My best friend never tires of reminding me that I was a snotty brat when we first met. Hmmm… Was I? I don’t remember. Jerome is better at recalling things, and, for lack of a dissenting opinion, this makes his version of the story official. Him aside, nobody has ever called me a brat. Not to my recollection, anyway.
Some months back, Ma climbed into the car and realized she had left her iPad back at the house. When she got back inside the vehicle with it, she noticed that now her shades were missing. It took the whole day to search for it. She insisted that it had been on her person when she’d boarded the vehicle the first time. She had more or less given up on finding the thing by next morning when I left the house, reached into my bag for my shades, and came up with hers. I had absolutely no idea how it got there. The only rational explanation was that she had put it there herself, or had given it to me for safekeeping. I volunteered the former, to her indignation (“Don’t you think I’d remember that?”), but if it were the case of the latter, well, neither of us remembers it that way, either.
My friends sometimes talk about things I supposedly did that leave me thinking, “Really?” But I’m too polite (or embarrassed) to say it. Then they’d start talking about someone and I’d interject, “Who’s that?”
“How could you forget? He pooped his pants in second grade!” You’d think I would remember such a defining moment (for said classmate), but no. On the other hand, some things aren’t worth remembering. Of those that are, what gets my goat is when I ask for the colander, say, and the help gives me a helpless look. “Oh, let me guess: You have no idea what that is.” Grin. “Well,” I say, holding up the damned utensil, “does this look familiar to you?” Nod. “We use it everyday, for crying out loud. What do you call it, anyway?”
“It’s that thing with holes,” she offers.
And then I tell her to heat up some siopao and she sticks them into the oven toaster. “Jesus! Since when did we grill siopao?”
“You don’t?”
Times like these, my mother is apt to trot out the s-word. I make an effort not to. I once took guitar lessons from someone I had a crush on. He gave up after four sessions with no discernible improvement on my part. “You are hopeless,” was the verdict. I could have told him I was tone-deaf to start with, but where was the fun in that?
Or take Ma’s BFF, V. “She wanted to know how to do fried chicken,” Ma says. “And I was like, ‘Didn’t I teach you that already?’” And she tells me never to share the recipe for this or that dish with anyone. Well, I have no such qualms, even as I nod to shut her up. Some people just want to know. More than that, they could not care a whit, let alone cook it themselves. That does not make them stupid; that’s just how people are. Ma often complains that I refuse to teach her how to use the iPad. That’s not true, but for all the interest that she has shown in practicing, I might as well not have bothered. That doesn’t make her stupid, either.
So here’s a recipe for crispy chicken butt (isol, or what some refer to as “the Pope’s nose”), which is the only thing I order at Sunburst, the Visayas-based restaurant franchise. If you haven’t had isol before and entertain no preconceptions (like what goes on in that area*), you will not forget this dish anytime soon.
Trivia
In 2007, the Samoan government banned the sale of turkey butt as part of a campaign to combat obesity. It lifted the ban in 2013 in order to join the World Trade Organization.
Crispy Isol
The secret to crispy chicken skin is to make sure the meat is completely dry (or at least as dry as you can get it to be). Doing so also minimizes spatter when you fry. Your butcher may (or may not) carry pre-cut chicken butt. For best results, have them cut an inch or two from the protuberance so that a flap of skin and some flesh remain.
- ½ kilo chicken tail/butt
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder (optional)
- salt and black pepper, to taste
- oil, for frying
- ¾ cup flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch
For breading:
- Wash the chicken butts thoroughly in running water. Drain well and arrange on a wire rack over a tray and allow to dry (uncovered) in the refrigerator. Pat with paper towel(s) to get rid of the excess moisture.
- Rub chicken pieces well with salt and pepper (and garlic powder, if using). Check for taste and add more salt as needed. Return to fridge and let rest for at least 2 hours.
- In a bowl, combine flour and cornstarch. Dredge chicken in mixture, shaking off excess powder.
- Deep-fry in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with coleslaw and a dip of banana ketchup, Worcestershire, and hot sauce (the Sunburst way).
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