The last time I was in Cebu, I kept asking for latô (sea grapes) in all the restaurants we went to. Gusô, its more (sea)weedy-looking relative, there was a lot of, but no latô. I like gusô too, but it lacks the pop.
Back home (Leyte), the markets were teeming with the stuff, mostly from neighboring Bohol where Caulerpa lentillifera is cultivated in sea “farms” (see how they get from there to your table). Here is how our latô usually look like:
— definitely not as robust-looking as the ones in the first picture, I’ll grant you that, but most people I know prefer latô small. Less slimy, some claim, although I disagree — and I know/detest slime (see alugbati). I’ve featured “mutant” sea grapes before, but these here were apparently wild, or so the vendor claimed. They certainly looked different, the “beads” rounder.
Also, I suspected they were past their prime, or at least overripe — if such a thing applies to latô (and why not?). You can see from the last photo how the stems are yellowish. The price seemed to confirm it: a mere ₱20 for a hefty cluster. I could be wrong, of course, in which case I passed up a great deal. Hmm…
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