naasar ken naprito a lames a sagpaw iti dinengdeng

Looking back at some old photos I took and watermarked some years ago, I came upon this. Fish. And it's grilled. And fried. Of which I added on to dinengdeng. It's boiled right in fish sauce broth. Slowly, to extract its flavor, its essence, to meld with the thickening soup. And then the vegetables are put in to join the simmering grilled or fried fish. Brought to a little boil to mildly cook the veggies, just a brief kind of blanching the fruits and leaves, to retain crispness, succulence, color, texture.

This was a fresh catch from the river, the Cagayan River no less, abundant in this type of catfish called kurilaw (kanduli in Tagalog).

Fish on the grill:

You know, grilled fish is best with veggies. It fuses a lot of flavor and aroma specially with dinengdeng, making the broth or soup doubly tasty. It’s a perfect enhancer for the bugguong-flavored stew.

This is the proof: the inasar (tinuno) a kurilaw gracing a dinengdeng medley of pallang, bukel-patani, young abichuelas pods, and marunggay:

More salivating photos of the dinengdeng, to give you more idea just how sumptuous it really is, it’s popping right out of the monitor screen ready for your rice:

And this is my dinengdeng the next day, still with inasar a kurilaw–this is actually a buridibod made of bagas ti aba (taro) with utong and marunggay–enjoy the show of gastronomic force of an Ilokano staple veggie stew:

And this is naprito a tilapia atop a dinengdeng--you've got here tarong, kabatiti, utong, pako:

It’s a torture, I know. Please just indulge your longing eyes.

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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.

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