tinenneb a buntiek, broiled mudfish sour soup

Tinenneb a buntiek (attasi)

When it comes to food, regionally and hence, culturally, Ilokanos love bitter foods, just as the Tagalog prefer sour ones (the famous sigang or sinigang comes to mind). But of course, we Ilokanos also love sour and sourness. We even have our own concoction and fermentation of vinegar--the famous suka Iloko or sugarcane vinegar which goes with our basi wine making industry (when our old folks make basi, they also make suka, inevitably and not only when a basi fails to ferment into wine but turn sour and instead becomes a fine suka).

And so, the Ilokano, too, has some sour dishes to serve. We have sour/soured soup like the famous paksiw of Ilocos Norte and sinanglaw of Ilocos Sur, boiled beef and innards soured with suka Iloko or with tamarind (young pods and/or the flower and shoots) or with pias (kamias). Sometimes, the Ilokano pinapaitan (way different from the maasim na papaitan of the Tagalogs which is not mapait at all but all asim), bitter as it is, is also mildly moderated with souring agents like suka Iloko or pias and salamagi. And yessir, we love sinigang, too, and we have our own version of it, simply called inalseman.

And then, we have the simpliest of simple tinenneb (also called inalseman or sinalamagian [in our place, we call it nadanuman a tinaltal a salamagi [just plain crushed tamarind with water flavored with salt and a pinch of umami (MSG)] bacause we make it even without the obligatory broiled fish]).

Simple because preparing it is not that complicated. All you need is fish, broiled (although of course, mudfish is most preferred [the smaller or medium-sized ones], and especially the ar-aro fish which by the way is becoming a rare species nowadays; paltat (catfish) is also used, and even tilapia, but the tastiest for this soup dish is buntiek/dalag/attasi and ar-aro).

And of course, young tamarind pods, and optionally, some onions (young ones with leaves would be perfect) for an added zing, and optionally according to preference, chili, for an spicy soup.

And of course, water, hot water (could also be cold water, but it should be hot so that it goes well with the tenneb process to be true to its very name--it's like panagtenneb iti mapanday a buneng, the forging of a blade, the tempering and quenching of the hot metal using water to cool it and thus hardening the blade).

And salt to taste, of course.

You crush the tamarind to render its juice and sourness (do not crush the seeds, though), you flake the broiled fish into pieces. Put these in a bowl and then pour into it hot water. Season with salt. Put in chopped onions. The hot water will "cook" the soup. And it's done!

The soup is heavenly, its sourness is so deliciously insane, all the more enhanced by the fragrance and umami-ness of the broiled fish. Spike it with fresh chilis and help yourself savoring more of this perfect Ilokano sour soup.

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nabaraniwan a leddeg, black snails soup with lemon grass

Nabaraniwan a leddeg.

Common black snails or mollusk abundant in rivers, creeks, irrigation canals, rice paddies, ponds is great as a dinengdeng of sort or as a soup with lots of tomatoes, onions and ginger. And with baraniw or lemon grass.

One kind of snail, the leddeg (Angulyagra oxytropis), the other common one is bisukol, is usually cooked with baraniw. This black snail has a bittery taste in its tail, where its intestines lie (the bisukol is not) part which is preferred by some true Ilokano snail "gourmands."

Here, I chanced upon some freshly picked pond leddegs being sold by roadside vendors one Sunday morning, I immediately bought three glassfuls (PhP10 per glassful), it has been years since my last leddeg consumption:

Wash the leddeg throughly, rinse it for several times to discard dirt:

Firstly, boil the usual ingredients, with a little bugguong (some don't want bugguong and use patis or just plain salt instead):

Put in the leddeg, boil for a few minutes, and then put in some baraniw stalks and simmer:

Put off fire immediately, don't overcook the leddeg or its tiny meat will shrink or "kumuttong" (become "thin"):

Serve hot and begin sucking out the sweet and bittery black morsel.

The proper way to eat leddeg is you crack open its tail so air can pass when you suck from its lip or mouth the meat out.

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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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kinirog a kappi, stir-fried river crabs

Kinirog a kappi.

Kappi. Or kippi (as some folks in Ilocos Norte call it). Or agatol or akasit (as we call it in Nueva Vizcaya). River or freshwater crabs, or crablets for that matter because these are small crabs compared to say, the humungous rasa (mudcrab). As a child in our place, a farming community, we used to catch agatols in creeks, streams, ponds and my mother would kirog (stir-fry) it with just salt. It's so good with a vinegar as a dip, especially when the it has lots of that delicious pula, the most-sought after fat in a crab. Besides stir-frying, kappi can also be made into a delicious ginettaan a kappi (crab in coconut milk) as a sagpaw (add-on) to a dinengdeng.

And lo and behold, crawling, clawing kappi live from Buguey:

I immediately washed and rinsed them and pardon me, kappi rights advocates, I stir-fried it still wiggling and running, in a wok. This time, aside from salt, I added some cracked pepper, crushed garlic, and chili powder, I wanted it more fragrant and "hot and spicy."

I kept on stirring, frying, until the crabs are completely dry and almost crunchy.

Yeah, just stir-fry it, it's that simple, quick and easy.

And it's ready: kinirog a kappi!

Cracked open to expose some pula, dip it in plain vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar here, suka ti basi [Ilocos cane vinegar] would have been prefect but not available at eating time) and consume the essentials (meat and fat). The added spices is just right, it enhanced flavor and that distinct crabby aroma.

... or with suka with fermented sili if you relish a hotter kappi goodness:.

And this, if you want some soup, kappi in a dinengdeng:

(Photo from Ilocano ak Kuripot nak)

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paltat ken paria, native catfish and bitter melon leaves

Native paltat (catfish), the black ones (the other ones being "African" and/or "Taiwan" which now grows abundantly in fish caged or as "free range" in rivers), is great for the usual paksiw (stewed dry with vinegar or any preferred souring agent), sigang or inalseman (sour soup, with either kamatis, pias, salamagi, mangga, etc.), tinuno (grilled), or prito (fried). Native paltat is now kind of rare and so it's becoming a delicacy of sort.

Fried catfish and bitter melon leaves soup.

Here one palatable way to cook native a paltat, a recipe by my brother Gomer, a patneng nga Ilokano ("native" Ilokano) who's living in a Tagalog territory (Lemery, Batangas):

Native paltat, washed and ready to be cooked. 

Fry the paltat in oil until crisp. Remove fried paltat. Then put in crushed garlic and sliced onions into the frying pan with the excess oil. Sauté the garlic and onions until brown. Then add in sliced tomatoes and sauté it. Put back the fried paltat in the pan and add some water. Season with bugguong juice and simmer.

Just before putting off fire and serving, put in the paria leaves and blanch with the broth. Do not overcook the leaves.

So yummy and tasty with your rice!

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jumping salad

Live "salad" of shrimps literally jumping out.

Holy week. Lent. And yes, if we have to be faithful to our faith, we shun meat this week of the year. Which is just good because it's a healthy thing. So let's have some veggies and fish (like the taburkit [monamon] the other day). Or shrimps. And why not "jumping salad," the live shrimp dish preferred by many Pinoys, especially Ilokanos, specifically for pulotan with drinks. It's summer and it's also a time of picnics, usually on the rivers where some rama or puluan (a sort of fish dwelling made with small tree branches or twigs) are waiting to be "maburak" (harvested) for a bountiful catch of freshwater fish, crabs and shrimps for that sumptuous lunch and drinking session by the river bank.

Freshly-caught shrimps (click photo for a larger view).

The shrimps have to be washed and rinsed thoroughly to remove any dirt (click photo for a larger view).

The secret to a real delicious jumping salad is freshly picked calamansi squeezed right on the jumping shrimps. You may use vinegar to sour your salad, but it's not as palatable and aromatic as calamansi, or lemon for that matter (click photo for a larger view).

Add some salt, cover the shrimps if they keep on jumping out, or just pick them up and dunk it straight in to your eager mouth, heheh (click photo for a larger view).

Add some young onions, spice it with chili if you prefer  (click photo for a larger view).  

Here's it's ready, pick them up and enjoy your meal or your drinks with this really "live" dish (click photo for a larger view).

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tabtaba/barbaradio/bakbakasi/dodol-dodol/bilbildong, freshwater blue-green algae salad

Tabtaba, also known as bakbakasi, barbaradio, badbadiok, dodol-dodol, bilbildong, kulatlat, bakatel in different places, is a true delicacy, in that not many know that it's edible and palatable, and some doesn't have the guts to eat it because of the fact that this is actually gathered from the ground it's like the skin of the earth itself. When I was a kid, we used to "harvest" tabtaba in the fields just after the rice were cut and/or threshed when the rice field is somewhat dry, these bounty of the earth lay in the ground abundantly, waiting to be picked.

Some fortunate times, tabtaba is available in the market, during rice harvest season. This one, in  the Don Domingo public market in Tuguegarao City.

Tabtaba is actually a kind of freshwater algae (lumot), named blue-green algae and the scientific name of the locally growing species in Northern Luzon is Nostoc linckia. It is rich in protein, with a protein content of 40-45% (dry weight), according to studies. 

Tabtaba in the ground. (Photo: wikipedia.org)

Barbaradio for sale in the Bambang public market in Nueva Vizcaya.

This protein-rich algae is best prepared and consumed as a kind of salad. Wash and rinse well to get rid of the dirt stuck to its lobes. When it's thoroughly cleaned, put in a bowl then pour hot water into it to "cook" it. Let it wallow in hot water for some minutes, then rinse it. Dress with squeezes of calamansi, tomato and onion slices (add in young ginger, if you want), and drops of bugguong juice to taste. Some prefer to sauté tabtaba in little cooking oil, garlic, onions and tomatoes.

Tabtaba salad.

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