lauya/tinola a kamanokan

Lauya/tinola a kamanokan a nalaokan iti papaya ken bulong sili.

Now that the kamanokan (native free range chicken) is prepared (butchered, dressed, cut and cleaned), here's one most popular dish we can turn a kamanokan into a very savory and sumptuous soup: tinola or lauya with a variety of obligatory veggies like green papayas, sayote, tabungaw, kabatiti, etc. and various leaves of which sili, paria and marunggay are the most preferred.

These are the best cuts for lauya/tinola, the bony parts: head, feet, rib, back, wings (the testicles are here to make the soup even tastier):

First thing, sauté the chicken cuts in little cooking oil and lots of garlic, onions and ginger. Stir fry the meat in high heat until it turns brown and its natural oil oozes out and its distinct kamanokan aroma steaming and wafting garlicky and most of all gingerly. You can season and spice it at this juncture, add some salt or teaspoons of patis, a pinch of cracked black pepper. For a uniquely Ilokano zest and aroma, stir fry it with bugguong juice.

Done stir frying. The meat is melting with chicken and spicy goodness, its fragrance overwhelming the whole kitchen and its heavenly scent whiffing outside tantalizing neighbors' jealous noses. Now, pour in a couple of cup or so of water and season more to taste:

Let it simmer in moderate heat

Boil it for about an hour until the meat is tender enough and the soup a kind of thick. One way to check if the chicken is done is to see its feet,  the karaykay, if it's tender and soft and chewy. When cooking kamanokan, I boil it for over a couple of hours or more for it to render its intense aroma and flavor, adding more crushed ginger for a really spicy soup. For a thicker soup, you can opt to mash the liver into the broth.

And then, when the meat is tender enough, put in the veggies. In this particular lauya a manok, I added papaya, sili leaves and some sili fruit (aruy-oy a sili, siling-haba in Tagalog):

The soup will eventually turn golden or yellowish because of the chicken fat. As this one is boiled in ours, the soup is so insanely savory, tasty and spicy because of the ginger (I used native ginger here, and of course native garlic and onions (the Ilocos varieties)--all "native"!):

And here's it, the blessed tinola, the holy lauya a kamanokan in all it's glorious grace and goodness, the golden digo promising a divine providence, nay, an intervention, of gastronomic proportion:

My favorite tinola parts are here, all bony but the most tasty and delicious of all manok master pieces: ulo (sucking out the mata and the utek is not sacrilegious at all but religious), tengnged, payak, paragpag, kimmol, saka/karaykay...

The papaya is sweet, I prefer sligthly ripened papaya for most of my tinolas as I love the sweet pulpiness of the papaya. The sili leaves and fruit is just as aromatically good. Sometimes, I add but paria leaves just for the scandalously exquisite bitter soup it imparts to tease and please an Ilokano palate in me.

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More on native chicken:

• Native chicken adobo
• Panangisagana iti mailuto a kamanokan, native chicken preparation

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papait a naigisa iti itlog, papait omelette

Papait a naigisa sa nalaokan iti itlog.

What's good and delicious about papait, besides the popular salad it is usually known for or associated with? Of course it can be sauteed in onions and garlic and some tomatoes or in just plain soy and/or oyster sauce adobo-style; and it can be the bitter substitute of paria leaves in an inabraw, or in boiled beans (mongo, beans, cowpea, etc.). But what else?

Why, or course, it's perfect for an omelette! But this fact I only recently known and realized courtesy of a friend, Fidel Sambaoa of Anvil Publishing. I used to make an omelette with almost every edible leafy greens like that of marunggay, bilonak, pechay, paria, kalunay, kamotig, saluyot, etc. but I didn't yet try papait leaves.

Cultivated a "hybrid" a nagdadakkelan
a papait a kadawyan a mailaklako iti tiendaan.

First, I sauteed the papait in cooking oil, garlic and onions, stir frying it quickly in high heat with some salt and pepper:

For a ginisa a papait, this could have sufficed:

But I want a papait omelette, so here I am about to pour beaten egg:

Stir quickly and evenly in moderate heat, the egg cooks quickly:

And it's done!

As simple as this, my first papait omelette:

There's this distinct or should I say unique papait aroma that's now blended with the egg that makes this omelette kind of "exotic" and insanely palatable, the bitterness splendidly and subtly subdued rendering it deliciously sweet.

This culinary kind of master dish requires a lot of steamed rice. I spiked it more with some KBL (kamatis-bugguong-lasona) to enhance its bitterness that I adored in its salad state.

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More papait dishes:

• Bitter is better: papait salad appetizer
• Papait salad ken dinengdeng

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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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buridibod a kamangeg nga addaan pallang ken kalunay sa nasagpawan tinapa, wild yam stew with winged beans and spinach and smoked fish

Buridibod a kamangeg nga addaan pallang ken kalunay, nasagpawan tinapa.

Kamangeg (Dioscorea luzonensis) is one of the edible wild yam which is becoming so rare nowadays. It was usually found in forested and mountainous areas in Northern Luzon especially in the Ilocos region and is prized for its distinct and unique flavor and texture compared to more popular and/or ones like tugi, ubi, buga and balinghoy. But the denuding of forest covers and the slash and burn style of upland farming as well as the incessant hunt for this kind of tuber delicacy reduced it to almost an endangered plant. So you’ll just found yourself lucky if by sheer chance you can find it sold in some local wet markets along with other wild tubers and vegetables gathered in the hinterlands.

Just like any other yam, besides being plainly boiled/steamed or cooked with getta (coconut milk) as a very comforting merienda, kamangeg is best for that starchy signature Ilokano dish buridibod (baradibod, buribud) with other ubiquitous Ilokano leafy green vegetables and fruits.

The kamangeg I found somewhere, isn’t it gorgeous? I paired it with pallang (winged bean) and kalkalunay or kuantong (native spinach, or amaranth):

This is a “native” pallang, which is more palatable than the long green hybrid ones:

Peeling off the "skin" and cutting the kamangeg:

The pallang as well:

And the kalunay:

I cooked the kamangeg first in the bugguong broth, with the deboned tinapa (smoked fish):

When the kamangeg is tender enough, put in the pallang, and then the kalunay, put to a boil just as quickly so the the pallang and the kalunay is not overcooked but crisp and green:

Done, with some broth:

The most delicious buridibod I have todate—the kamangeg as a vegetable for dinengdeng is phenomenal, really, it’s sweet, rich, thick and has a unique starchy and yammy flavor and aroma that only prove its becoming a rarity and therefore kinda exotic of sort:

The smoky flavor of the tinapa even enhanced the buridibod and it becomes a truly exceptional dish and an exclusive experience having the opportunity to partake this distinctive Ilokano blend:

More buridibods:

• buridibod, buribod, baradibod: camote with alukon and marunggay stew
• yet another buridibod, with marunggay pods, shucked clam meat and grilled malaga
• dinengdeng/buridibod nga ube (puraw), white yam stew with veggies and fried fish
• dinengdeng/buridibod nga ube, purple yam stew with veggies
• dinengdeng a bunga ti singkamas, jicama fruit stew

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