duck egg casserole

These balut eggs are out in their shells and into another shells - the glass bottles.

duck egg casserole - /dak eg ka-se-rol/ Tagalog dish) [n.] shelled balut eggs cooked in casserole.

a.k.a. balut casserole in Tagalog

It is usually a soupy or saucy dish, such as the balut caldereta, balut afritada, balut a la pobre, adobo, brined, etc.

Balut eggs can also be served in several ways. When peeled off its shell, it can be cooked in tomato sauce to become balut caldereta or balut afritada, in a soup like a balut a la pobre, cooked adobo-style, or into a paste or spread for bread, as in balut pate.

Bottled duck egg casserole is a perfect way to bring balut as pasalubong for Pinoys and friends abroad.

Bottled duck eggs casserole cooked in different ways and variant of flavors on display in the grocery section of Market-Market Supermarket in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Taguig City.

The latest innovation in balut is the bottled duck egg casserole cooked in different ways and variant flavors. There is a balut caldereta, balut afritada, and balut in brine or just boiled and preserved in a brine solution (water and salt).

Bottled egg casserole are often sold in select big supermarkets in the Philippines and are likely available in Asian grocery stores abroad.

If you cannot find one, you can make one yourself at home. It is very easy to make. What is difficult is how and where to find balut eggs if you are far from places where balut are sold.

To know more about balut eggs, click here.

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wild chili ale

wild chili ale – /wayld tsi-li a-le/ Tagalog  beverage; dw Eng. wild + chili + ale)  [n.] chili-flavored craft beer. Chili beer.

 

a.k.a. chili beer in Tagalog

Craft beers are those manufactured in a craft brewery (a.k.a. microbrewery), a brewery that produces a small amount of beer. Craft beer brewery in the country actually uses imported grains (barley, hop, etc.) for brewing.  For chili beers, the wild chilies are sourced locally that may include our very own intensely spicy hot siling labuyo (Philippine bird's eye chili).  Other ingredients, such as sugar, yeast, water, and herbs can also be sourced locally.

The label suggests this beer is served better with those familiar Pilipino delicacies.

A bottle of Bicol Express Wild Chili Ale served for sampling during the McKinley Hill Beer Festival in 2014 at the Venice Piazza in McKinley Hill, Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Taguig City. Other craft beers are the (+63), a single hop IPA beer that represents Philippines using the Philippine international telephone country code +63, and the Poto Pale Ale. All three craft beers are manufactured by the Great Island Craft Brewery in Parañaque City, Metro Manila.

Related posts:

Siling labuyo

Taguto

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chicharon buchi

A serving of chicharon buchi or buchiron with a dipping of sukang Iloko from a participating food stall during the launching of Mercato Centrale's Mezza Norte in Trinoma, Quezon City - May 3, 2013.

chicharon buchi – /tsi-tsa-rón but-tsé/ Tagalog delicacy; dw Span. buche [crop]  [n.] crisp fried chicken crop.

also spelled as tsitsaron butse in Tagalog 

a.k.a. butse, butse chicharon, butseron or buchiron in Tagalog

Buchi is the Tagalog word for the chicken crop or craw of fowls and other birds. It is the small pouch-like gullet of fowls and birds, a part of the esophagus where freshly swallowed food is temporarily stored for later digestion in the gizzard or for regurgitation as when feeding the nestlings.

It is also in the butse that swallowed food is lightly fermented or softened by gland secretions before it passes through the gizzard for grinding. 

Pinoys would collect butse, clean it thoroughly then deep fry it to become chicharon also known in Tagalog by the same name, butse or chicharon buchi.

Because you can harvest only one butse for each chicken, several dozens of chickens have to be slaughtered to get a heap of this another Pinoy favorite pulutan. The mass production of fast-growing chickens provides an ample supply of chicken crops as another by-product of chicken meat. Pinoys transformed this what used to be a waste and dirty offal into a tasty and sought street food in the country.

Chicharon buchi is also called butse, butseron, or buchiron in Tagalog. Butseron is the short name for butse chicharon, (likewise, buchiron is from buchi chicharon) with the chicken crop usually split open or cut lengthwise into halves and fried until browned and crisp.

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snake wine

A snake wine with the Philippine king cobra in a bottle. The snake is called banakon in Cebuano or ulupong in Tagalog. The slender snake is called iliw in Cebuano. Both snakes are known to be extremely venomous.

snake wine - /es-nek wayn/ Cebuano and Tagalog wine [n.] a spirit soaked with a snake.

A freshly killed snake (complete with its scales, skin, flesh, bones, and internal organs) is steeped in spirit or clear (transparent) distilled wine until the juice from the body of the snake partly became the flavor of the wine.

Snake wine is taken as a potent drink and is believed to have some medicinal benefits, add vitality, energy, and as an aphrodisiac or something that boosts one’s sexual appetite.

The authentic "Cobra Energy Drink." Unlike the commercially bottled cobra energy drink, this snake wine will not cause you to worry about having diabetes. The snake wine has no sugar added in it. What you will get is a real cobra in a bottle -  not just a label with a drawing or printed illustration of snake.

The usual kind of snakes used in making snake wine are those that are highly poisonous like the dreaded Philippine king cobra (Naja philippinensis) known as banakon in Cebuano or ulupong in Tagalog. Another known highly venomous snake is the Cebuano iliw.

The usual spirits used as a base for this potent drink are the hinebra (gin), vodka, lambanog (Philippine coconut arrack), anisado (anise wine), and naturally fermented rice wine.

I found this man peddling a bottle of snake wine on the sidewalk of Ormoc City in western part of Leyte, Philippines.  He told me that he used a local gin with a brand name Mallorca as base spirit for this potent drink.

To convince me that it is safe to drink snake wine, this man swigs a shot of snake wine.

Few seconds later, the drink started to warm his body. This man told me it would keep him active for a day. Awesome. Honestly, I was actually stunned when he did that. I thought the potent spirit he drank would later take his spirit away. But no, he stayed alive.

In 2018, while on the strawberry farm of La Trinidad, Benguet (about 10 Kilometers or 6 miles north of Baguio City), I found more variations of local snake wines. They are quite expensive. The smallest bottle (350 ml) of snake wine is sold at PHP1,000.00 each and the biggest ones are between PHP3,000 to PHP4,000.

More bottled snake wines in La Trinidad, Benguet using different kinds of venomous Cordilleran snakes.

See me sampling a shot of snake wine that is made with rattle snake from Kiangan, Benguet. Click or tap the photo, below, to watch the Facebook video.

SNAKE WINE from Kiangan, Benguet is very expensive. This one is of rattle snake in lambanog with ginseng root. I don't know how they got rattle snake here in Benguet. A shot glass is P150.00. Every drip counts. (June 08, 2018)

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Continue to follow my blogs. You can also follow and learn more by joining us in our Facebook group account of Philippine Food Illustrated (Private) and Philippine Food Illustrated (Public). It is my pleasure to rediscover the known and least known things or the unheard ones and put them here for everyone to find, learn, and treasure. 

Thank you for all the encouragement and enthusiasm. I need also moral support, prayers, and anything else that can uplift my spirit and keep my good reasons. 

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Edgie Polistico 

For more about Filipino food, you must try this Philippine Food, Cooking, and Dining Dictionary. It is OPEN and FREE.

buti-buti

buti-buti -/bu-tî bu-tî, buti-butî/ (Cuyonon [Palaweño] snack) [n.] Cuyunon puffed rice.

The ampao (puffed rice) of Cuyo island, found in a group of islands in the northeastern seas of Palawan. This ampao is mixed with caramelized sugar and molded into small balls. 

I found these packs of buti-buti peddled by Pastor Abad in the public market of Roxas, Palawan. I thought the balls were crumbled popcorn. But a closer look told me they are puffed big kernels of rice. I am amazed there is such kind of rice in the country with big kernels and grown in that small Cuyo island.

Buti-buti is made with native rice grown only on Cuyo island. The rice is dehulled manually using alho and lusong (wooden pestle and mortar) which produces barely polished native rice grains, with reddish or brown-colored bran intact.

The dehulled grains are pan-roasted until each grain would burst open to become like popcorn. Then muscovado sugar is melted (caramelized) in a pot with a little amount of water and the puffed rice is added in and mixed to combine with the caramelized sugar that served as the sweetener and binder of buti-buti. The caramel-coated puffed rice is then molded by hands into small balls, about the size of a golf ball.

Unlike popcorn, this native puffed rice is quite dense and the outer layer of the kernel is leathery that needs a lot of chewing to fully masticate. Only by chewing it well that you can savor the true taste of buti-buti.

These balls of buti-buti are delicate to handle. It sticks to your finger and easily crumbles when pressed between fingers or even when poked as shown in the next photos.

Due to a very limited supply of the kind of rice used, buti-buti is mostly reserved only to be prepared during festival celebrations on the island or on other special occasions, depending on the availability of the rice.

I got this authentic product of Cuyo, Palawan just an hour after it arrived from Cuyo island. Back then, it would take about two days to transport buti-buti to Roxas, Palawan. Cuyo is a small island off the northeastern sea of mainland Palawan. It's only in Cuyo island that you can find this rice delicacy.

The variety of native rice used in making buti-buti is the heirloom rice of Cuyo island. Growing this rice is seasonal and the grains are scarcely available, mostly only during harvest season or while stock last. This explains why the small pack of buti-buti I bought cost much. 

Rice farming in Cuyo island relies only on rain and sunshine to sustain its production. The rice is grown organically and without using synthetic pesticides.

I still kept on wondering how the rice subsists on that small island.

The name buti-buti is derived from the Ilonggo word butî which means the popping sound of bursting grains or kernels when roasting rice to make puffed rice or roasting maize to make popped corn.

Related posts:

Ampaw



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See Index of Entries here

If you liked this post and our site, share it.

Let us know your opinion on the subject. Feel free to comment in the comment section, below. It is important for us to know what you think.

Tell us what other topics you would like us to write, share, and discuss about.

For more about Filipino food, see  this Philippine Food, Cooking, and Dining Dictionary. It is OPEN and FREE.

Continue to follow my blogs. You can also follow and learn more by joining us in our Facebook group. Have more bits and pieces about our kind of food, ingredients, and ways of cooking, dining, and knowing food culture across the 7,641 islands of the Philippines.

Encouragement and enthusiasm are not enough. I also need moral support, prayers, and anything else that can uplift my spirit and keep my good reasons. Keep them coming. All I know is that I am happy with what I am sharing and giving away. If you are pleased and happy with what I am doing, just smile and please share the happiness. Keep sharing and include to share the PHILIPPINE FOOD ILLUSTRATED. I feel energized when my blog becomes one of the reasons why you are happy and smiling.

Edgie Polistico