Wherever you find yourself in the Philippines, there is bound to be a sticky rice delicacy unique to that place. These are called magsaysay, from Hilongos, Leyte. The first thing one notices is that they are huge, but the most remarkable is that they are filled with a rich, gooey chocolate center whipped from native cocoa.
It was the day after Christmas and pickings were lean at the fish market, which made these creatures stand out all the more.
The last time I was in Cebu, I made a point of dining in restaurants I had not tried before. The experiences ranged from amusing to instructive — on the whole, time and money well spent. Still, I yearned for something simple and familiar before I left. It was past 10 PM, so we decided on Ned Nanay’s Grill, a short distance from Cebu Doctors’ Hospital uptown.
A disproportionate amount of the time I dedicate to this blog is spent vetting information. Last week some fishwife said that salíndatô (rainbow runner, a fish I have yet to try) belongs to the same family as the tanguigue (mackerel). Having recently done a post on tuna, I was sure she was wrong. It took a while — I wanted to be equally sure about salíndatô being Elagatis bipinnulata — but there it was: mackerel and tuna one family; galunggong (scad), saminán/talakitok (trevally), and salíndatô another.
Don’t be fooled: the duplication of the basic adjective halang (Bisaya for spicy) in chicken halang-halang means that the dish is a little/somewhat peppery, instead of being very much so. Same goes with parát (salty), tam-is (sweet), aslum (sour), or paít (bitter): repetition (parát-parat, paít-pait, etc.) points to that particular taste being just a tad more pronounced than the usual. As for what’s “usual,” well…
The Hundred Secret Senses is one of my favorite books by Amy Tan. I admit I remember nothing about the plot, but one scene sticks in my mind. It describes the preparation of free-range chicken and cooking it into soup, blood included.
Five summers ago I dried my own chilies, it was that hot out. This year, the season’s just warming up, says PAGASA, maybe reach record-breaking levels in the coming months. I pray that the weather bureau’s wrong, but as long as I’m staying in, I figured I might as well make beef kosahos (better known as tapa) the traditional way. Rather them in the sun than me.
Language fascinates me. Even among Bisaya speakers, a word comes up every now and then that someone does not recognize. This time it was “huwaw.”
I have featured tortang bolináw before, and I can say that this version is much better, not to mention easier. Foolproof, as the buzzword goes. It calls for fewer ingredients, fries faster — or so it seems to me — and comes out crispier (stays that way longer, too). So what’s the secret?
