idiay tiendaan, palengke, talipapa, public market: pannakitienda/pannakiplasa/pannakidapon series (repost)

I'm always fascinated with markets, local or "wet" market in the poblacion. When I was a little child I always see to it that my mother or my father will have me tagging along when they go to the market every Sunday or on market days like Wednesdays and Thursdays and Friday, to buy basic stuff and food, usually with some meat, fish or other something pricey and "special" for the day's lunch. It would be a reward for say, having pulled out a considerable number of "white" hair, having gathered enough firewood, having watered down the masetas, having gathered weed for the carabao, and other farm and house and livelihood chores a boy can do to please his parents, he-heh! I would be rewarded, among others, with my favorite sorbetes ("dirty ice cream), some rice cakes like "tinudok" or "baduya" with lots of sweetened mongo as palaman. Mind you, there were no Jollibees or McDos yet in those olden times, there are no cheap China-imported apples even (apples are only available at Christmas-time, imported from the U.S. and it was quite a rarity in the barrios).

And yes, with those merchandise, farm produce by small-time vendors, a little harvest freshly picked form their vegetable patches or green and shoots and fruits and shells and fish gathered or caught in the wild... I'm always awed at those industrious vendors who earn some centavos and pesos, and at the way my wise mother make "tawar" to buy things with her tight budget, so typically Ilokano, thrifty and frugal but not a tightwad.

Until now that I'm old and having a family of my own, I'm still a "market boy" as I do the "marketing" and still immensely enjoy going to the "palengke" or "tiendaan" to personally pick goodies for my next dinengdeng or pinakbet. And here are some photos to document my market forays:

Various veggies, Don Domingo Public Market, Tuguegarao City.
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Kalkalunay, Don Domingo Public Market, Tuguegarao City.
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Mais, along the highway, Larion,Tuguegarao City.
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Uong, along National Highway, Gattaran, Cagayan. 
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Papait and paria a balang, along National Highway, Gattaran, Cagayan.
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Tukmem and narnar, Don Domingo Public Market, Tuguegarao City.
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Tarong, Don Domingo Public Market, Tuguegarao City.
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Pokpoklo and gamet, Don Domingo Public Market, Tuguegarao City.
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Ipon and taburkit, Dugo Public Market, Camalaniugan, Cagayan.
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Bilis vendor, National Highway in Santa Ana, Cagayan.
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Kabibi and tukmem, Allacapan Public Market, Allacapan, Cagayan.
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Taburkit, bulong-unas, Allacapan Public Market, Allacapan, Cagayan.
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.....

More market stories:

• Idiay tiendaan, talipapa, merkado publiko, market (part 2)
• Manen, idiay tiendaan, talipapa, merkado publiko, market (part 3)
• Ket manen sadiay tiendaan, public markets/roadside vendors (part 4)
• Laklako iti ig-igid, public markets/roadside vendors (part 5)

 

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pancit chronicles, episode 3: batil patung @ eva's panciteria, tuguegarao city

Pancit Batil Patung @ Eva's Panciteria (Annafunan Panciteria), Tuguegarao City.

Eva’s Panciteria (a.k.a. Annafunan Panciteria) is one of the most famous panciterias in Tuguegarao City, it being one of the most secluded that only the pancit batil patong “addicts” in the city can easily locate to satisfy their pancitly urge. Seclusion, or perhaps even secrecy (they don’t even have signages or billboards), made some panciterias in Tuguegarao the more popular as only the so-called real pancit connoisseurs bother to reach or are challenged to find these literal holes in the wall noodle houses. And I mean literal houses. Like the equally famous and secluded Lamud’s (or ECP, whatever) Panciteria in Barangay Cataggaman Nuevo, that panciteria in Barangay Annafunan is a noodle nook right in a residential house painted yellow (it was mentioned as a “green house” in Claude Tayag and Mary Ann Quioc’s Linamnam: Eating One’s Way Around the Philippines. Yes, Eva’s Panciteria (as Annafunan Panciteria) is listed in this culinary travel book, one of the only three batil patong panciterias mentioned, the two others being Lamud’s Panciteria and ECL Panciteria [in Barangay Carig]).

Batil patong time, past 3PM, with some pancit gourmands, at Eva's Panciteria.

And this is Manang Eva, the famous batil patong cook, dubbed and crowned as “Batil Patong Queen” in the city by her loyal pancit eaters and followers:

Just like most panciterias in the city, the kitchen and the cooking of the batil patong that you ordered is open for the curious (and envious) to gawk or observe upon. Here, you can watch the skills of a bating patong cook, and here, Manang Eva is really exceptional and impressive she could be a pancit chef in the White House alongside Chef Cristeta Comerford:

And so, after about 15 minutes of waiting, here are our orders, plates runneth over with heaps of carabeef meat, pork liver and egg toppings:

Pancit batil patong pure goodness topped with sautéed ground carabao meat and pork liver adobo and poached egg. No other fancy toppings of lechon carajay bits or pulverized pork cracklings, no veggies either, sorry, but it’s this simple and basic enough. A really gorgeous pancit, if you ask me:

The poached egg is just as perfectly rare or medium rare:

The egg oozing over the whole of the batil patong. And of course, the obligatory chopped raw sibuyas:

And with the accompanying egg soup. And yes, with the ubiquitous Tuguegarao-made “Malabon” brand soy sauce. In Tuguegarao, batil patong is not batil patong, if not flavored by this unique soy sauce. It maybe an acquired taste, but we so-called pancit aficionados in Tuguegarao swear and attest that other soy sauce brands won’t just fit in, they spoil the batil patongness of the real Tuguegarao batil patong, amen:

The egg reigning over. Extraordinary, this batil patong, is:

Spicing it a bit, with cracked paminta:

Enjoying the batil patong is naturally messy, it’s a required way to relish it, you can’t get away with all the sauces and juices, flavor and aroma fused to serve you all the goodness of a real batil patong. And here, Eva’s Panciteria’s version will not fail your strict expectation and craving for the original one, the all-meaty essence has only enhanced the pancitness of the whole pancit thing without any extra veggie flavor to intrude the taste and deliciousness. The miki or noodles is just cooked perfectly right, the sautéed meat to meet and please even the most finicky who can’t bear the intense and distinctive carabao meat smell (angdod, anggo):

And I can’t help but to finish off my plate, my cup of soup, and that saucer of onions with calamansi and sili. For sure, I’m one satisfied suki from hereon, Eva’s Panciteria will be among my list of must-be-there panciterias in the city, I’m one lucky bastard who finally found it, it’s a real quest, a literal one, what with the numerous wrong alleys and turns before finally finding the place, it’s a gastronomic el dorado of sort:

Be there, experience the quest, too, if you’re a pers taym adventurer, search it along the crooks and crannies of Annafunan East. It’s at the end of Aquino Street if you’re from the main road in Annafunan going to Barangay Linao, the street right across the Catholic church. Or take the interior road from Atulayan Norte going to Linao, passing Sunshine Valley Homes II, turn to a small street entering through some bamboo thickets along the main road. Sounds challenging enough, go!

UPDATE: As of this blog post, Eva’s Panciteria has moved to a separate sort of a building of its own, bigger and more spacious, located in the same compound in Annafunan East, just beside the old yellow-painted panciteria. I’ll be posting a part two soon about my new batil patong experience in the new Eva’s Panciteria. New place, but of course, the same phenomenal pancit batil patong that only Manang Eva can create:

More pancit batil patong stories:

• Pancit Chronicles, Episode 1: Batil patung @ Triangle's Panciteria, Tuguegarao City
• Pancit Chronicles, Episode 2: Batil patung @ Lamud's Panciteria, Tuguegarao City

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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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pancit chronicles, episode 2: batil patung @ lamud's panciteria, tuguegarao city

Pancit batil-patung @ Lamud's Panciteria, Tuguegarao City.

2013. And I want my first blog entry of the new year to be more on and about pancit, the batil-patung variety of Tuguegarao City. This is to continue chronicling my own pancit escapades in the city and elsewhere in and out of Cagayan Valley. And yes, of course, I opted for a pancit post just for the heck that pancit denotes or assures longer life, more years to come, not for the blogger but moreso with this blog.

And so, I continue my batil-patung adventure to one of the most popular panciterias in Tuguegarao, the popularity not only it being one of the best batil-patung "promotor" but because of its trademarked "elusiveness,"  its being a recluse panciteria, literally, because Lamud's Panciteria is not readily visible, not even along the road or in the centro of the city, it's as if a kind of hideaway for a few batil-patung aficionados who wanted to enjoy their favorite pancit secretly, away from some gluttons who might attack and consume all the delicious pancit that's there and their's alone.


Like most panciterias in the city, Lamud's is almost unmarked, no signage whatsoever, so I didn't find its reported name ECP Panciteria written or painted. Lamud is it, its famous monicker of mouth. Lamud's is a typical panciteria which offers pancit in three servings with PhP10 differences that actually varies only on the quantity and quality of toppings (ground meat, liver, etc.) 

What's truly different from among the equally popular panciterias in Tuguegarao is that Lamud's batil-patung is exclusively topped with freshly ground beef--not carabeef (nuang, carabao meat, which is the signature topping of most of the batil-patungs in Cagayan) or pork. According to the cook, their meat comes right from cows they exclusively slaughter on their own just for the pancit (he gestured me a nearby stable in the front yard  with some cows masticating on dried corn hays).

While waiting for our PhP80-orders, I mixed in the obligatory chopped onions and calamansi, with soy sauce and fermented chili--and oh, they've got a chili oil even! I love the way the condiments are presented atop the tables, the hot chilis particularly not in the usual catsup bottles but plastic containers bound together in set of threes (with the soy sauce).

Our batil-patungs are served, and boy, it's heaping! The toppings are so generous it runneth over: sauteed/stir fried ground beef and cabbages and carrots, and of course, the signature egg. Makes the pancit-eater in you seems to have premature ejaculatory craving just by the way it looks and smells (the aroma is, of course, so overpoweringly beefy, distinct to the other batil-patungs with that traditional nuang scent) you just can't wait to take a bite at once.

But before anything else, I spiced up my batil-patung as is the ritual: with soy-onion-calamansi mixture and with chilis, fermented and in oil.

The devouring... Okey, I just love it, the beef, which separates this pancit among its peers in the city. What I found out is that the noodle, the miki, the pasta, is thinner than the other mikis used in other batil-patungans, and it's more like a canton both in appearance and more so in taste or flavor. This is my first time Lamud encounter so maybe I'll have yet to acquire a taste of it as I'm used to the others. Lamud's for me, for now anyway, is a pancit canton but with pancit batil patung toppings and condiments.

I'm not complaining, this pancit is so delicious, we finished our heaping plates clean up to the last morsel signifying our satisfaction. I'm convinced now and I understand why people keep on coming and spreading the news of Lamud's uniqueness--both on the pancit and the panciteria itself. I'll surely come again and indulge.

Try it, and tell us what you think. And oh, by the way, going to Lamud's is a little tricky, but just ask tricycle drivers in Tuguegarao City, most of them are familiar with it and know the way. But if you want a little adventure, try to find it yourself, it's at #79 Gunnacao St. in Brgy Cataggaman Nuevo. Just be cautious of the unpaved, gravelly one-lane alley going inside its compound.

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