Pesang isda : a delicate fish soup
Isda means fish. Pesang Isda is a fish soup dish with vegetables. It is served with miso (crumbled soy bean curd) sauce; it is this sauce that makes pesa special.
In the Philippines, soup dishes are hardly ever just stock with a few pieces of meat and vegetables. Soup is not served before the main meal. Almost always, a soup dish is the main meal. In traditional Filipino cooking, therefore, soup dishes are filled with chunks of meat or seafood, and vegetables. The broth is served on the side within slurping distance, while the meat or seafood, and vegetables are eaten with rice.
Pesa is commonly associated with dalag or mudfish, although it is just as good with most white and fleshy fish. That’s one thing I can’t understand about the Filipinos. It’s like pesa is not true pesa if it isn’t cooked using dalag, as though dalag is essential ingredient. Just like tinola (a soup dish with unripe papayas and chili leaves) is not really tinola unless it is cooked with chicken. I think that’s a lot of baloney. It is that kind of thinking that keeps us glued to how things have always been done in the past, as though there is no more room for improvement. As far as I’m concerned, this kind of mentality breeds stagnation and impedes growth.
Actually, what make pesa unique is the blend of spices with the fish stock, and the miso sauce.
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11 Responses to “Pesang isda : a delicate fish soup”
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salamat po s image nagamit ko po sya s project ko
my late Nanay’s version of pesa dont have miso. we do use dalag for the fish though but for the veggies, we use pechay and upo and lots of ginger. i agree that tinola shld not be always with chicken. i’ve stayed in iloilo, bacolod and cebu (more than 2yrs for each location) and tinola for them means any fish soup and they only use tomatoes and onion leaves. i find it strange at first, because I know tinola is always “tinolang manok with unripe papaya”, but got used to it just the same. the only thing i dont like is that when I ordered “patis”, they gave me “toyo” (soy sauce). if you want patis in restaurants or carinderia, you ask for “rufina” (the brand):lol::lol::lol:
“how things have always been done in the past”
Reminds me of the time I wondered why paksiw na bangus is cooked without the fish being descaled. One of the justifications (and most popular reason) I’ve heard from my childhood is that our elders have cooked it that way since time immemorial so it must be followed. The most amusing reason I’ve heard is from my grandpa who said that it’s cooked that way because bangus scales is where most vitamins and nutrients are contained. When I retorted that why then should we not just obtain (for free) the scales and cooked them, instead of the whole fish, I got the dagger looks from my lolo and a stern “Heh, napaka-pilosopong bata, maglaro ka na nga sa labas”, or something like that.
However, I really find the scales messy when eating paksiw na bangus, that’s why when I learned how to cook (for personal and family consumption only) I descale the fish first when cooking paksiw. Even now when friends and acquaintances see how I cook paksiw na bangus, they ask me why I descale the fish. When I answer back, “why not?”, I usually get the standard reason. I would then put forward the theory that perhaps the first Filipino or person who cooked paksiw na bangus was either too lazy or he was too hungry already to bother descaling the fish, and since nobody questioned his manner of cooking, it was then accepted as standard.
Until now I still don’t know why paksiw na bangus is cooked the old-fashioned way. Do you, by any chance, have a convincing explanation for such?
reylan, bumagsak ka sana. magnanakaw.
LOL brenda, just like “colgate” and “kodak” hahahaha
gil, so that the bangus does not stick to the bottom of the pan during cooking. of course they didn’t have non-stick pan back then.
same reason that bangus and tilapia are grilled with the scales on — a practice i really dislike for the same reason you hate eating unscaled paksiw na bangus. some people don’t seem to know the magic of wrapping fish in banana leaves before grilling. or brushing the fish, and the grill, with oil.
i think the reason why they dont descale the bangus paglulutuin na paksiw, is that, para hindi madurog ang laman ng isda.
Connie,
Yes, I think you’re right. It was so obvious, I don’t know how I missed it! In fact, I’ve experienced that problem during my first few tries in cooking this kind of dish that, to overcome it, I usually put first a layer of vegetables (ginger, garlic, ampalaya/eggplant) to cover the bottom of the pan before I put in the fish.
Mercy, pardon me for disagreeing with you but I think Connie’s explanation is more convincing because, if we follow your reasoning, that means we should also cook “sinigang na bangus” (which is also cooked in a sour broth of a different kind) with the fish unscaled - which I think would be a big No-No.
Gil, a layer of veggies at the bottom of the pan is a neat trick.
i’ve never had pesa before or even heard its name in my family but i can’t wait to try it!
do you serve the miso paste on the side like bagoong to kare kare, a liquidy kind of sawsawan, or mix it into the cooked pesa just before serving?
Like bagoong to kare-kare, Lani.
thanks, connie! you don’t know how much i’ve learned from your blog!!!
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