dinengdeng nga uong-bunton ken balang a paria, wild mushroom soup with bitter melon leaves

Dinengdeng nga uong-bunton ken balang a paria.

Yet another mushroom here growing and picked from the wild: uong-bunton, named sobecause it usually grows near anthills (termite hills or bunton) during the rainy seasons and gathered after a night’s thunderstorm (the lightning is believed to be inducing the growth of mushrooms and other fungi, especially wild edible ones.

One early morning, an ambulant vendor passed by the house and offered this bundle for about PhP50. I readily bought it, along with some wild bitter melon tops the same vendor sells (she sure knows the fact that uong and paria are inevitable soup partners).

With a little bugguong (or patis, or salt, if you’re not used to the distinct bugguong aroma of a mushroom soup) and some slices of onion boiled in a minimal water, cook the uong, boil and simmer a bit for it to ooze its sweet and so tasty essence into the soup. Add the paria a minute before putting off fire while the soup’s still boiling. Serve immediately and consume the paria at once so that it won’t render your soup more bitter than tasty:

The tastiness and sweetness of the tender uong-bunton and the soup is more pronounced with the subtle bitterness of the paria (if cooked right briefly, paria leaves, even if it’s a wild variety, is not all extremely bitter):

More: 

• Uong ken lantong-utong, wild mushroom with young bean stalks/shoots
• Dinengdeng nga uong-mais ken uggot-marunggay, wild mushrooms and marunggay leaves

:::::

Read More

nabaraniwan a leddeg, black snails soup with lemon grass

Nabaraniwan a leddeg.

Common black snails or mollusk abundant in rivers, creeks, irrigation canals, rice paddies, ponds is great as a dinengdeng of sort or as a soup with lots of tomatoes, onions and ginger. And with baraniw or lemon grass.

One kind of snail, the leddeg (Angulyagra oxytropis), the other common one is bisukol, is usually cooked with baraniw. This black snail has a bittery taste in its tail, where its intestines lie (the bisukol is not) part which is preferred by some true Ilokano snail "gourmands."

Here, I chanced upon some freshly picked pond leddegs being sold by roadside vendors one Sunday morning, I immediately bought three glassfuls (PhP10 per glassful), it has been years since my last leddeg consumption:

Wash the leddeg throughly, rinse it for several times to discard dirt:

Firstly, boil the usual ingredients, with a little bugguong (some don't want bugguong and use patis or just plain salt instead):

Put in the leddeg, boil for a few minutes, and then put in some baraniw stalks and simmer:

Put off fire immediately, don't overcook the leddeg or its tiny meat will shrink or "kumuttong" (become "thin"):

Serve hot and begin sucking out the sweet and bittery black morsel.

The proper way to eat leddeg is you crack open its tail so air can pass when you suck from its lip or mouth the meat out.

:::::

Read More

dinengdeng a marunggay with kaggo, marunggay leaves and clam soup

Dinengdeng a bulong marunggay a nasagpawan iti kaggo.

Kaggo is a big clam found in brackish and muddy waters in Cagayan, where rivers or swamps meet with the sea or sea water, usually under or along nipa trees. Also called kappo in other places, it is the same as the lukan of the Tagalogs. But they're more abundant and popular on the notherrn Cagayan towns along the coast, like Sanchez Mira, Pamplona, Abulug, Ballesteros, Aparri, Buguey and Sta. Teresita. Meanwhile, there's another shellfish popular in Cagayan, called karibuyo, a sea clam gathered along the seashore of same coastal towns including Claveria, Gonzaga and Sta. Ana. [source]

Kaggo can be made into a savory soup or stew, boiled/blanched, grilled, or simply into a kilawen or eaten raw right from the shell dipped in calamansi juice just like that of oysters. And besides its usual preparation, it's also a perfect sagpaw or add on to vegetable dishes like pinakbet and dinengdeng.

For this dinengdeng, I picked the most tender leaves from my marunggay tree--marunggay is perfect for that savory solo dinengdengs. And prepared the kaggo ingredient--I shucked the clam meat out of the live kaggo, including the salty and tasty "broth" inside the shell:

The most tender marunggay paired with kaggo meat/soup:

The marunggay and kaggo ready:

Put in the kaggo "broth" and some water in a pan and boil. Put in some bugguong and onion slices. For a more delicious and sweet dinengdeng soup, I added kabatiti. Boil for some minutes to cook the kabatiti, then put in the kaggo meat, quickly boil and simmer....

....then put in the marunggay leaves...

....boil a little, then put off fire immediately to prevent overcooking of the marunggay, its done.

Serve the dinengdeng hot and steaming:

That soup... so tasty, so delicious, so insanely good!

:::::

Read More

"assorted" carabeef soup (lauya and pinapaitan)

"Assorted" (mixed pinapaitan and lauya)
at Papaitan & Laoya Sa Triangle, Libag, Tuguegarao City

Wonder what's new in Tuguegarao City's gastronomic concerns, or, rather, culinary offering, if any--besides the old and classic and way ubiquitous pancit batil patong?

Well, its the proliferation of so-called "papaitan and laoya" in the city's roadsides and outskirts and the kind of innovative "assorted" thing that came out of the two meat soup dishes. I've been only going to one eatery serving both, pinapaitan and lauya, and been trying the "assorted" concoction at random because I most prefer pinapaitan just for the heck that I love beef or carabeef (carabao) soup only when it's bitter.

But what the heck ngarud is this "assorted" (sic)? Simply put, it's an "assortment" of the various meaty and offal pieces of pinapaitan and lauya mixed into one unique dish--the "assorted." The tastiness and essence of the mostly bony parts of the beef (well, carabao meat is the usual red meat and the most preferred here in these parts) boiled for hours, and the bitterness of the pinapaitan courtesy of the beast's bile or the pespes (extract of the masticated grass inside the small intestines).

One of the popular "papaitan (sic) and laoya (sic)" and therefore, "assorted", destination in the city is found in Barangay Libag south of the city's centro. Wedged in a fork of the national highway and the diversion road to the city:

For Php50, you'll have a complete meal of either pinapaitan or lauya, or of the "assorted" mix. What's special in this eatery is that the rice is unlimited, you can order more rice if you're not really concerned of your abs. Note that they also offer batil patong, this is actually originally a panciteria:

And here's the lauya cuts simmering (actually preboiled for hours the render the tough meat tender and tasty), hot and ready for orders:

The pinapaitan pieces is being cut:

The soups are kept hot atop live coals:

This is the lauya soup:

And this here's the pinapaitan soup:

The "assortment":

We ordered "assorted", of course, and here's how it's being prepared--half/half. On the bowl, half pinapaitan pieces, half lauya pieces; half pinapaitan broth, half lauya broth. Kind of nice mixture:

Customers flock the small eatery, and most are having the "assorted":

Our orders are served:

The soup, turned darkly greenish, is overwhelmed by the pinapaitan essence, the bitterness is just mild though because of the lauya's more meat-and-bone-flavored dominance:

And the delightful consumption has began--we were eager to sip the hot soup first as a sort of an entrée, and of course, spiced it with that obligatory chili in vinegar: 

We are gourmands, or perhaps just so hungry, we ordered a zinagan (dinardaraan, dinuguan) as an added dish; this one's a crispy dinardaraan:

So, the meal is complete, and so, on to eating:

Here's my own messy labay:

We spiced our "assorted" too much with the fiery chili that we were hot and sweating and resorted to having an ice-cold soda--yet another no-no for me but just for this chance, I indulged completely:

Come to Tuguegarao, and let's go "assorting" again!

::::

More...

• Pinapaitan, the really bitter original innards stew
• Lauya a nuang
• Pnapaitan a silet ti kalding

Read More