A round trip to the market costs ₱16 by motorcab. That’s for minimum fare; it’s really only a 15-minute brisk walk from the house, though I’d have to be suicidal to do that in this heat. Especially when you get there and the only seafood on display are tahong.
Speaking of figures, you need only ₱14 more for a Caltex of mussels (like seaweed, mollusks are never sold by the kilo around here). Though I prefer tahong bigger and meatier, I had been away from my kitchen for days and needed to cook something — anything. Also, I was inspired by the moules farcies gratinées at Tymad Bistro in Cebu; “inspired” being the operative word, as I did not have parsley or Emmenthal cheese, although what I do have is this inordinate fear of eating bad tahong, so opted to steam them first to make sure they were alive. If I had to do it over again, I would have added some of the rendered mussel “juice” into the pan.
And more butter and cheese, please (I used Parmesan and manchego, plus a belated sprinkling of cheddar because the dish looked dry coming out of the oven). This wasn’t really so much cooking as assembly, which makes it perfect party food. To flavor the butter, I used my homemade spice paste: puréed mix of ginger, turmeric, lemongrass bulb, onion, garlic, tomato, bell pepper, black pepper, and spring onion with kalamansi juice, fish sauce, oil, salt, and a bit of sugar and water; sautéed until thick and a little toasted, it goes well with stew (think curry and this tinunu-an), grilled fish/meat, and, as it turned out, the baked tahong. Good as that was, I leave you with this vision of things to come, and that includes the fancy baking pan, which I’m now on the lookout for. Should I be afraid to ask how much it costs?
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