Did someone say “salty”? Nothing is too parat in this house. Coming from my father, no less. “Excuse me,” I say, “it’s labtingaw.” That’s lightly salted fish, left out in the sun for a few hours, so that they are only semi-dried — in fact still palpably moist — and not as funky-smelling as regular buwad. Meatier, too.
Buwad (tuyo to Tagalogs) is standard Filipino breakfast fare. If you have only ever encountered it in a fancy setting, e.g., a hotel buffet, it will likely be in the form of danggit (rabbitfish, the small kind) or nukos/pusit (squid). Practically any fish can be made into buwad, of course. Labtingaw, because it is less salted (often with seawater alone) and only partially dried, has a shorter shelf life and has to be stored in the refrigerator if to be consumed within 2 to 3 days, in the freezer if later than that (or else mold). We used to have them delivered regularly by this old lady, but it’s been a long time since she last dropped by the house; I hate to speculate what has become of her, much more why (that would be too easy as to be sarcastic).
“So?” I asked Pa later.
“Hmmm?” was all he could muster, busy as he was with the labtingaw. The great thing about buwad is that my father eats certain fish when it is dried that he would not otherwise eat fresh, like tuwas/bisugo (threadfin bream — the lighter-fleshed ones in the photo above). I had only fried three — one for each of us — so he had to make the most of his allotment, which meant he had to pick through the bony side (the side you usually leave for the cat, not that we have any) as well.
“How is it?” I tried again.
“Huh?” Pause. “Where did you buy this?”
“Bato.”
“Well, get more next time.”
“Sure.” For those who want to know, I paid ₱100 for six pieces.
“And call your mother; she loves this stuff.”
“Nah — she’s on her diet.”
“Heh,” he chuckled. “We’ll see about that.”
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