Inside a dried fish market
During the days when refrigeration was unknown, Filipinos guarded against food spoilage by salting and drying their fish and meat. Hence, the “invention” of the tapa (dried beef) and daing (dried fish).
Cebu City is famous for its Tabo-an Market where mounds and mounds of dried fish are sold. Truth is, dried fish is available in all public markets and even in supermarkets. Still, there is nothing like visiting a dried fish market where the variety of dried fish is so many that one can’t decide where to start — and stop — buying.
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Kalamay (rice cake) sa latik
It’s easy enough to translate kalamay into English but I am not aware of any English term for latik, the brown bits that float after coconut milk turns to oil after cooking, with continuous stirring, for about half an hour. It’s toasted milk curd, actually. Milk curdles when cooked and coconut milk is no exception.
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Mango tart, pili nut tart and turrones de casuy
For the past decade or so, there appears to be a renewed interest in traditional Filipino pastries. I don’t know where or how it started. Probably, with the cake shops like Red Ribbon and Goldilocks when they began selling tarts and pastillas side by side with the ensaymada and mamon. Perhaps, the real craze began with the set-up at Market! Market! with stalls selling regional specialties…
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Gulaman, sago and Quickly pearl shakes (bubble milk tea)
Despite the girls’ addiction to pearl shakes, I never liked Orbitz nor Zagu. The artificial sweetener left an aftertaste that didn’t quite agree with my mouth. I wouldn’t develop a craving for pearl shakes until we discovered Quickly at the Tutuban Mall sometime during the late 1990s.
It was a hot and humid day and the girls wanted cold drinks. We couldn’t find an Orbitz or a Zagu stall but there was this stall with an unfamiliar name selling pearl shakes. We bought and we all got hooked. While Zagu and Orbitz offered the usual fruit flavors, Quickly offered more exotic blends. Mixing and matching was possible too. And if one got bored with pearl balls, nata de coco or pudding could be substituted.
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Chicharon, chicharon… where art thou?
It’s not like I don’t have a chicharon entry in this blog. I do. An old one with with a lousy photo taken with a lousy cam phone. Last Sunday, though, despite plans to watch Die Hard 4 that went awry because the queues were just impossible, I took time out to take photos of [...]
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Outside the supermarket
There were two reasons why Market! Market! used to be such a magnet for me. One was the potted herbs; the other was the array of regional delicacies sold in stalls beside the open food court.
You know, like the pickled quail eggs…
The pastillas that came in oh, so many flavors…
The taba ng talangka (which [...]
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Pili nut delicacies
My husband arrived last night from a five-day trip to Bicol and, per my request, he brought home every pili nuts product he could find.
There’s freshly roasted pili nuts.
Salted pili nuts and pili nuts coated with caramelized sugar and sesame seeds.
Pili nut candies…
These triangular sweets (above) are a common sight in Filipino delicacy stores. You [...]
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Tupig from Pangasinan
Tupig is a native delicacy made with glutinous rice and grated coconuts wrapped in wilted banana leaves and cooked over live coals. Tupig-making is an important source of livelihood in Pangasinan.
We were on the road to Manila from Baguio and, when we reached Pangasinan, tupig hawkers swarmed around the car. We had enjoyed tupig before [...]
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