Iloilo Philippines

(photo from http://www.openrice.com)

now, how is this connected to loving Iloilo?

just finished a while ago marinating .5 kg beef slices in a shawarma spice rub/marinade i found in the internet.  Th. e site said that no two shawarmas are alike but having these basic spices will get you close.  PAPRIKA, ALL SPICE, CORIANDER, CUMIN, BLACK PEPPER, SALT and GARLIC  and some olive oil and lemon juice.

Perhaps, i’ll cook it tomorrow or for baon on Monday.  Then I can compare if this is similar to the Lavev Shawarma popular in Iloilo.

When Lavev started, the serving was still okay, plenty of meat.  Now, its even less than a tablespoon!  I wish there were real Shawarma in Iloilo, the one with a whole chunk of meat really stuck into the rotating skewer and grilled on open flame  The skewer of Lavev is just for show.  Its funny.  They display the beef strips  there but cook a batch in a slow cooker before slicing them into tiny squares.

This morning, Arangkada did an interview with Mr. Roni Penalosa re the great things happening for the Central Market. That whole area will be revitalized, opening up more business opportunities. It will even become 24/7.

I take my hats off to the heritage workers behind all these efforts for heritage preservation and development in Iloilo City. Wish I were still active in heritage work too but the demands of being a single parent (for half a year or so), the academe and my new mission, financial literacy for ofws have put heritage work in the backburner.

The facade of Iloilo Central Market is Art Deco in style. This one though is more austere compared to another Art Deco building– The municipal building of Jaro, now, sadly overshadowed by that concrete box of Landbank. Jaro munisipyo was designed by the great Juan Arellano, also the architect of the old Iloilo City Hall (now UPV main building in the city).

I don’t know where this will lead.  It’s just a test.  On hiatus for more than what? 3 years or even more.

ILOVEILOILO started as a food blog.  I don’t know yet if it will continue to be that way.

ILOILO is definitely on the rise (literallly too!.)  With all these high rise constructions mushrooming in the diversion area, we can just imagine the face of Iloilo changed forever.

Meet Manang Egly. She did the embroidery on that bright red shawl I posted earlier. Manang Egly holds the honor of being a Panubok master. At the Panubok contest held in Tapaz, Capiz, I ordered a blouse used for the PanayBukidnon’s Binanog dance. It took her more than a month to finish. I didn’t mind the long wait. The rich and colorful embroidery was all done by hand. And her workmanship. Wow!

I took this candid shot last March during the heritage tour I organized for my Humanities students. That guy in orange is actually the konduktor (every Ilonggo driver’s assistant who likes to “dangle” at the jeep’s entrance) . I like the play of colors in the pix–a bright yellow with navy blue plus the highly saturated orange or tangerine on the guy’s shirt.

There is such a thing as local color. A particular culture’s identity can be recognized by its choice of colors. Look at the Mexicans, when we say Mexican colors, bright and deep colors like yellow, red, orange,green, violet and blue come to mind. Read the rest of this entry »

Panay is said to have come from “Hay pan!” (literally “There is bread!”)

Etiological legend says, to borrow the phrase of respected art historian Fr. Rene Galende, that when the Spaniards (Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and co.) scoured the nearby islands for food (they were near starvation in Cebu, their first official settlement), they discovered this island abundant in rice. In great relief and joy, they exclaimed “Hay pan.” Read the rest of this entry »

Joy Rosal-Sumagaysay

The word heritage comes from two Latin words – heri (past) and tangere (to touch). Literally, it means “touching the past.”

Heritage is the sum total of all cultural goods we inherit from our ancestors. As inheritance, we have the obligation to take good care of it (preserve) and hand on. In our language, heritage can best be translated as paranubli-on. Its root word, the verb subli connotes not absolute ownership of something inherited from an elder; rather, it carries with it a duty to handle it with care (paranubli-on like duta, alahas, manggad…) so that it can be further passed on to future generations.

Heritage can be classified into two general categories: intangible heritage and tangible heritage. Examples of intangible heritage are our oral history, songs, lullabies, values and beliefs. Tangible heritage consists of everyday objects, food, clothing, paintings, sculptures and structures among others.

In particular, the architectural or built heritage of our place, its structures or monuments, is one concrete link to our forefathers long gone. Here we have actual, physical evidence–structures we can gaze at, explore with our bare hands—-to jolt us into realizing that “Hey, these are real people; my great great grandparents participated in the building of these; they sweated it out in backbreaking labor to leave us with reminders from their era.”

For us living in the present, our built heritage helps define the identity of our town and its inhabitants, bringing out what is distinct and outstanding in our locality and positively setting us apart from our neighbors. Being conscious of our heritage develops in us a ‘pride of place.’

A heritage structure is important because of its cultural heritage significance. This can be assessed based on social, aesthetic, historic and scientific values. Miagao church, for example, ranks high on aesthetic significance because of the exceptional bas-relief on its façade.
In a publication entitled “Protecting Local Heritage Places” are listed the reasons why we need to protect our heritage places:

• they are a link with the past, a reminder of special moments in lives, history and culture
• they are part of a location’s special identity which could bring economic as well as other benefits to the area
• they have natural or cultural values which should be handed on to future generations
• there are social, spiritual or ethical (including respect for existence or intrinsic values) obligations to do so