kilawen a sosay (tanigue, tangngigue), king fish ceviche

Sosay it is, as it is called in the Ilocos, and one of the many monickers of tanigue or tangngigue or king fish, which, aside for being made into a savory sinigang, is most preferred into a tasty and spicy kilawen, a kind of an Ilokano sashimi.

In an Ilocos trip, on a rather obligatory stop over in Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte, we chanced upon large chunks of prime sosay meat among gangs of yellow fin tunas and bonitos. We didn't pass on the rare chance.

Preparing the kilawen is the easiest and simplest, cut the sosay and dice it into bite size:

Then season/spice it with kalamansi, ginger, onions:

And there you have it, kilawen a sosay ready, here with suka ti basi ti naartem a sili:

Get your brandy or cold beer ready!

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More kilawen nga ikan:

• Kilawen a tirong, picnic by the beach
• Kilawen a bilis, raw sardine/herring
• Kilawen a talibukno
• Kilawen a bilis manen, sardine/herring ceviche
• Kilawen a taburkit/munamon
• Kilawen a pusit/laki

For more Ilokano dishes and others like this kilawen, you can follow Ilokano Food page on Facebook.

Follow also Ilokano Food @ Instagram and subscribe to Ilokano Food YoutTube channel for more photos, videos, and stories about Ilokano food, cooking, cuisine, and culture.

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solsona gameng festival 2015's exotic food feast

Solsona town in Ilocos Norte has just celebrated its annual Gameng Festival (gameng is treasure) that showcased among other products native food and delicacies which can be labeled kind of "exotic" because of their rarity and/or uniqueness in that particular Ilokano town.

We featured it here in Pinakbet Republic the other year and it's one of the most visited blog. This year, Ilokano journalist and writer Leilanie Adriano has graciously provided us again some mouth-watering photographs of the Ilokano food and dishes exhibited.

Enjoy!

Nalingta a native a paltat.

Silalalat a naadobo a tukak.

Naigisa/naikirog a tukak.

Nalingta a bukto.

Naigisa nga itlog ti abuos.

Nadengdeng a bisukol.

Nakilnat/ensalada nga aba.

Ginettaan nga aba.

Napaksiw a daludal (sagibsib) ti aba.

Nakalderata a pato.

Ensalada a pako.

Nadengdeng nga agurong.

Naadobo a tukling.

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More:

• The 2012 Solsona Gameng Festival Ilokano food showcase 

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artem a bawang, young garlic pickled in ilocos (cane) vinegar

Pickled young garlic and chili in cane vinegar.

We relish artem or inartem (pickles, pickled), and we fancy pickling, fermenting almost anything in vinegar to freeze the freshness and succulence of fruits and veggies: the usual cool cucumber, carrots, green papayas, onions, chilis, bell peppers, even young string beans. We especially love pickled hot chilis, fermented in suka ti basi (Ilocos cane vinegar from the famous basi [actually sour/soured basi], akin to the beloved pinakurat of the Visayans, from their tuba), for our dips. And Ilokanos particularly make fine artem out of green garlic come garlic season in the Ilocos where young garlic is abundant in the market. Ilokanos prize naganus a bawang for a special dinengdeng or pinakbet a bawang, and as an added spice in their vegetable dishes. And the rest of it find their way into artem.

I tried it myself one bawang season when I got some freshly uprooted bawang being sold in Cagayan (the vendor said it came right from Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte):

Luckily, I still got some suka ti basi, which I bought a year ago in a roadside bawang-lasona-suka-basi stall in Pinili, Ilocos Norte--which means this suka is kind of "aged":

Preparing the bawang, cut, with the hot chili ready, then bottled it in suka, seasoned with salt, black peppers, some brown sugar to sweeten it a bit, and I added some young lasona just for the heck of it:

And there, I have two-jarfuls and a bottle of artem a bawang:

I set aside my artem in a cool, dry, place to ferment. After about two weeks, here's it, the great Ilokano suka has done its chemical magic--it turned the bawang and the chili into a great spice, the bawang is still crisp and crunchy and succulent, its tang and zest intact in its now sour-sweet state:

Really perfect sawsawan and spice for almost everything edible. I dream of it drenched in my pinapaitan, in my grilled and fried fish and meat, in my barbecues, or simply in my pinakbets and dinengdengs:

Meanwhile, let me try it in this fried tuyo:

Man, it's just so insanely good!

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dinardaraan, dry or soupy?

Namaga a dinardaraan a naparabawan iti naparsik a silet.

Dinardaraan or dinuguan or blood stew (also called "chocolate" by some folks, and sapsapuriket [usually when it's chicken dinardaraan]) is a unique Pinoy way of turning pork blood, or any animal--domesticated or wild--blood, be it cow's, carabao's, goat's, chicken's, duck's, dog's and the like, into a kind of delicacy. Although it's not really that exotic or gross, this dinardaraan thing. Except maybe for connoisseurs or gourmands like  celebrity chefs Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern and other foreigners who consider even our dear balut as a bizarre food as if they're not relishing escargot or find extreme delight devouring canned rattlesnake on their sandwich. Or, on blood matters, perhaps they're not aware of blood sausages a.k.a black/blood pudding beloved by the Europeans.

And dinardaraan, is prepared/cooked and served in a variety of ways. With Ilokanos, most prefer the dry one, the blood a kind of paste, with its meat and/or offals deep fried into crackling crunchy bits, like these two dinardaraan varieties in Tuguegarao City:

And this one from Ilocos Norte (Laoag City), served with the fried pork intestines/tripe put atop the cooked blood:

And then, later the fried intestine is mixed up with the blood:

Some Ilokanos prefer a slightly dry dinardaraan, with a little thick broth for the rice:

And this is a soupy dinardaraan, also preferred when one is fond of kaldo. The broth is great with sili ti sairo and suka ti basi for a hot dinardaraan soup:

When I cook dinardaraan, I have two options, dry and soupy, for I love my rice with blood soup:

How about you, how do you like your chocolate?

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