palileng

Lenten season once again, and accordingly as was and is the traditional belief and practice of the pious and devotees in us, no meat, please. Shun away from meaty pleasures, of fleshy indulgence, whatever that is.  Be contented with veggies. And fish is just okay. So fish be it, fish be with us, let's have a fishy Lent.

And this is palileng (a,k,a birut, bukto, bunog; actually palileng is grown or overgrown bunog, mullet or goby), right from Gonzaga, Cagayan's pristinely famous Pateng River, home to rare freshwater fish like palileng and kampa.

This is a nilingta or steamed palileng, literally cooked with its own fat with vinegar, onions, garlic, ginger, black peppercorns, a little salt:

This is a previous tomato-soured nilingta a bunog/birut, smaller in size (for comparative purposes with the larger palileng):

Palileng, palileng, nagraman, nagnanam, nagtaba, ayna, nakaim-imas! Let's have a Lenten feast!

And it's not just fat palilengs, this is my actual labay, on my feast--oppss, sorry, there's a meat here, raw flesh even, but at least it's a majority of Lenten-friendly palatables: kappukan a baka, steamed padaw, adobo a pusit, sinigang a malaga, and ensalada nga ubog ti way:

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a feast of ilokano food exotica...

Of course, there's still a sort of exotica when it comes to Ilokano food, whatever being exotic means. And although these are common fares specially in the away or in the barrios/farming communities, it becomes a rare delicacy or exotic even, when these are featured for all the uninitiated world to see, taste,  or simply to be squeamish. And usually, it's being showcased during so-called festivals, like the recent Gameng Festival in Solsona, Ilocos Norte, an annual celebration which aims "to strengthen Solsona’s culture, promote its cultural products and designs and preserve and conserve its historical and cultural treasure and resources."

Our friend writer-journalist Leilanie Adriano of the Ilocos Times, has exclusively covered the festival, especially the food portion, and shared us these mouth-watering photographs to feast on (click on the photos for a larger view):

Eating insects is not really unusual because Ilokanos are used to beetles, grubs, crickets, and other edible bugs. And of course, ants! And this is kinda extreme--this is abuos (red ants) ukoy or fritter. I myself didn't yet try this one, and I wish I could have one soon!

Sauteed abuos eggs and pupae (with some juvenile ants in it, anyway), well, this is a milder abuos delicacy, I think. I love this one! [See a previous blog post about red ant's egg]

Ballaiba salad. [See a previous blog post about ballaiba]

Tabtaba (also called bakbakasi and barbaradio) salad. [See a previous blog post about tabtaba]

Ensalada nga aba. I miss and missed this one, really. Besides dinengdeng nga aba, we used to just boil aba stalks back in Nueva Vizcaya and garnish it simply with KBL (kamatis-bugguong-lasona) like this. I have yet to see anything like this here in Cagayan. Will try it soon! [See a previous blog post about dinengdeng nga aba]

Kinirog nga ararawan. Fried mole cricket. I haven't had the opportunity to have a taste of this for three decades! Ararawan is a rarity these days! [See a previous blog post about ararawan]

And this! Birabid! This used to be a usual farmer's innapuy pair when I was a child when birabid's still abundant. It's almost extinct nowadays it really became a true exotica! I haven't seen this in 4 billion years!

Dinengdeng a bisukol! But of the Taiwanese variety, though. What I miss are the native ones--the black shelled ones I used to pick in the fields as a small child. Like the birabid, black bisukol is extremely rare.

Adobo a bisukol. Perfect pulotan!

Dinengdeng nga agurong. [See a previous blog post about agurong cooked in coconut milk]

Pakbet a saluyot. [See a previous blog post about  pakbet a saluyot]

Dinakdakan a pakak! Boiled pakak and prepared/seasoned like a pork dinakdakan. [See previous post about dinakdakan]

Marunggay flowers salad (with tender leaves). [See a previous blog post about dinengdeng a marunggay]

Ilokano vegetable salad medley: marunggay blossoms and leaves, sabunganay (banana heart/blossom), and bunga ti rabanos (white radish fruit). [See a previous blog post about susop or sabunganay]

Adobo a tukak! Missed this! [See a previous blog post about tukak]

Tukak barbecue.

Nilingta a kuskusleng. Of the bunog (freshwater goby/mullet) family.

Nailingta a palileng! Now, I can't help but to just imagine the last time I got lucky to partake fat palilengs, that was perhaps about 10 years ago in Gonzaga, Cagayan. Palileng is a tasty freshwater fish, it's so rare, and of course expensive, nowadays.

Still of the goby/mullet family, this is called ilek and which we generally label as bunog.

Nilingta a bukto. Bukto or birut, also commonly called as bunog. [See a previous blog post about bukto/birut/bunog]

Inasar a native a paltat! [See a previous blog post about native paltat]

Tinenneb a dalag (attasi, buntiek). [See a previous blog post about dalag]

Tinola a native a manok.

Dinardaraan a pato.

What a feast!

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bunog/birut/bukto/palileng, mullet/goby fish

Here's more on bunog (in general, called talimusak in Tagalog, variably called birut, bukto, even palileng, or mori, and udingan, ipusan, etc.; it's actually mullet or goby fish.), smallish freshwater/river fish best stewed in lots of tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger and some vinegar. Or wrapped in banana leaves and steamed/cooked as a tamales. Or dipped in spiced flour and deep fried to a crunchy treat.

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panagburak iti rama, harvesting fish in "portable" fish traps

Rama. Puluan. "Mini" and "portable" fish dwellings/trap in rivers. Made of cut small tree branches or tiny twigs, especially that of the thorny damortis (or kamantiris, lulukisen, camachile) and salamagi (tamarind) trees. Bound and placed on strategic parts of the river. When summer comes, it's the perfect time of the year to harvest the rama. Panagburak-rama. Literally to break open the traps. When the family, friends, especially when a balikbayan folk is home, decide to go for a picnic by the river. It's an special Ilokano occassion during summer, when rivers are shallow or almost dried up and fish, shrimps, crabs in the rama is surely bountiful.

Here's one panagburak iti rama one hot summer at Padsan River in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte:

The rama area is secured with a net and is cleared of the ramas.
[Click photo for a larger view]

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ipon, fish fries/silver fish

Ipon? Ipon what? You mean hipon? Or iPhone? Yes, the tiny fish, ipon, which is a prized fish in the Ilocos and Cagayan Valley regions, is often mispronounced, misunderstood, mistaken. Some non-Ilokano folks mistake it as hipon or small shrimps (aramang, alamang in Tagalog), due to mispronunciation or the way it sounded to them. And do you know that when you google image "ipon" much of the search results point to that pesky iPhone (Apple) luxury phone?

Fresh ipon from Santa, Ilocos Sur.

Ipon for sale in Dugo, Camalaniugan, Cagayan.

Another ipon (larger fries) for sale in Dugo, Camalaniugan, Cagayan.

This is ipon, a "tiny fish," but this is actually the fries of the goby fish, or in some instance, that of the anchovy fish. It's also called silver fish. And it's also called dulong in some Ilocos areas (not the big and rare, and as a result expensive, ludong). Ipon for some is considered an Ilokano exotic food or delicacy because of its mystery, rarity, high price, and of course of its distinct flavor favored by Ilokanos.

Ipon can be prepared and cooked in a variety of ways, kilawen (raw, with sliced tomatoes, chopped onions, diced ginger, salt), as a soup (boiled with lots of tomatoes, onions and ginger), as a tamales wrapped in banana leaf and steamed or grilled, or simply steamed or boiled dry, and many others.

Kilawen nga ipon.

Ipon in a savory soup with tomatoes, ginger, and onions.

Ipon soup.

Ipon soup (detail).

This is a real kicker! Boiled ipon with gamet (dried seaweed, nori).

Ipon with gamet (detail).

Steamed ipon with ginger and onions.

Kilawen nga ipon.

Ipon to be mixed as a kilawen.

Kilawen nga ipon and kilawen a kalding as pulotan.

Ipon is  also good with dinengdeng or the ubiquitous Ilokano medley of veggies and leafy greens in soup with the essential bugguong.

Dinengdeng nga ipon with bulong ti paria.

Ipon is also best as dried or daing to be fried or as a sagpaw, again, in a dinengdeng.

Ipon being prepared to be sundried, on a leaf and atop a galvanized iron roof.

Beautiful sun-dried ipon.

 

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More on fish and more kilawen nga ikan:

• Ipon, once more
• Kilawen a tirong, picnic by the beach
• Kilawen a bilis, raw sardine/herring
• Kilawen a sosay (tanigue, tangngigue)
• Kilawen a bilis manen, sardine/herring ceviche
• Kilawen a taburkit/munamon
• Kilawen a pusit/laki
• kilawen a talibukno

For more Ilokano dishes and others like this kilawen, you can follow Ilokano Food page on Facebook.

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