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is made the old-fashioned Filipino way at Camiña Balay nga Bato in Iloilo. It’s so good, you can sit in a cafe in Brussels, Basel or Barcelona, try their hot chocolate and say, “Wala ba kayo noong tsokolate tablea sa Iloilo? With Alpine milk?”

See that pot of rich, thick chocolate?

It takes four of these white packages of tablea to make one pot. No wonder it’s so good, it is labor-intensive. You can buy the tsokolate tablea at Lola Rufina Heritage Curio Shop on the ground floor of the old house. The shop also carries traditional woven fabrics, pottery, baskets, accessories and sinamak vinegar.

If you’d like to tour the old house or have lunch or dinner there, you can make an appointment at telephone (033) 306 1927.

The stone house, built in 1865, stands on Osmeña Street in Villa de Arevalo, Iloilo. You can’t miss it.

Go to the side of the house. No matter how desperate your craving for tsokolate, don’t forget your manners. You’re in Iloilo, what’s the rush?

The lady of the house Ms Luth Camiña, president of Banco de Arevalo, had just arrived. “If I’d known you were coming I would’ve prepared a proper lunch,” she declared. “We have no food. Would you like lechon and red rice?”

Whereupon food started coming out of the kitchen.

She made a bowl of hanggop, a refreshing salad of tomatoes and coriander in a sinamak dressing. Why do the simplest vegetables taste better when you’re in the country? Because they were just picked that day and are practically alive.

Then came the lechon, left over from the fiesta the previous night when there were a hundred visitors in the house. It was served with laswa, our favorite name for a vegetable stew. It should always be served next to the Ilokano puke-puke (a misnomer since it’s made of eggplant and eggs. Puke-puke. Laswa!)

And newly-cooked red rice, a variety that’s available only at certain times of the year. It’s so chewy and tasty you don’t need anything with it. The secret, Ms Luth said, is the amount of water you cook it with.

Instant feast!

* * * * *
Thanks to the My City, My SM, My Cuisine team Millie Dizon, Melody Bay, Nonie Cartagena and Cora Alvina of the Metropolitan Museum for making this trip possible.

We’d rather watch this semifinal than the final itself. Cross fingers, toes, all crossable appendages.

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer remain on track to meet in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, which is a little like eating your favourite food on the plate before your greens. Those who would rather such an inviting dish be saved for the final will just have to live with what’s on the menu.

Nadal and Federer on way to semifinal showdown

Sunset seen from Plazuela

In Iloilo we stayed at Business Hotel (not in photo)—small, efficient, unassuming lodgings surrounded by restaurants and bars that stay open till late. If you require quiet for sleeping, don’t stay in the corner rooms with numbers ending in 02. It’s like curling up inside an amplifier: people singing Bryan Adams and U2 with varying degrees of ability. Fortunately noise lulls us to sleep; it’s silence that creeps us out. (We start imagining we can hear the neighbors cutting out letters from newspapers to make ransom notes. Do criminals still do that, or do they just use different fonts and font sizes in the same letter?)

Tuesday morning we checked out of Business Hotel, Tuesday afternoon we checked into at the Radisson Blu in Cebu. Its lobby is so vast you could play football in it. Two or three games at once.

The SM City next door is humongous.

Of course most SM malls are huge, but this one has epic scale. You know how you could be walking in a huge mall in Metro Manila and still feel cramped? The ceilings are too low, the hallways too narrow, as if the builders ran out of space? You won’t get that feeling here.

This morning we’re checking out of the Radisson, this afternoon we’re going home to our feline masters. (Holy crap, Shakespeare and Ralph Fiennes’s Coriolanus has opened in Manila!!)

You can’t do a culinary heritage tour of Iloilo without stopping at Panaderia de Molo, the bakery that’s been around since colonial times. Noting the Jose Rizal sesquicentennial banner in front of the store, we asked the owners Kristine Gaona Treñas and Georgina Gaona if the national hero had set foot in the bakery. They said they weren’t sure if Rizal had come to the bakery himself, but he definitely visited friends in town.

If he had merienda at his friends’ houses, there’s a good chance that he ate Panaderia de Molo’s famous hojaldres, rosquetes, bañadas, kinihad or galletas.

These Ilonggo delicacies have been made at Panaderia de Molo for 130 years. We visited the bakery while the staff were preparing the dough for kinamonsil, the tamarind-shaped cookies.

This machine has been beating eggs since the 1940s. They don’t make them that big any more.

The giant basket is a strainer for the kinamonsil.

During the Spanish era mass quantities of egg whites were used for cement in building churches. To keep the egg yolks from going to waste, bakers produced barquillos, rosquillos, biscocho and other snacks.

This brick oven has been in continuous operation for over a century. The only time it takes a break is during Lent, when it is thoroughly cleaned. It takes a couple of days for the oven to cool down.

Mrs Teresita Sanson Larraga at the counter of their main bakery on Avanceña Street. Panaderia de Molo products are available at Market Market at Bonifacio Global City.

At the start of the year we swore off fast food. Our reward is swift and wonderful. This is the opposite of fast food: Filipino family recipes cooked sloooowly.

My City, My SM, My Cuisine was in Iloilo yesterday to celebrate the culinary heritage of this charming city. After the open competition for the Best Pancit Molo and Best Mango Dessert, some of Iloilo’s most passionate foodies showed off their heirloom recipes.

Pancit Molo, the Ilonggo staple

Mention Iloilo and people immediately think of Pancit Molo and La Paz Batchoy. Yes they’re delicious, but don’t stop at noodles.

Eugene Jamerlan’s Estofado nga pato sa tuba

Eugene’s family recipe for duck stewed in palm wine requires five hours of cooking. While you wait, you can walk down General Luna street to visit Museo Iloilo and look at the beautiful old houses.

Rafael Jardeleza II’s Lengua con setas

Chorizo fat is involved, and it’s still better for your health and sanity than any fast food.

Maridel’s Potato Praline Torte

If you want cake, go to Maridel’s at Plazuela beside SM City Iloilo. Apart from this Potato Praline Torte they have Frozen Lemon Meringue, Fresh Guava Cake and your other just desserts.

Maridel’s YSL (Ybos Saint Laurent).

Tired of the usual suman at mangga? Here’s the designer version, fried and served with cream.

Listen to Liev Schreiber reading Anton Chekhov’s short story The Ninny.

Read The Ninny.