Gambas ni Pat. This dish is Nino’s brother-in-law’s contribution to Balai Ilocos. It is delicious, juicy, and flavorful!
Dinakdakan is another genuine Ilocano dish, which is made up of crispy pork cutlets seasoned with sukang Ilocos. (Extra rice, please!)
Di Makakalimutang Mechado is indeed memorable! It is cooked with real tomatoes and stewed for hours! The beef is soft, the sauce is oozing with flavor, and the fried potatoes are the bomb!
Of course, the meal would be incomplete without trying the crispy bagnet sisig. A very classic dish yet boosting with flavor. It was kind of salty, though, so I used the suka (vinegar) from dinakdakan to balance the taste.
Their caldereta is cooked to perfection. I had a ratatouille moment. I remembered my childhood days when my mom would cook this and I’d partner it with bananas. 🙂 (Weird, huh?)
Lastly, Maruya a la Mode. Maruya is an all-time favorite Filipino snack for merienda or dessert. This is composed of smashed bananas and mixed with the batter before frying. This is a simple dish but incredibly good!
We have yet to try their version of Igado, Papaitan, and more Ilocano dishes, soon! So, for my buddies in the South and North, swing by Balai Ilocos in BF Homes, para ma B.I. na rin kayo!
Na B.I na ako, mag pa B.I ka na rin!
What’s your favorite Ilocano dish aside from Bagnet and Pinakbet?
Balai Ilocos
188 D Aguirre Avenue, BF Homes, Paranaque City
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/balaiilocos
Instagram: @balaiilocos
Don’t eat here if you don’t want to waste your time. Food is overpriced (P300 for 4 cubes of meat) and the rice comes from the mini-stop next door. I mean, if you’re a decent restaurant, can’t you cook your own rice? Even then, it took them 30 minutes to provide us a bowl of rice that they bought from mini-stop – and they were serving 3 tables only at that time! The waiter even refused to fill our water and pointed us to call another person – which is a first for us in any restaurant we’ve eaten. I’ve never been refused water by a waiter. This is literally the worst restaurant with the worst service.
Food is not outstanding even if it took them 1 hour to cook a small bowl of sinigang. You can eat somewhere else if you value yourself.
Your husbands father-in-law? Wouldn’t that be your father?