BAYE-BAYE (kakanin)

Baye-Baye

I had been slated to go to the Bacolod branch of the agency I work for, and I had looked forward to eating cansi in situ, and buying batwan, fresh napoleones, and a host of other special pastries. But there was a change of plan, and I was sent to Iloilo instead.

My department sends people around the country throughout the year, and work assignments usually take about a couple of weeks per location. However, my status as a mother, most especially with an infant, is mercifully taken into consideration. So I get the short ones.

As in really short. I had half a day in San Fernando City, Pampanga, and this time I had roughly 24 hours in Iloilo.

What could one do, and more importantly, eat, in a city in 24 hours?

Fortunately, the cities of San Fernando and Iloilo are not new to me. I had explored Pampanga. And I had been to Iloilo several times, via various means of transportation (plane, ferry, fastcraft), and from various places (Manila, Bacolod, Antique), either arriving in or departing from it.

So I had the time then to extensively explore the city, even going as far as UP Miag-ao. I was actually able to go around the entire Panay island, visiting all of the provinces and its capitals, with pre-electrified and pre-partified Boracay as the final destination.

Of course, being in a new or different place and exploring it entails partaking of local delicacies, too. So, again, been there, done that. So this time it was a matter of renewing my acquaintance with Ilonggo food, and probably looking at some new things that have come up between now and the last time I was there, which was almost a decade ago.

The question was, can I cram up all the region's offerings into 24 hours?

Well, the answer is, yes.

But it is a conditional yes. Literally, the must-eats cannot be eaten within 24 hours. But as I did in San Fernando, and what I had been doing for all of my traveling life (practically my entire lifetime), I took home more than half of my Iloilo food highlights.
And this was the last thing I bought that was included in my overweight luggage - baye-baye, a delicious kakanin that is an Ilonggo specialty.

But I did it on reverse - baye-baye is what actually first greets visitors to Iloilo, as kiosks of it line the provincial road in the municipality of Pavia, from the airport going into Iloilo City.