pinapaitan a kalding, goat intestines stew

This is goat intestine stewed, literally, with its own juice--the extract of the masticated grass inside the intestines. It's a savory, bitter soup favored by Ilokanos. And goat's is prized for this kind of exotic dish, called "pinapaitan", aside from that of beef or carabao (water buffalo). It's not really an exotic one as this is so common in the Philippines especially in the Ilocos region, or where the Ilokano people have settled for good....

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dinengdeng nga uong ken kabatiti ken balang a paria, straw mushrooms soup with patola and wild bittermelon

Mushrooms, mushrooms! And what’s more delicious than those growing and picked from the wild, like these gorgeous straw mushrooms (locally called uong garami or uong saba): And paired with these equally wild or “native” vegetables for a truly exotic veggie delicacy—wild bittermelon (balang a paria) shoots and fruit, and patola (sponge gourd, kabatiti): Small but insanely bitter vegetable fruit to challenge or tantalize your palate: Cooked in...

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mongo beans soup with rattan bud/shoot

Boiled balatong (mongo, mung beans), sautéed with lots of onions and garlic, is one stable Filipino viand especially preferred during rainy and cold days. Paired with a variety of other vegetables (specially green leafy veggies) and meat and fish sagpaws (add-on), it’s one appetizing dish to go with steamed rice. A favorite companion vegetable is usually the leaves or fruit of paria (amargoso, ampalaya, bitter melon) as the bitterness...

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kilawen a kalding, goat skin, meat, and liver "salad"

This is "kilawen a kalding" ("kilawing kambing" in Tagalog) or goat's singed/burnt skin and grilled meat and liver chopped and spiced and made into a kind of "salad." An Ilokano dish, it is kind of "exotic" to others but is a popular goat dish throughout the Philippines. What's distinctly Ilokano about it is that Ilokano folks, used to bitterness, err, bitter food, usually season it with the goat's bile or the pespes (extract of the undigested...

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dinengdeng a bunga ken uggot ti karabasa, squash fruit and shoots stew

As a kid and a farm boy, one of the vegetables I love that much is karabasa (squash) mainly because my mother used to tell us her children that squash fruit is actually an "itlog ti nuang" or a carabao's egg, so nutritious and full of vitamins and minerals and whatever healthy stuff growing barrio kids need, aside from the "fact" that it really is good for the eye, for it to see more clearly, so my mother said so. We always have a squash plant with...

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dinengdeng a kudet (kuditdit) ken paria, bracket fungus with bittermelon

You know it's kuditdit season when it rains and you see them sprouting white on dried twigs and branches and trunks of fallen (dead) trees (like mango and/or tamarind). And when you see them plenty but rarely and expensive in the market or being hawked upon by enterprising ambulant vendors house-to-house. As per Ilokano way, kuditdit is always best paired with bitter veggies and paria tops it. And so with my bountiful harvest of this wonderful...

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