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Fish tocino

Pasalubong buying for me years ago doesn't confine me to Biscocho Haus nor the grocery stores. I often make a stop at Iloilo City's Central market's dried fish section to get something "flat, round and reddish". No it is not strawberry flavoured piaya but fish tocino! Mostly requests from my officemates but at times for my own consumption. I dont know when I had my first taste of this fish tocino. All I can remember is how I really liked it since then. Sold in neat packages conveniently priced for a hundred bucks or so, they usually "hang out" with dried squid, dried danggit and others in stalls in the market.

These are still uncooked fish tocino, but unlike pork tocino, they are dry but not totally. They can be easily handled so you can choose good ones from your suki at the market. They're made with flattened dried fish (naturally it has hint of salt) cured (and glued together) with sugar. Some fish tocino in the groceries do not have this "labor of love" so they look unappealing.

They are usually made from salmonite, I assume, since the underside shows pink scales, undeniably that of salmonite. Good thing for me, since I dont eat salmonite whatever way it is cooked.
And cooking fish tocino would very delicate since a few seconds more could burn it especially the sides. Remember its "sugar-coated". Most of the time it's very low fire with enough oil to submerge and fry it for around 10 seconds or so. I tried using the microwave once but the oil give it more body.
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