Whenever friends remark on how little I eat, I remind them that my family only cooks a standard cup of rice per meal. That’s for three humans and two canines, and rare is the time when we don’t have salín (leftover), often enough of it to see us through the next meal. “No wonder you’re so small!” they exclaim. I roll my eyes. “You mean ‘wasting away.’ My blood sugar’s way up.”
Our refrigerator is predictably full of other salín-salín as well, most often fried or grilled fish, which come in handy for vegetable dishes that involve coconut cream. In that context it is called subá, a term I have always believed referred to the meat component in a dish where it is not a main ingredient. It’s only meant to enhance said dish, so using a lot of it is generally frowned upon. In pancit, for example, noodles are the main ingredient; meat (pork, chicken, and/or seafood) the subá; and the rest of the ingredients (veggies, spices, etc.) sagól. If you ask me, subá is a kind of sagól, but not every sagól is subá (also, spices are more specifically referred to as panakot or lamás).
I remember asking Jerome, who is a Tagalog via Bicol, about their term for ingredient. “Sangkap,” he said.
“Then what’s sahog?”
“Ingredient.”
“You mean they mean the same thing?”
“Obvious ba?”
Ah, the things I preoccupy myself with! Meanwhile, I don’t have anything lined up for lunch so I make a quick inventory of the leftovers in the fridge. Lots of subá material there — I make a mental note to wake up early next morning to buy jackfruit for tinunuan. For the nonce, I decide to chip away at the store of lechon in the freezer. Intending to make sinigang, I change gears midway when I realize I have no souring agent, so plain nilaga it is, all the better to use up the odds and ends in the vegetable crisper. As you can see, the soup’s chockablock with potato, sweet corn, cabbage, and banana.
And now, a question: Which is the subá here? By my narrow definition, the answer should be “none.” Now here’s the rub: everything else being sagól, they can be collectively referred to as subá — I think. Am I confusing you? Good, because I’m starting to confuse myself. If you have anything to say on the subject, I would love for us to start a discussion, although I suspect you’d rather have the soup instead. Can’t blame you there.
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