Comments on: Disastrously Delicious… Bicol Express/Sigadilyas & Tomato Stew :)

By: Amy P

Amy P — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 18:56:25 +0000

I love sigarilyas AND spicy food, so this is definitely a must try recipe for me. As for the Bicol Express, I hardly recognize the more recent incarnations of this dish. My dad is from Bicol, and his family’s recipe for Bicol Express uses diced ‘kulit’ (carabao skin), kidney beans, and a whole lot of sili slow cooked in coconut milk until it’s reduced to having minimal sauce. Of course, with so many families and tastes, I can see how it has evolved with many variations just like the adobo ^_^. It’s all yummy to me!

By: jheng

jheng — Thu, 03 May 2012 06:15:03 +0000

hi MM! i also had a similar experience. our neighbor gave us innocent looking long green siling haba. my mom, knowing how i love anything with gata, immediately cooked bicol express. thing is, she couldn’t taste test it because she was under treatment. whoa, it was so good but was SO HOT to the point that my stomach died a million times that week. my sister told me to simply throw it away but i couldn’t. i simply didnt have the heart to do it so i end up adding cream, sugar, sitaw everytime i heat it. oh, i lost weight. haha.

By: kalayo

kalayo — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:00:14 +0000

you have to remember that the bikol express you’re all discussing about is the tourist version of what a bikolano would call gulay na lada (or sili, depending on the regional variation). The sili is the actual star of the dish, pork, alamang, etc. just mere footnotes (for texture I suppose). There’s more to the lowly sili than just the spiciness..

By: Gej

Gej — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:31:19 +0000

Hi MM. I was actually writing a comment referring to your very informative and intriguing previous take on Bicol Express (which was erased when my daughter got on the computer!) when you sent your most recent comment. I always thought of Bicol Express (as somehow suggested by the name) as a dish that brings one, in a flash (faster than the Bicol Express train in fact), to the heart of Bikolandia with one smouldering bite. Sayang if , like in your previous trip to Bicol, MM, Bicol restaurants would themselves ease on the spiciness (like what many Thai restaurants are doing in Metro Manila). As the saying goes – “magpakatotoo ka!” – be true to yourself! Bicol = hot and spicy.

Sigarilyas is quite a veggie too- I love the crunchiness of winged bean. I read somewhere too that sigarilyas is one of the most nutritious among the bean varieties.

Ha ha betty q, would you believe I sold life insurance before?

By: Marketman

Marketman — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:52:54 +0000

Hi Red, yes, I understand some use the small chilies, but on my last trip to Bicol, I ordered four different Bicol Expresses and none of them used labuyo as the main chili ingredient, and the dishes weren't that incendiary, either. :)

By: red

red — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:36:27 +0000

hi, marketman. spice addicts in bicol don’t really cook bicol express with finger chilies. we use the small ones, the redder the better. green ones are immature and not spicy at all. another thing, finger chilies leave a slightly bitter after taste, unlike the small ones which are faintly sweet, believe it or not.

By: josephine

josephine — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:51:32 +0000

I think you just invented the Bicol Bullet Train…

By: Marketman

Marketman — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:01:45 +0000

rosemd, those were the silis I used, and while a lot of them, they were FAR SPICIER than I thought they should be… :) We have a similiar chili in Cebu, and they aren’t that SPICY EITHER.

We have lived in Indonesia for several years, had a Korean roommate and love Thai food, so when I say the dish was spicy it was REALLY spicy. :)

By: denise

denise — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:52:45 +0000

Footloose..you forgot Ghost Chili :)

I don’t generally like spicy food…so my roommate has to add sili to her food when she’s about to eat them so I don’t have to suffer…I’ve tried Beef Rendang and another Indonesian dish(it was very thinly sliced tripe in coconut milk) from an authentic little Indonesian joint (almost a hole in the wall) here in Dubai…and even though I was sweating buckets…I really liked it because it wasn’t the only flavor in the dish

By: rosedmd

rosedmd — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:59:53 +0000

ilocano chili is not that spicy…..pahaba din sya and berde. even with the seeds no anghang! mas payat lang sila. ilocanos cook it adobo and eat it as veggies.