markets across the city.

The unpretentiousness of the sinugba as a cooking technique reflects the Ilonggos’ proclivity for a simple, unadulterated taste. And so the popularity of still more outlets. Nora’s Eatery of Leonora Palacios, now managed by Susanita J. Galila, along Solis Street in Iloilo City proper, grills various fresh fish catch. Inside the Iloilo Central Market is Jr. Rawit, which has the roasted native chicken of Jesus Janeo Jr. And the still-sought-after chicken inasal of Tatoy’s Restaurant, founded by Honorato “Tiyo Tatoy” Espinosa about fifty years ago at Villa Beach in the Arevalo district.

Grilling using the parilla makes for the well-cooked and tasty Sinugba nga Managat (red snapper) at the Breakthrough Restaurant of Raymundo “Munding” Robles. The best thing is that managat is served on the table straight from the grill with a matching traditional sawsawan (dipping sauce) of lánggaw (coconut vinegar), kutitot (bird’s eye chili), calamansi, and soy sauce.

Pabukal – Boiling technique

Boiling, or the more precise term-simmering— is a technique of producing flavorful broth for soups done for long hours to attain a tender meat and release the natural flavors of meats from fats, giving a rich fatty taste. This technique is among the most common in Ilonggo cuisine and is used for the broth base of soups associated with the place: Batchoy, Pancit Molo, Arroz Caldo, Linaga, Pata, and Kansi.

Homecooked soups like Tinola nga Manok and Tinola nga Isda (boiled chicken and fish soup) with vegetable ingredients follow low-intensity heat for gentle boiling so as not to overcook the ingredients.

A quick boiling technique is also applied when cooking shrimps and crabs. Termed linusgusan, the ingredients are put in a pan with water and salt and brought to a boil until the raw, opaque-colored ingredients transform into a reddish-orange-brown color, indicating it is cooked.

Paaso – Smoking technique

This traditional method is applied to fish or meat by hanging the ingredient above a slow fire or on a flat grill using a repurposed metal drum with fuel made of sawdust, coconut husks, driftwood, or scrap wood. The smoking process depends on the type of ingredients; the most common are smoked tuloy (sardine) and bangus (milkfish), which are now prepared fresh for smoking.

The smoking method is also considered artisanal, especially for local sausages and ham, which are usually produced during the holiday season of Christmas and New Year.

Pinirito – Frying technique

Pinirito is considered a quick cooking technique, using oil to cook food. The amount of cooking oil in the pan depends on the volume of food for frying.

A small amount of oil starts the guisa, the sauté process where aromatics like pieces of garlic, onion and sometimes ginger are stir-fried. Then the food to be cooked, usually vegetables, follows.

Small fish are generally also cooked with a thin amount of oil.

Deep-frying requires a big amount of oil to cook a whole boiled pork leg for crispy pata, for instance. Whole fish or dried beef (kusahos) that need to be served crisp also use this procedure.

Kinilaw – cooking with “liquid fire”

It was Edilberto N. Alegre and Doreen G. Fernandez who wrote extensively about this method in their book Kinilaw: A Philippine Cuisine of Freshness (1991, Bookmark, Manila).

They described perfectly the distinctive qualities of the kinilaw itself-freshness, sweetness of the raw-and of the process-cooking not in fire but in “liquid fire.” That different fire refers to the natural cooking ability of the vinegar even without heat because of its chemical elements of ethanol and acetic acid. These elements give vinegar its polyfunctional character as a technological input for food preservation and as an exquisite ingredient requiring good technique in cooking.

Renette Gabales, a retired carinderia owner, has known the Ilonggos affinity for kinilaw dishes because of the freshness. To her, a good kinilaw is made using fresh raw ingredients of fish together with garlic, ginger, chilis, calamansi which gives a citrusy flavor, and vinegar.

Vinegar (lánggaw), however, when used in cooking with fire, is another technique.

Pinaksiw – preserving freshness with lánggaw

Before refrigerators were invented, one way to preserve food, whether fresh or already cooked, fish or meat, was by pinaksiw.

This is done through cooking with langgaw (vinegar) and adding ingredients that will enhance the flavor, like garlic, ginger, green chili, and salt.

Ilonggos will have their bilong-bilong (moonfish) or puyo (climbing perch) done this way. And leftover lechon, here in Iloilo as well as in the rest of the country, will have another life through this process.

Lánggaw, or vinegar, is collected from the sap of coconut flowers, locally called tubâ (coconut sap or wine), and then stored for natural fermentation. It is used as an agent to tenderize and marinate various types of meat, preserve food, enhance flavor, and serve as a condiment.

There are different types of local vinegar and derivatives; however, the ones commonly used in Ilonggo cooking are those made from sugar cane and coconut vinegar.

Lánggaw is also a condiment called sinamak, where it is mixed with garlic, ginger, chili pepper, and langkawas (blue ginger, galangal). Usually sold in a repurposed clear bottle of local rhum called lapad, the arrangement of the visible and colorful spices makes for an artwork. Sinamak is a favorite dipping sauce of the Ilonggos, especially for grilled fish, chicken, pork, and steamed talaba (oysters).

Ginat-an – enriching method

Family cook Demet Estenor describes gatâ, or coconut milk, as among the oldest and all-embracing ingredients of Ilonggo cuisine. Its importance is stressed by the presence of the coconut grater, or kudkuran, in many Ilonggo kitchens and is considered a heritage tool in Iloilo. For Estenor, coconut milk is a delicate ingredient that requires proper technique and timing to attain a creamy consistency. The technique of adding coconut cream to a dish a few seconds towards the end of the cooking process is to prevent curdling or overcooking.

Among the classic vegetable dishes that use gata are tambo (young bamboo shoots), linutik (mashed squash, malunggay, string beans, and shrimps), and pangat (taro leaves cooked in coconut milk and vinegar).

Gatâ is also an indispensable ingredient in the many native cakes, or kakanin, not only in Iloilo but also throughout the country. Towns are known for the kind of kakanin cooked there. Lambunao has Ibos nga may Bucayo, the latter a candy topping made of grated young coconut cooked in brown sugar.

Balasan has Ibos nga Balinghoy (cassava). Cabatuan has Ibos nga may Haliya, which is a thickened muscovado sugar made into a sauce. Passi City has Tikoy, made of glutinous rice with young coconut meat and sweetened with muscovado sugar, and Inday-Inday, a flattened rice dough with bucayo (sweetened coconut strands) topping.

The gatâ is an ingredient that demonstrates the heirloom nature of Ilonggo food, for recipes, techniques, and technology used in cooking are passed down from one generation to another within a family, sustaining family tradition.

FOOD CURING TECHNIQUES

Salting is a method of food curing that uses salt (asin) by way of coating or washing the fish or meat with salt to preserve the food.

There are two ways to do this. One is called uga or pinakas, where the fish is split open, gutted, and sun- or air-dried on bamboo trays usually seen along coastal villages. The other way is called lamayo, where the fish is also split open and gutted but only partially dried.

Salting and then sun-drying is also used by Ilonggos on meat or tenderloin slices, which are called tapa or kusahos, and then fried in cooking oil for breakfast or dinner. Another cured meat dish is the tocino, which combines salt and sugar as a technique to marinate pork slices together with istiwitis (anatto seeds) and salitri (saltpeter) to give the reddish caramelized color when fried

Fermentation, or binuro, is a curing technique using saltwater solution that is commonly applied by Ilonggo fisherfolks on small fish called balingon or dilis (anchovies or herring) and on small native shrimps, or the white shrimp known as balaskugay, which are used as an added ingredient to flavor food. Fermentation is also a method of fish preservation, especially in locations without electricity or refrigerators or to make use of an oversupply of fish.

The binuro is also a method that combines salting, brining, and, at some point, even sun-drying. One of the Ilonggo favorites is bilong-bilong, or moonfish, which is washed and then layered on a container with a cover and coated with salt and brine. It is left to ferment for one to two weeks.

Fermentation is also applied to fruits like mangoes, done for whole or peeled mangoes, then brined using water, salt, and a little sugar. The fermented mangoes are also a lucrative livelihood, especially among community-based organizations in the Island Province of Guimaras (Western Visayas, Philippines), known for their Carabao Mango variety.

Another fruit that is fermented in brine is santol or cotton fruit, which is a favorite pairing with vegetable stews like tambo because of its sweet and sour taste.

Also fermented in brine are mustasa or mustard greens, and tokwa (soybean curd). Together with the brine is a mix of water, salt, muscovado sugar, and sesame oil. It is left to ferment at room temperature for one month.

The most famous of the Ilonggo fermented foods is the ginamos, or shrimp paste, which is used for various foods as flavoring. Ginisa nga ginamos (sautéed shrimp paste in garlic and oil) is a favorite dip for green mangoes among the Ilonggos.

The abundance of tropical fruits like tambis (Java apple), bignay (wild cherry), and mangoes makes possible innovations in fermentation techniques that transform fruits into alcoholic beverages that are available in the local market.

Crafting Coconut Wine and Vinegar

Harvesting tubâ (coconut wine) is a traditional method performed by a mananggete (coconut wine gatherer) who climbs the coconut tree, cuts a floral sap using a sanggot (curved knife), and ties a bamboo collecting jar to gather droplets from the sap. The collected tubâ are transferred to a clean container.

Ilonggos, in general, declare that it’s time to drink when a mananggete descends from the coconut tree with the tubâ.

Tubâ can be added with balúk, a natural organic dye from the red bark of a mangrove tree that gives the tubâ  red-orange color and woodsy flavor. It’s also done to the unsold tubâ, called in the vernacular bahai, which will turned into vinegar or lánggaw.

The bahai is kept in the tadyaw (clay earthen vat) and is left to ferment for two weeks. Some add the balúk for the red-orange color and woodsy flavor.

There are customers, however, who prefer the original color and for them, the balúk is not added to the tubâ and lánggaw.

There are now new variations of vinegar from rice, sugarcane, cacao, batwan (souring fruit), and mango.

Preserving Surplus Produce

Food processing is rooted in Ilonggo culinary tradition, like converting surplus vegetables into pickles, fish through fermentation and brining, and fruits through the candying. But the Ilonggo will go beyond just processing for preservation, producing a unique work of food art such as the papaya candy, which food artisans in Pototan town fashion into flowers.

Another example is the conversion of surplus peanuts into peanut brittle; bananas into pinasugbo, a dried thin sliced banana coated with caramelized brown sugar, making a sticky crunchy snack; bandi, peanuts molded in muscovado sugar popular in San Joaquin town; and buti, a crispy pop rice, a favorite of children.

The excess grated young coconut, or butong, is also processed into a candy called bukayo, which is eaten as a dessert or made into toppings on various native cakes. The Ilonggos also adore polvoron, a mix made from toasted flour, sugar, powdered milk, and butter, and its derivative, barquiron, the name a combination of the crisp rolled wafer, barquillos, that provides the container for the polvoron filling.

Preserving Coffee and Chocolate Processing Techniques

Culinary traditions in Iloilo include the processing of heritage drinks.

A traditional technique of brewing Arabica coffee endures to this day at Madge Café inside the Lapaz Public Market.

It was established by the couple Vicente and Magdalena “Magdal” de la Cruz in 1940, thus the name Madge. Then and today, the Café uses native Arabica coffee beans sourced from farmers in Northern Iloilo and Guimaras Island.

Madge Café preserved the artisanal pan-roasting of coffee beans that are then machine ground and brewed by hand through the pour-over method using boiling water from a takure, a stovetop tea kettle with a lid, a long spout and handle, and a colador (a strainer with a cloth sack filter) on a tin can of evaporated milk, and then repeated numerous times for ideal flavor and taste.

Another heritage drink that follows an artisanal process is tablea (chocolate tablets) that include the processes after harvest of breaking of the pods, drying, fermentation, roasting, cracking, winnowing, crushing, molding, and packing.

The Sunburst Balay Tablea of Catherine Villalobos Taleon observes the traditional technique of preparing tablea chocolate. Roasted cacao is manually cracked and winnowed using a kalalaw, an indigenous bamboo-woven mat tray. The cacao nibs are placed in a metate, a traditional flat or slightly reclining grinding tool made from volcanic rock or stone and stabilized by three stands, and ground using a mano, a handheld rolling pin.

The tablea pieces are slowly boiled on a tabletop stove using a tsokolatera, a high-necked metal pot-shaped pitcher, and stirred slowly by a molinillo or batirol (wooden whisk) until thickened and ready to serve as a hot drink.

FOOD PACKAGING TECHNIQUES

Ilonggo traditional processed food are mostly packaged with sustainable materials. Many of them have maintained those using dahon saging (banana leaves), lukay or dahon lubi (coconut leaves), and dahon gabi (taro leaves). These food packaging materials are mostly found within the community.

Banana leaves are a widely used food wrapper for native cakes like suman, muasi, puto lansun, puto, bibingka, and baye-baye, a chewy sweet rice cake made from glutinous rice flour, coconut milk, and sugar. The banana leaf functions as a breathable wrapper and serves as protection for the food from external elements, especially since it is vended by the roadside.

Coconut leaves, on the other hand, are identified as a wrapper for ibus, glutinous rice flour with coconut milk and sugar.

TECHNOLOGY TOOLS

The indispensable almerés

A primitive kitchen tool is the almerés (mortar and pestle). It is used to manually pound, crush, or grind spices, aromatics, and various food ingredients, which enriches the taste, texture, and palatability of Ilonggo food.

Chef Cidj Jalandoni, a consultant for numerous local food brands in Iloilo, treats the almerés as an indispensable tool in the Ilonggo kitchen, even if there are modern cooking appliances like food processors and blenders, because to him, a hands-on process in cooking offers versatility in flavors. The rhythmic pounding of the almerés extracts essential oils and juices from the ingredients.

The fragrance of crushed garlic or chili creates anticipation of the taste and texture of even simple dishes like chicken adobo. It also provides better control when crushing the ingredients, which helps attain the appropriate texture. For instance, shrimp heads for the flavoring of Pancit Molo require moderate mashing so as not to leave traces of hard particles from the body parts of shrimp when plunged into the boiling soup using a fine mesh filter. It ensures a subtle shrimp flavor.

This cooking technique using almerés is used by numerous cooks to flavor dishes such as mashing garlic for pancit canton, palabok, and kalo-kalo rice (fried rice).

There is a larger old-fashioned version of mortar and pestle called lusong kag hal-o. It’s still used by farmers and rural folks to pound or break seeds, corn, and rice, and to make linupak, a traditional mash of boiled saba/sab-a banana, mixed with grated coconut and muscovado sugar, and wrapped in banana leaves.

The artisanal kudkuran

The kudkuran (coconut grater) is an artisanal kitchen gadget used to extract gatâ (coconut milk). It is a handy traditional tool consisting of a sharp, serrated, rounded steel tip mounted on a wood slab or a foot stool. The user mounts the wooden slab as one would ride a horse (which is why it’s called kabayo (horse) in the Tagalog region) with the sharp grater in front to scrape mature coconut meat off the shell of the lubi (coconut).

The process is called kágud in Hiligaynon and Karay-a languages.

Local food culture researcher and Iloilo Provincial Tourism Officer Bombette Marin considers the kudkuran a fixture in the Ilonggo kitchen because gatâ (coconut milk) is a prominent ingredient in many local delicacies that are considered intangible heritage, representing cuisines that carry historical, aesthetic, scientific, social, economic, political, and spiritual significance.

Cooks in urban areas may no longer have or use the kudkuran because grated coconut can now be obtained from the public markets where vendors use mechanized coconut grinders. Also, coconut milk and cream can be bought in packs at the grocery store.

Manual tools and their modern counterparts

“Food always comes from the society and its history. Culture forms the food. But since culture keeps changing, food will keep changing too. It will respond to new influences, even new technology.” — Doreen Gamboa Fernandez

From the kudkuran to electric coconut meat grinders, the innovation of manual tools reflects the words of Doreen G. Fernandez that food will change because the tools and equipment being used have also changed.Ilonggo traditional manual tools and methods thrive with their modern counterparts, and their use varies in terms of purposes and functions, i.e., household and commercial use.

Traditional ice shavers and the galingan (grain mills) used for crushing ice or grinding grains, which require physical exertion, precision, and control to attain the desired texture, now have a modern counterpart: electric grinders and ice shavers that entail minimal effort and save time.

These mechanized tools have allowed food preparations like halo-halo, shaved ice topped with a variety of sweet ingredients such as beans, fruits, jellies, and sweetened milk, to scale up through improved efficiency and reduce the waiting time of customers.

The effortlessness offered by mechanical grinders has allowed the cooking of traditional dishes with ease.

While Ilonggos continue to patronize bread baked using a stone or brick oven, like the Pan de Sal ni Paa in Jaro or the Boho Bakery at Mapa Street (literally a hole in the wall because “boho” means hole in Hiligaynon), old-time bakeries now have to switch to an electric industrial oven or gas-fired oven. The 150-year-old Panaderia de Molo, a heritage bakery that started in 1874, had to switch because environmental laws discourage the use of firewood for cooking. And because the heritage panaderia that used to be located in a vast open space is now within a populous place and residential neighbors complained of smoke emanating from the oven chimney.

Modern ovens do offer precise temperature control and faster cooking time compared to their traditional counterparts and are efficient to manage considering advanced features such as convection fans and digital displays, which ensure consistent results, allowing increased production and expanding the product line of local bakeries. But that will change the product in terms of the aroma produced by the wood used, for instance. And future bakers will no longer have to depend on their senses—to feel that the temperature is right, to see if the breads, cookies, or pastries are cooked through-which old-time bakers have been trained through apprenticeship.

On the other hand, Angela Mapua-Abenir of the 50-year-old Love and Kisses Pizza Pies of Iloilo doesn’t have to adjust because of environmental laws. She has been using gas-fired tabletop ovens for their crispy crust, which Ilonggo customers like, especially with their localized flavor and ingredients that cater to the local palate. While there are modern gas and electric ovens in the market, Love and Kisses continues to use this type of oven because it has been a dependable technology for their business.

ILONGGO COOKING IN THE 21^st CENTURY

The Rustica Catering Studio of Chef Miguel Cordova now uses modern technologies side-by-side with traditional ones like the Sous Vide and Food Dehydrator.

On top of familiar kitchen appliances like gas ovens, microwave ovens, air fryers, pressure cookers, and rice cookers, these two modern cooking equipment have sort of ‘revolutionized’ the cooking of Ilonggo dishes, especially for group parties and large gatherings.

Sous vide cooking is a method with the food placed inside vacuum-sealed bags at precise temperatures in a water bath. It ensures consistent cooking results, offering precision, especially when it comes to the texture and doneness of food.

The food dehydrator, on the other hand, is used by food caterers to compress normally heavy liquids like sauces, condiments, and even food using a regulated temperature depending on the food. The use of a dehydrator helps Chef Cordova reduce the weight of ingredients for catering in remote locations and makes for efficient cooking on site.

Cordova, however, continues to combine artisanal and modern techniques in cooking. The Ilonggo kitchen of the 21st century possesses the spirit of the old and the new, and practices still revolve around traditional methods that Cordova inherited from the family and which he integrated with modern concepts of cooking that he learned from culinary school, including the use of appropriate equipment for a particular cuisine and good food presentation.

The role of innovation in gastronomy is emphasized by Chef Angelo Comsti, food writer and author of the book, The Filipino Family Cookbook: A Treasury of Heirloom Recipes and Heartfelt Stories. He cites that through innovations, new types of food are created that are tastier, nutritious, affordable, and sustainable too.

The Ilonggo gastronomy serves as a testament to the coexistence of traditional techniques and modern technology. Ige Ramos, Managing Director of the Ugnayan Center for Filipino Gastronomy, describes Ilonggo gastronomy as not static but rather dynamic, and it should be, for it reflects our vibrant culture and character.

All of these elements elucidate the Ilonggos preference for simple cooking and the natural taste that is derived from fresh ingredients. The dish that represents this preference is laswa, fresh, sometimes just-harvested vegetables simply boiled and lightly seasoned. Laswa is also the perfect example of today’s farm-to-table mindset and achieves the Ilonggo preference for home cooking.