gatang albacora

gatang albacora - /ga-táng al-ba-có-ra/ Tagalog and Caviteño dish; dw Tag. gata [coconut milk] + albacora [albacore]) [n.] albacore tuna in coconut milk.

Other local name:

• ginataang albakora in Tagalog

On one of my visits to the public market of Cavite City, I found behind the market this small carenderia. Delving over its array of turo-turo dishes, I was attracted to this gatang albacora, obviously because I'm a big fan of dishes with coconut milk. This one is a bit picante (spicy hot).

I delved more into this simple dish and learned from the kusinera (lady cook) that this requires two-step cooking (pinaksiw then ginataan) using fresh fish, freshly squeezed kakang gata, and fresh spices. Sounds simple but pressing - for you have to literally press fresh coconut here. It's a big deal that you have to use a freshly squeezed gata when cooking ginataan. Or else, you will never get that heavenly creamy-licious essence of ginataan. Gata must be there at least an hour before cooking time - the shorter the time, the better. Canned or powdered substitutes cannot satisfy this. It's a blessing if you have a kudkuran (coconut grater) in the kitchen or if your place is nearby a mercado (palengke) or talipapa (informal fish and farmers' market) to get your coconut. In the case of this carenderia, the public market is just right beside their feet.  No wonder the smell of gatang albacora is so inviting. The next thing in my mind is a plateful of steaming kanin and an ice-cold soft drink -  having both the hot and the cold is the yin and yang of Filipino dining.

I learned from the kusinera that she first cooked the fish ala pinaksiw in pure sukang irok (sugar palm vinegar) with bawang (garlic), luya (ginger), sili (chili), and salt to taste. After a few minutes of boiling the pinaksiw na isda, she added the kakang gata followed by cutlets of siling haba (green finger chili). Pinaksiw is a way of cooking that helped remove the fishy odor of albacora and enhanced the taste of fish.

Adding kakang gata or that thick pure coconut milk adds a creamy and nutty flavor. This is the reason why I cannot resist sipping that white sauce. Good to go also as a topping on my rice.

Each fish is separately wrapped in dahon ng saging (banana leaf) to keep the fish from sticking to the pot and to each other. Plus the leaf is adding aromatic flavor. 

This reminds me of my version of Visayan linabog dish, the linabog nga tilapia. The ways of cooking are almost similar only if the albacora here was also fried before adding the kakang gata.

Pass the rice, please.

albacora /al-ba-ko-ra/ Tagalog and Caviteño sea fish /seafood) (also spelled as albakora in Tagalog) [n.] albacore (sc.name: Thunnus alalunga) is a species of tuna with unusually long pectoral fins which include some species of yellow fin tuna in temperate and tropical waters across the globe, particularly in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, and in the seas around them. Known also as “longfined tuna” in Hawaii, and “longfin tuna” in Canada, Australia, and South Africa.

Related posts:

linabog nga tilapia

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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  

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

pebre

pebre - /peb-re/ Caviteño sauce/condiment; dw Chilean (Chile, South America) pebre [salsa of assortment of chopped spices, tomatoes, and pepper] = Catalan (Catalonia region, Spain) pebre [pepper]) [n.] lechon sauce \liver sauce for lechon baboy.

Similar local dishes:

lechon sauce or sarsa ng litson in Tagalog

lechon sauce in Cebuano, Ilonggo, Ilocano, Capampangan, and other Philippine languages and vernaculars

This lechon sauce of Cavite City is used to be for lechon baboy (roasted pig)  only, but later on served also as a dipping sauce for other roasted and fried dishes, such as litson manok (roasted chicken), fried pork chop, pritong isda, even for lumpia.

It has a paste of ground cooked liver of pig (or chicken), bread crumbs, water, brown sugar, onion, garlic, other spices, salt, and ground peppercorn. Named after the Chilean condiment of the same name but the foreign salsa is quite different being that it has no liver in the ingredients but an assortment of spices, ground or pureed spicy aji peppers, and chopped tomatoes, and may vary in different regions of Chile. 

The word pebre in Catalan (Catalonia in northeastern Spain and partly southern France) refers to the pepper of any type. 

The Caviteño pebre is a combination of sweetness and sourness and the peppery piquancy of ground peppercorn. This is the origin of your fave Mang Tomas sauce, a popular commercial liver sauce for your lechon baboy and litson manok.

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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.

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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. I will search for more and continue to share my findings. 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 your moral support, prayers, and anything else that can uplift my spirit and keep my good reasons. Keep them coming. 

Sharing is happiness to me.  If you are pleased and happy with what you found here, please share the happiness we have in the PHILIPPINE FOOD ILLUSTRATED. I feel energized when it becomes part of the reasons why you are happy and smiling. 

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

sadya

sadya - /sad-yâ/ Caviteño [Tanza, Cavite] bread; dw Tag. sadya [special]) [n.] specially baked bread roll of Tanza, Cavite.

Loaves of sadya at PHP65.00 a piece (2017).

 

A big-size version of Philippine monay bread made special by the Kaibigan Bakery of Brgy. Biwas, Tanza, Cavite. 

You have to come early because this bread is fast selling in the morning. By past noon, all are gone - sold out.

Sadya is a Tagalog word, which means intent or purpose. For this bread, sadya is a descriptive name to mean "specially made" with a purpose or intent to satisfy the customer (or anybody else who will take this bread). It is called sadya because the baker has to make this bread a pinasasadya or what we fondly called now as "special." It is done by using specific ingredients and by following specific baking procedures. 

Suggested serving is to split the loaves into halves then slice the half into slabs.

Sadya of Tanza is made special by Kaibigan Bakery with special ingredients and flavors added to the dough. It has plenty of itlog na pula (salted eggs) that are fresh and uncooked (not boiled) and premium butter. Kaibigan Bakery now preferably used Magnolia Gold Pure & Creamy Butter. In the past, an unrecalled brand of premium butter was used.

Suggested serving is to slice the halves into slabs, to make it easy to spread with jam, peanut butter, mayonnaise, or pesto. You may also sandwich or top the sliced bread with fried egg, bacon, greens, or whatever you like.

Sadya is one of the old-time Caviteño favorites that you can buy best from Kaibigan Bakery, a Caviteño panaderia established in 1920.

A loaf is sold at PHP65.00 a piece in the bakery as of 2017. Priced more if you buy it from the resellers in Tanza public market. But you have to come early because this bread is fast selling in the morning. Past noon, all are gone - sold out. Over the years, the Kaibigan Bakery had not opened any branches. It would just distribute its freshly baked bread to a number of resellers in the public market of Tanza, Cavite.

My first visit at Kaibigan Bakery on its original spot along Hugo C. Arce Street in Brgy. Biwas, Tanza, Cavite.

My special thanks to a good friend, Ige Ramos for bringing this up first in his Facebook posts. It was like a whiff and I followed the smoke that eventually led me to where the Kaibigan Bakery when I happened to be in the coastal side of Cavite province. He was right of describing it as ang tinapay na amoy usok (smoky). It is the compliment of smoky flavor from firewood-fueled pugon, a traditional oven of bricks laid on thick bed insulation of sea salt.

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_______________________

All photos by Edgie Polistico are copyrighted. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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 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. 

If you are pleased and happy with this blog, please share the PHILIPPINE FOOD ILLUSTRATED. It is energizing that my blog becomes one of the reasons why someone is happy and smiling. 

Edgie Polistico  

saklob

saklob - /sak-lób/ Caviteño [Tanza, Cavite] bread; dw Tag. saklob [face-to-face]) [n.] A pair of two sweet bread, paired face-to-face.

buddy-buddy, body-body, or double body in Cebuano, Boholano, and Ilonggo

A pair of sweet bread, shaped like a thick tongue, and rolled in desiccated shreds of coconut meat. 

Saklob is an old Tagalog word for "face-to-face."

Saklob bread in four colors, a product of  Kaibigan Bakery. To get your freshly baked saklob, you may visit the  bakery at Hugo C. Arce Street of Brgy. Biwas in Tanza, Cavite.

Saklob bread is dense in every bite but somewhat soft and a bit cakey. 

It is quite sweet, and with a texture  somewhat like a dense cake.

A perfect terno (pair) for hot coffee. Also a good partner for a cold softdrink (cola or soda).

The loaves would spoil in two days because of the shredded coconut meat used as a coating of the bread.

In Visayas, there is a similar pastry they called buddy-buddy or double body with pieces shaped into a rounded or oblong flatbread. Noticeably, the Visayan version is crisp like a cookie.

These packs (above) and mounds (below) of freshly baked saklobs  are readied by Kaibigan Bakery for distribution to resellers in Pamilihang Bayan Ng Tanza, where a pack  of 6 saklobs is sold at PHP5.00 as of 2017.

All photos by Edgie Polistico are copyrighted. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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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.

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

Continue to follow my blogs. You may 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.

Thank you for all the encouragement.  They fueled my enthusiasm. Continue to give your moral support, prayers, and whatever else that can uplift my spirit and keep my good reasons.

Share PHILIPPINE FOOD ILLUSTRATED with others.

Edgie Polistico