BIZZARRE FOOD

Last Sunday, I watched the re-run of Bizarre Food of the World with a guy by the name of Andrew Zimmerm. I have seen the show before but I found it interesting because I was thinking of blogging the odd and exotic foods from the Philippines. The Americas' Europe and the East countries has been featured. The segment of the Philippines, I think is not very well represented. There are some missing that I know from experience and knowing what there is in my home land. Of course they featured the balut (boiled fourteen days unfertilized duck egg).

What I am going to write here are things I have seen, but won't dare eat them...maybe if I am that hungry and it is for survival....and some that I have eaten.

A veritable source of food, specially vegetables is the backyard of almost all the Filipinos homes in the countryside. Vegetables patch, a pig pen and a small poultry are found. Malungay

(horseradish tree) is planted for its leaves, fruits and flowers which goes into stews and salads. The fruit of this tree are long and slender. They are skinned and cut Julienne and goes with a chicken stew, of course , seasoned with bagoong. The trees doubles as a fence, too. Another sturdy tree that is familiar plant in the backyard or front yard is the Katuray. They are grown for the young and tender fruits and blossoms. The white petals of the blossoms resembles a folded wings of an angel is particularly used for salad. To me they look like white orchids hanging on the tree.My mother make some good salad with them when they are available in the market. The petals are separated from the stamen, pestle are removed and will pour hot hot water to wilt them. A dressing of olive oil and white vinegar, a dash of sugar. seasoned with smoked fish flakes. Onions and tomatoes goes with the salad.

The Filipinos goes farther from the backyard garden for food. The rice fields and rivers often yields weeds and water plants, which, perhaps considered weird by others, are found nutritious by the natives. I remember gathering amargoso or papait, a field weed boiled with a dash of salt and marinated in vinegar. or add to mung bean or fresh corn soup. There is the balla-iba, transparent spade-like leaves good for salads. The stem of the river gabi (taro) stripped of its skin and cut into pieces, goes well with stewed hito (catfish) in coconut sauce seasoned with bagoong. Not to mention pako, or forest Fern very good for salads. Freshly gathered mushrooms abounds during rainy seasoned which is a favorite in our house. They came fro the countryside brought to the city by walking vendors. The river also yield a variety of small shrimps called lagdao that are always eaten live with calamodin ang bagoong. But this is really a delicacy because it is hard to come by. When food is scarse, the women and children go knee deep in mud puddies and search with their fingers for mullusk and shells. they boil the meat and eat with rice and sweet potatoes.

At the start of the rainy season, hordes of insects of thick-winged salagubang or beetles flock to the tamarind trees for refuge and food. It is the time to catch them by the baskets. The feelers and wings are removed and cooked adobo style, toasted to crisp and eaten as side dish or as pututan, beer accompaniment. Locust and the crickets are cooked the same way. Locust are seasonal are not always available. You have to get used to their big heads, but once you swallow your fear, you can chomp away the rest on the plate.

The bayawak, a lizard grows up to five feet has become a delicacy among the drinking menfolks. Traps are set where people complain of their chickens disappearing during the night. They use their long tail to hit and kill the chickens. The lizard feeds on chickens and has been regarded as pest. When there is no chicken they feed on fish from the river. In some places the lizards are captured with the aid of dogs. I was told that the meat has a texture of chicken and best cooked abodo style or stew with green papaya . The eggs are also eaten, boiled in salted water for 30 minutes. The eggs remain soft with a toothpaste consistency. Frogs from the rice field are plenty and can be cooked in a variety of dishes.

The snails are one of the delicacy of the country. Before the onset of planting rice. The rice fields are scoured to get the snails which is considered a pest. The white kuhol (apple snails) was introduced in the country from South Africa. They are harvested by the baskets, soaked in water with alum to remove the digested food that the snails have eaten. This is cheaper than soaking them in beer. In some places they will extract the meat, dry them in the sun or at low temperature ovens, dredged the with corn starch and flour, dipped in eggs and deep fried andeaten like a chicharon. I have not tasted this but in our house, my mom will buy Kuhol (black snails) from the market. soaked them like the apple snails, individually cut the end of the shell, for easy release of the meat. Sauteed garlic and onions until translucent, the snails will be stir-fried with bagoong to taste. Coconut milk , kankong (swamp cabbage) mild whole pepper will be added . This best way to extract them meat is to remove the outer shell covering, slurpped with a little air and the meat will come out. There is another kind of snails that you can get in the market, the black spiral snails, but it is not the house favorite because it has a bitter taste.

The preparation of meat for the daily consumptions is basically guisado (sauteed) or sarciado (with tomato sauce). The influence of long Spanish rule in the Philippines. The cooks has all the ingredients a stone throw away in his backyard. Salt is always plenty, by cooking the sea water until it give a fine white residues. Beef innards are cleaned with papaya leaves and cooked for different recipe. This is also done the same with pigs and goats. The bile gall is save for ingredient for sinsglao , singcuchar and imbalihtad recipes. The recipe calls for the choice cuts of the lining of the intestines and innard of the cow which we call goto (tripes). In some region, specially the Ilocos region, the kari-kari uses the head and neck of the pig. Higado is minced pork meat. liver, lungs and kidneys cooked in vinegar, garlic, peppercorn. The dinuguan. (blood stew) calls for the innards of the pig, liver and plenty of blood. In some areas, Goto (tripes) boiled cow's intestines with chunks of coagulated blood and cow's brain is a delicacy. Outside south of Manila, in the Taal region, they are famous for their horse meat tapa (jerky). You will find them hanging like curtains in quaint market stalls. Tapang kabayo (horse meat jerky) with fried rice can be found in some speciality restaurants in Manila. The tapang kabayo ( horse meat jerky) when cooked has the color of dark brown leather shoes. with a suitable horsy smell, with texture not unlike beef, and a taste that could be best described as manly. The horse meat and fried rice can be taken with coffee for breakfast, soft drink for snacks, or beer in the evening.

In the country side it is common practice among the families to fatten a pig, a goat or a cow and slaughter it for spacial occasions...like fiestas, baptism, weddings, the 40 days mourning or bienvenidas or despididas ( welcomes and goodbyes). A whole goat slaughtered specially for a big gathering. From one goat a variety of recipe can involve. The legs will be roasted, the shoulder for stewing or for caldereta a stew with tomato sauce, liver and garnished with olives and grated cheese. The skin is singed to remove the hair and cut into small pieces and goes with the innards and some meats and made into kilawin, a ceviche type appetizer or an accompaniment for beer guzzlers. Another version of the kilawin kambeng, is the adition of bile cooked previously in vinegar and added to the concoction to give the dish a bitter taste. Actually this dish originated out of necessity during the Spanish era. Since wealthy landowners and friars always gets the best cut of the slaughtred cow or caraboa, the poor had to contend themselves with the entrails. After the entrails are washed and cleaned thoroughly, they boil them water with salt and ginger until soft...and different dishes are borne.

I had the privilege being a wedding sponsor in Ilocos del Norte...what an experience! The party night before the wedding as one of the guest of honor. I was given the eyes of the goat that was in the kilawin. We were gathered under a makeshift palapa outside. I am fortunate that there was a dog nearby waiting for handouts. He ate it! Not me!

A pet pig is not one to play with. It is a litter kept for a year in a separate pen away fro the other pigs. The Ilocanos have what they call bagnet. The pet pig after a year or so was slaughtered and provides the family an ample supply of meat and pork fat for almost a year. Bagnet is a whole chunk of spareribs cooked in salted water until most of the fat was rendered. A cook bagnet looks like a lechon kawali (pan-crisp pork shoulder) with the ribs still intact and can be eaten as chopped pieces dipped in vinegar and garlic sauce or with onions, garlic and tomatoes with bagoong. They also served as flavoring ingredients for other dishes that calls for pork.

In the mountain provinces, meat is traditionally eaten by the natives of Beguet only during feast or whenever a important visitors came around. But since they are in frequent communication with the beings of the other world and all kinds of spirits, they are constantly holding a kanyaw (ceremonial rites) to implore their Gods for a bountiful harvest, safe journey and good health. However if an accident or sickness occurs, they also seek relief and consolation in the kanyaw until their prayers are answered. then again, they celebrate a feast in thanksgiving.

Contrary to popular belief, the mountain trbes are sensitive to raw food. They either roast or boil them. Very seldom they sautee their food, and oil, garlic and onions are hardly used. No table though is without siling labuyo (small hot pepper) and salt which is used for sauce during meals.

In some places, skulls of pigs, cows, carabao and other animals used duting the kanyaw are hung in rows around the house to indicate how many feast have been celebrated. Each grouping show the quantity of animals slaughtered for a particular feast. Pretige and wealth is counted by the skulls.

In the remote areas, the well-to-do have their kerosene refrigerators. Others use huge burnay (earthen jars ) where the inasinan or salted pork and beef are stored and aged, sometimes for as long as a year.Whenever they have guests, they cut portions of the meat and boil them with vegetables. The other portions of the slaughtered animal are out and dried eventually end tp be what they call as itag or Igorot ham which can be kept to a long period of time. When your native host mixes a piece of itag and pinik-pikan chicken and serce you, you are considered as a very important guest. The pinik-pikan is a term for killing the chicken. For the highlanders, the kiling of a chicken always have a significance. It is used as offering to the Gods or celebrating some ocassion. They call the ceremony of holding the chicken by its two legs and beating the chicken to its death....thus pinipikan literally translate to "killing-me-softly." As soon as the chicken dies, they burn the feathers over a the fire and cut the chicken in half to expose the liver. they check the position of the bile for signs and give them interpretations, whether the ceremony is in honor of a visitor or somebody embarking a journey.

Dogs have ceremonial value and and also considered a delicacy in the mountain ethnic groups. They say that the supreme compliment one can pay to man's best friend is to eat it. The natives believe that drinking the blood of a black dog, raw and still warm will cure tuberculosis or asthma. It is a commom knowledge the prepartion of killing a dog takes about a week. The poor dog destined to be slaughtered will be deprive of anything to eat. After a week the dog will be given some rice gruel, The entrails will be full of gruel when the dog is killed. The delicacy part of the dog is the entrails with the gruel that they cherished....huh! There is also the pinoneg, sausages made of entrails and blood of the dog well seasoned with lots of black pepper.

Bizzarre...? not with the natives.