Here are some exotic and bizarre Pinoy dishes that I have encountered during my journalistic travels.
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March 24, 2024 = Archives tr440
By Bernie V. Lopez, eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com
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Pinapaitan Ilocano Style. Pinapaitan, meaning made bitter (pait), is a famous Pinoy cuisine, a powerful soup that triggers an adrenaline rush. There are many variations as among Ilocanos, Pangasinenses, Bicolanos, etc., but we focus on the most exotic kind – Ilocano style.
Whereas most variations use only goat bile (pork bile is a poor replacement), certain Ilocanos, not all, add a certain magical ingredient that makes it super delicious, namely, half-digested grass from the small intestine.
The grass mixed into the broth is freshly eaten by the goat, and mixed with goat bile that digests it just as it enters the small intestine. True pinapaitan must be served very hot, very sour, very bitter and very piquant (chili-hot). The play of sour and bitter and piquant is the key factor in its being exotic and powerful.
Pinaupong kambing. Pinaupong manok (sitting chicken) is a famous Pinoy dish. You simply steam the chicken sitting on a ‘platform’ above but not touching the water, which has plenty of salt. You steam it slowly for, say 45 to 60 minutes, minimum. Somehow the salted steam makes the chicken super-tender.
The exotic variation is the pinaupong kambing (sitting goat). I encountered this dish in Batanes. We were drinking palek (native wine). By the time the pulutan, pinaupong kambing was served, we ran out of palek and shifted to bilog (meaning ‘round’, a powerful gin in a round bottle that invites liver disaster).
The hair of the goat is burned with a flaming wooden stick, until all you see is the snow-white skin. By burning the skin half way, you make it into kilawin or kinilaw (raw or half-cooked). The snow-white goat is served whole, sitting on a large tray. We peeled pieces of the skin as we drank and dipped them on kalamansi (citrus) mixed with powerful red chili, until there is no more skin. Everybody had his own knife. Knives were shared if there were not enough.
The skinless goat then goes back to the kitchen to be cooked into kaldereta, or goat stew, another exotic dish not covered in this article.
Ginamos. In Cebu, we woke up at 5 am to go to the market. We were early so we could buy the live jumping ginamos (dilis in Pilipino, equivalent to anchovies in the West) before it ran out. We did not wash the fish and retained its original sea-water salt flavor. It is washed a bit only if there are some seaweeds or sand in it. We soaked the live jumping ginamos in kalamansi and chili for a sumptuous breakfast. It was so fresh, there was a natural sweetness.
Kilawen is normally raw fish or pork soaked in kalamansi (the preference) or vinegar with chili and salt. The kalamansi or vinegar ‘cooks’ the fish or pork without heat. The Tagalogs are cruder, leaving the pork or fish soaked in vinegar until served, making it ‘over-cooked’, too sour and with the freshness gone. The Cebuanos drain out the vinegar after soaking to retain the freshness.
Adobong Bayawak (stewed iguana or giant lizard). In the marshes of remote malaria-infested Bongao Island in the Sulu sea, closer to Borneo than Mindanao, I tasted delicious adobong (stewed) bayawak. It can also be deep-fried rather than stewed. The best part is the thick muscles of the tail. The bile of the bayawak or snake are a better substitute to chicken or pork bile, is used as medicine for malaria. Bile is better for malaria than western tablets you can buy at the drug store.
Sharkfin Leyte-style. Esqualine is a famous cure-all shark liver oil sought by the Japanese. The source of the liver oil is a rare deep-sea mini-shark, about 1.5 meter in length adult size, found in the narrow strait between Southern Leyte and Limasawa.
As the guest of the mayor who financed the export of the frozen shark livers to Japan, I had an exotic breakfast of super-delicious deep-fried fins from this rare shark that I will never forget. The sharks were bought by a Japanese at P30,000 each circa 1990s. He took only the liver and gave back the entire shark to the fishermen.
Read the original detailed article = https://eastwindjournals.com/2022/05/10/esqualine-the-wonder-drug/).
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