What is Ilonggo Food?

I asked Corona Villanueva-de Leon, owner of Mama’s Kitchen, Chef Kevin Piamonte of Villa Sagrado, and Cheling Montelibano, a local food producer, what they considered to be true Ilonggo food. Here’s what they told me:

Corona Villanueva-de Leon bakes different flavors of cookies based on local native ingredients: cacao beans, cashew, pinipig, peanuts, and mango. From Corona, I learned that Ilonggos love to cook with achuete. Corona cooks adobo by boiling the meat in achuete water, garlic, onion, and bay leaves until tender. Then she adds the vinegar and lets it cook until the adobo is dry. Oil is added to the meat to fry the adobo until crisp; the rice is fried in it, too.