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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pinapaitan, the really bitter original innards stew

Really bitter Ilokano pinapaitan, its broth/soup thickened not with fat but with  pespes boiled for hours.

Pinapaitan  is solely and authentic – even exotic – Ilokano dish. Loved by any true-blue Ilokano there is, specially those bred in the away (farm, country sides) or promdi (from the province) in any Ilocos place, native and even those so-called "Ilokanized".  Well, some Ilokanos shun it, but it’s really an acquired taste and kind of inherent preference if you really have Ilokano roots or blood. But pinapaitan has become a truly Philippine – national, that is – dish. Ilokanos and non-Ilokanos loved it, period. Although non-Ilokanos has somewhat corrupted the right term into a lame“papaitan” (Tagalogized, perhaps?). And most non-Ilokano variation of the original is not at all bitter. Bitterness defines the Ilokano palate, and that of being Ilokano, and the distinct Ilokano-ness (mistaken by some as being kuripot or tightwad, big deal). Some pathetic "papaitan” has no pait at all simply because they avoid the extreme pait of it, bile or the pespes (extract of the masticated grass inside the small intestines of the cow/goat/carabao). And they have the gall to call it papaitan still when it’s not that bitter! IMHO, a certain meat soup or stew even with some innards in it should not be called a "pinapaitan" or "papaitan" if it's not bitter because it's an insult to the term or name itself, ahem!

So, here are real Ilokano pinapaitans, the bitter ones!

An early bird catches the "pers klas" cuts (the choicest pinapaitan/kappukan cuts). This is the prize of an early foray into the slaughterhouse mismo, having the freshest cuts.

The prizey and pricey beef innards/offal: heart, liver, intestines, the tripes–the liblibro and the tualtualia, and the most important pespes (intestine "juice").

Sometimes when you're late to have your pang-pinapaitans, you'll just content yourself with this standard: tripes and  some meat and an intestines cut filled with ready pespes.

Cutting up...

The tualtualia (literally "towel") being cut into bite pieces...

Cooking the perfect Ilokano pinapaitan entails a lot of labor and love. After a painstaking preparation of cutting up the meat and offal into bite pieces and chopping the onions and crushing garlics and gingers, ready yourself to boil them oil to its bittery goodness. First, you'll have to sautée the spices together with the cut pieces to enhance flavor and aroma and to do away some unwanted smell. Then the boiling and simmering. You have two options: a medium rare, or a very tender pinapaitan. A medium rare pinapaitan is like having an imbaliktad but with soup or lots of broth, the cooking/boiling is brief so the meat and innards is just chewable and not tough. A tenderized pinapaitan, which I prefer, is slowly boiled/simmered for an hour or more (you can opt to use a pressure cooker if you want it quickly done), and as a result will give out more flavor and color and aroma.

A perfectly cooked pinapaitan, simmered for hours to really tenderize the meat and innards, with its sweetishly bitter fat oozing out to tantalize a finicky Ilokano palate.

A really napait a pinapaitan. Even with its thick soup only, I'll be contented with my steamed rice. (Photo from Ilokano Food)

More finds enjoyed along way on my quest for a real bitter pinapaitan:

From a popular pinapaitan/lauya house just beside the slaughterhouse in Capatan, Tuguegarao City.

Pinapaitan at a roadside eatery along the national highway in Carig, Tuguegarao City. Pinapaitan's real pait essence is more intensified by spicing it up with lots of chili.

Home-cooked pinapaitan, simmered for hours.

My plateful of pinapaitan with fermented chili on the side.

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more platefuls of ilokano dishes, labay 2

And here's more of the plates of Ilokano dishes I enjoyed. Back from previous sumptuous labays... (click on the photos for a larger view):

Pakbet/paksiw a saluyot (also called tinimtiman a saluyot), and boiled mung beans with young langka.

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sinanglaw? paksiw? which? sinanglaw-vigan & paksiw-laoag

Sinanglaw? Pinapaitan? Paksiw? Singkutsar? Confusing, really. What's what and which is which? I have the same ordeal identifying or proving what's a real beef sinanglaw and that of beef paksiw (and why it's called paksiw, in the first place). It's kind of complicated, you see. Especially for a non-Ilocos (Norte/Sur) resident like me. I only know by heart pinapaitan because this is what I was introduced, and used, to as an Ilokano in Cagayan Valley (born and raised in Nueva Vizcaya with Ilokano forbears coming from Pangasinan and La Union [migrants], and now residing in the Province of Cagayan). So I begged some Ilocos writer-friends to educate me of/on their exotic delicacies...

Sinanglaw is almost exclusively Ilocos Sur, actually the pride of Vigan City itself. You can find a lot of sinanglawan in almost every Vigan nook and cranny.

While sinanglaw is also available in some eateries in some towns in Ilocos Norte, paksiw is the more, if not the most, popular, especially in Laoag City and in San Nicolas town. Sometimes sinanglaw and paksiw are misnomered in these parts in that if a stranger orders a "sinanglaw" he will be served with a paksiw instead, if not pinapaitan, or singkutsar. (Although when you mention pinapaitan in these parts, it is almost exclusively known only as in pinapaitan a kalding [goat], because goat is the real thing when it comes to pinapaitan, well, for some.)

But these Ilokano beef soup goodies are not really at odds with each other, because they share a lot in common, or have similar ingredients, they only differ in the preparation and of the way they are flavored, and favored, of course. Basically, they've got beef innards/entrails or offal in them, plus the most prized meat cut which is the lomo (tender loin), and the papait or pespes (the bitter "juice" of the partially digested grass in the intestines, also called chyme). Sinanglaw, by the way, is authenticated by the presence of boiled/softened beef skin/hide, or of parts from beef hocks and knuckles.

And so here is Ilocos Norte paksiw:

This is actually what the folks called "nadiguan a paksiw" (or perhaps "naidigo a paksiw"?) because it's paksiw soup poured over a bowl of raw or rare beef tender loin slices. It has none of the innards. The real "paksiw" here is the soup only as it came from the paksiw consisting of boiled intestines, liver, heart, pancreas and tripe, and soured with Ilocos vinegar (cane vinegar, "sukang iloko"), and mildly flavored with pespes. 

From what I gathered, paksiw in Ilocos Norte (not the "nadiguan" above)--correct me if I'm wrong ,or wronged--is also singkutsar or sinangkutsar (more on and about singkutsar in future blog posts; I have yet to interview some singkutsar afficionados, heh-heh!). And paksiw is called paksiw because of the souring agent diluted in it, as compared to the purely bitter pinapaitan. Yes, it's primarily because of its sourness, of the suka, of course, as paksiw means "cooked with/in vinegar."

And here's the blessed sinanglaw of Ilocos Sur:

This is uncut lump of beef loin (unfortunately this looks like a tough meat, maybe not boiled enough, this is from a sinanglawan besides or across the cathedral), you are given a knife to cut it into your desired bite pieces, or have the vendor cut it out for you. Along with the meat are skin/hide, coagulated blood, some bits of liver and heart, and lungs/pancreas, some tripes. A hint of sourness is there, courtesy of pias (kamias). You can opt to make it more sour and spicy by adding in vinegar with fermented chili.

Here, the sinanglaw, with partner "condiments": the pespes (conveniently bottled), naartem a sili (chili fermented in vinegar), and chopped white onions.

Sinanglaw, now with the meat sliced and with the pespes.

Spiced and "embittered" the sinanglaw is ready.

And here's another sinanglaw from another sinanglawan:

This one is more hearty and bountiful than the other,  at a sinanglawan located right at the second floor of the Vigan public market, as my source have ventured into. "Hearty" because the meat is literally all beef heart, served one piece (a sizable part of the cow's heart boiled just tender enough to be chewy but so subtly soft to chew) and then cut into bite-size by the "server" for you. Plus some liver pieces, some tripe, some skin, and chunks of coagulated beef blood. And those pias slices that sour it all to a truly unique sinanglaw perfection.

And of course, that obligatory pespes to give the soup its true Ilokano flavor and distinct sinanglaw aroma.

You can opt to spice it with fermented chili, or put in more sourness with that sukang iloko to perk up your gastronomic sense and level up some other senses. :-)

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