FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Waking up to the smell of fried fish for breakfast would often start my day right. Like this home-made pinakas (guma-a?), I'll just prepare a calamansi dip for it (no more soy sauce) to complement the flavour, I would lost count of my rice input then - lol. This one is unlike the usual salted/dried fish that can be bought in the market, for this is just partially dried thus one can still taste the flesh. It usually starts with halved fish, then marinated in vinegar, soy sauce and garlic then dried under the sun (good luck if the sun is out these days). A day's bathe under the sun may just make it dry but not really like the ones we are accustomed to. Half dry would be the term to it but it's just as delicious (not to mention a lot healthier since one controls the salt that goes into it) a pinakas should be.

Seafood and vegetables often make a good medley when cooked together. A few of the celebrated Ilonggo vegetable dishes are made with this combination like laswa and ginata-ang tambo . Others like nilatik or the Ilonggo adaptation of pinakbet can also be revised to include seafood. Laswa is probably the simplest among the Ilonggo vegetable dishes. Its a stew of differnet kinds of vegetables usually kalabasa (squash) , tagabang (saluyot) , hantak (string beans) , okra , talong (eggplant), takway (taro plant tendrils) and a lot more. Dried seafood like pinakas na guma-a (daing) or balingon (dilis) often accompanies this recipe for the saltiness of the fishes add flavour to the mix of vegetables. Another favorite is ginat-an na tambo (bamboo shoots with coconut milk). Shrimps and/or crabs create a perfect dish in combination with the bamboo shoots, saluyot and at times, corn all cooked together in coconut milk. Another coconut milk based vegetable dish is the quintessential ni...

A well loved recipe, ginat-an nga tambo (bamboo shoots in coconut milk) is a dish most Ilonggos find irresistible and most often missed when away from their hometown. Usually it has tagabang (saluyot) and okra as partners with seafood as subak (the "meat" part). Most of the time, shrimps, crabs or local snails known as bago-ngon makes it more delicious but this one has pinakas ( daing ) nga lison which makes it more appetizing since this is a favorite salted and dried fish of mine. Its more fleshy, often good as subak in most vegetable dishes but even better on it's own - dipped in sinamak (spiced vinegar).

Lunch today was just the usual combo, pancit canton and vegetable. Our pancit canton is usually not the "saucy", just noodles with meat and vegetables. Alugbati meanwhile was mixed with kalabasa and papaya and flavoured with pinakas . Just a simple lunch yet satisfying.

Ensaladang langka Pinakas nga bisugo and guma-a Thanks to Labeth of SSC forum for these mouth watering photos.

While most would prefer (spiced) vinegar as dip for this pinakas and other salted/dried fishes, I love using calamansi . Just plain calamansi , no soy sauce, patis, etc. For me, the sourness "balances" the saltiness of the fish plus it adds to my appetite. But I wouldn't say no to a piece (or two) of kutitot , small native peppers, crushed in that dip.

Pinakas is the local term for fish that has been halved, salted/seasoned and dried under the sun. A variety of fishes can be made into one like guma-a , lison , even bangus . However, it is almost synonymous to the salted and dried fishes that is commonly served during breakfast. It was actually lunchtime today that I had this combo meal. No bigger than my palm, these small pinakas cost around PhP35 per 100 grams, around 10 pieces. Not overly fleshy compared to the bigger ones but they still satisfied me. Not to mention the vinegar dipped I used that even made it more appetizing. Another day that started good, gastronomically.