palileng

Lenten season once again, and accordingly as was and is the traditional belief and practice of the pious and devotees in us, no meat, please. Shun away from meaty pleasures, of fleshy indulgence, whatever that is.  Be contented with veggies. And fish is just okay. So fish be it, fish be with us, let's have a fishy Lent.

And this is palileng (a,k,a birut, bukto, bunog; actually palileng is grown or overgrown bunog, mullet or goby), right from Gonzaga, Cagayan's pristinely famous Pateng River, home to rare freshwater fish like palileng and kampa.

This is a nilingta or steamed palileng, literally cooked with its own fat with vinegar, onions, garlic, ginger, black peppercorns, a little salt:

This is a previous tomato-soured nilingta a bunog/birut, smaller in size (for comparative purposes with the larger palileng):

Palileng, palileng, nagraman, nagnanam, nagtaba, ayna, nakaim-imas! Let's have a Lenten feast!

And it's not just fat palilengs, this is my actual labay, on my feast--oppss, sorry, there's a meat here, raw flesh even, but at least it's a majority of Lenten-friendly palatables: kappukan a baka, steamed padaw, adobo a pusit, sinigang a malaga, and ensalada nga ubog ti way:

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