lauya a kamanokan & darangidangan a kapapayaan, native chicken soup with partially riped papaya

One of the most delicious, most savory, most gorgeous chicken soup or stew, for me, is of course, that of the "kamanokan" or free-range native chicken cooked/stewed for almost an hour in moderate fire to let its insane aroma and tasty fat to ooze out, turning the broth golden and thick. The beloved lauya a manok or tinola a manok. And of course, with the obligatory add-on, the distinct and essential green papayas and chili leaves or paria leaves or marunggay leaves.

But I adore more the almost ripe green papaya to complete my favorite lauya, for its obvious sweetness that enhances the soup/broth more and turns it more golden and delicious.

This is it:

A perfect labay!

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More "kamanokan" dishes:

• Native chicken adobo
• Lauya/tinola a kamanokan
• Pinapaitan a kamanokan, "native" chicken bitter soup

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tinenneb a buntiek, broiled mudfish sour soup

Tinenneb a buntiek (attasi)

When it comes to food, regionally and hence, culturally, Ilokanos love bitter foods, just as the Tagalog prefer sour ones (the famous sigang or sinigang comes to mind). But of course, we Ilokanos also love sour and sourness. We even have our own concoction and fermentation of vinegar--the famous suka Iloko or sugarcane vinegar which goes with our basi wine making industry (when our old folks make basi, they also make suka, inevitably and not only when a basi fails to ferment into wine but turn sour and instead becomes a fine suka).

And so, the Ilokano, too, has some sour dishes to serve. We have sour/soured soup like the famous paksiw of Ilocos Norte and sinanglaw of Ilocos Sur, boiled beef and innards soured with suka Iloko or with tamarind (young pods and/or the flower and shoots) or with pias (kamias). Sometimes, the Ilokano pinapaitan (way different from the maasim na papaitan of the Tagalogs which is not mapait at all but all asim), bitter as it is, is also mildly moderated with souring agents like suka Iloko or pias and salamagi. And yessir, we love sinigang, too, and we have our own version of it, simply called inalseman.

And then, we have the simpliest of simple tinenneb (also called inalseman or sinalamagian [in our place, we call it nadanuman a tinaltal a salamagi [just plain crushed tamarind with water flavored with salt and a pinch of umami (MSG)] bacause we make it even without the obligatory broiled fish]).

Simple because preparing it is not that complicated. All you need is fish, broiled (although of course, mudfish is most preferred [the smaller or medium-sized ones], and especially the ar-aro fish which by the way is becoming a rare species nowadays; paltat (catfish) is also used, and even tilapia, but the tastiest for this soup dish is buntiek/dalag/attasi and ar-aro).

And of course, young tamarind pods, and optionally, some onions (young ones with leaves would be perfect) for an added zing, and optionally according to preference, chili, for an spicy soup.

And of course, water, hot water (could also be cold water, but it should be hot so that it goes well with the tenneb process to be true to its very name--it's like panagtenneb iti mapanday a buneng, the forging of a blade, the tempering and quenching of the hot metal using water to cool it and thus hardening the blade).

And salt to taste, of course.

You crush the tamarind to render its juice and sourness (do not crush the seeds, though), you flake the broiled fish into pieces. Put these in a bowl and then pour into it hot water. Season with salt. Put in chopped onions. The hot water will "cook" the soup. And it's done!

The soup is heavenly, its sourness is so deliciously insane, all the more enhanced by the fragrance and umami-ness of the broiled fish. Spike it with fresh chilis and help yourself savoring more of this perfect Ilokano sour soup.

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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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dinengdeng a mais, white corn stew/soup

Mais, corn, young corn kernel, is one of the best for soups, well, Ilokano-wise, Pinoy-wise. Well, besides being boiled and/or grilled on the cob. And the best, for me, is the small "native" diket (malagkit, "sticky") white corn. The dish is popular all over, it's called "sinuwam na mais" by the Tagalogs, the Ilokanos simply call it as "dinengdeng a mais."

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sinanglaw? paksiw? which? sinanglaw-vigan & paksiw-laoag

Sinanglaw? Pinapaitan? Paksiw? Singkutsar? Confusing, really. What's what and which is which? I have the same ordeal identifying or proving what's a real beef sinanglaw and that of beef paksiw (and why it's called paksiw, in the first place). It's kind of complicated, you see. Especially for a non-Ilocos (Norte/Sur) resident like me. I only know by heart pinapaitan because this is what I was introduced, and used, to as an Ilokano in Cagayan Valley (born and raised in Nueva Vizcaya with Ilokano forbears coming from Pangasinan and La Union [migrants], and now residing in the Province of Cagayan). So I begged some Ilocos writer-friends to educate me of/on their exotic delicacies...

Sinanglaw is almost exclusively Ilocos Sur, actually the pride of Vigan City itself. You can find a lot of sinanglawan in almost every Vigan nook and cranny.

While sinanglaw is also available in some eateries in some towns in Ilocos Norte, paksiw is the more, if not the most, popular, especially in Laoag City and in San Nicolas town. Sometimes sinanglaw and paksiw are misnomered in these parts in that if a stranger orders a "sinanglaw" he will be served with a paksiw instead, if not pinapaitan, or singkutsar. (Although when you mention pinapaitan in these parts, it is almost exclusively known only as in pinapaitan a kalding [goat], because goat is the real thing when it comes to pinapaitan, well, for some.)

But these Ilokano beef soup goodies are not really at odds with each other, because they share a lot in common, or have similar ingredients, they only differ in the preparation and of the way they are flavored, and favored, of course. Basically, they've got beef innards/entrails or offal in them, plus the most prized meat cut which is the lomo (tender loin), and the papait or pespes (the bitter "juice" of the partially digested grass in the intestines, also called chyme). Sinanglaw, by the way, is authenticated by the presence of boiled/softened beef skin/hide, or of parts from beef hocks and knuckles.

And so here is Ilocos Norte paksiw:

This is actually what the folks called "nadiguan a paksiw" (or perhaps "naidigo a paksiw"?) because it's paksiw soup poured over a bowl of raw or rare beef tender loin slices. It has none of the innards. The real "paksiw" here is the soup only as it came from the paksiw consisting of boiled intestines, liver, heart, pancreas and tripe, and soured with Ilocos vinegar (cane vinegar, "sukang iloko"), and mildly flavored with pespes. 

From what I gathered, paksiw in Ilocos Norte (not the "nadiguan" above)--correct me if I'm wrong ,or wronged--is also singkutsar or sinangkutsar (more on and about singkutsar in future blog posts; I have yet to interview some singkutsar afficionados, heh-heh!). And paksiw is called paksiw because of the souring agent diluted in it, as compared to the purely bitter pinapaitan. Yes, it's primarily because of its sourness, of the suka, of course, as paksiw means "cooked with/in vinegar."

And here's the blessed sinanglaw of Ilocos Sur:

This is uncut lump of beef loin (unfortunately this looks like a tough meat, maybe not boiled enough, this is from a sinanglawan besides or across the cathedral), you are given a knife to cut it into your desired bite pieces, or have the vendor cut it out for you. Along with the meat are skin/hide, coagulated blood, some bits of liver and heart, and lungs/pancreas, some tripes. A hint of sourness is there, courtesy of pias (kamias). You can opt to make it more sour and spicy by adding in vinegar with fermented chili.

Here, the sinanglaw, with partner "condiments": the pespes (conveniently bottled), naartem a sili (chili fermented in vinegar), and chopped white onions.

Sinanglaw, now with the meat sliced and with the pespes.

Spiced and "embittered" the sinanglaw is ready.

And here's another sinanglaw from another sinanglawan:

This one is more hearty and bountiful than the other,  at a sinanglawan located right at the second floor of the Vigan public market, as my source have ventured into. "Hearty" because the meat is literally all beef heart, served one piece (a sizable part of the cow's heart boiled just tender enough to be chewy but so subtly soft to chew) and then cut into bite-size by the "server" for you. Plus some liver pieces, some tripe, some skin, and chunks of coagulated beef blood. And those pias slices that sour it all to a truly unique sinanglaw perfection.

And of course, that obligatory pespes to give the soup its true Ilokano flavor and distinct sinanglaw aroma.

You can opt to spice it with fermented chili, or put in more sourness with that sukang iloko to perk up your gastronomic sense and level up some other senses. :-)

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