Philippine Food Illustrated: Leyte

Showing posts with label Leyte. Show all posts

June 16, 2017

taguto

taguto – /ta-gû-tô/ Binul-anon-Leyteño [western Leyte] and Cebuano dish) [n.] sautéed minced chicken and chilies.

A fiery hot sautéed minced chicken and chilies.

A native chicken is preferred when making taguto.

A native chicken is slaughtered by cutting its throat, the blood is set aside, then dressed, gutted, washed clean, and the whole chicken is minced including the head, bones, and feet.

The chicken is dressed. It is done by dipping briefly the slaughtered chicken in scalding hot water then the feathers are pulled off.

The dressed chicken is cleaned thoroughly

All the internal organs are washed clean and chopped into pieces, including the gizzard and intestine which are cleaned of their contents. The minced meat and chopped internal organs are sautéed with chopped garlic and red onion.

Internal organs are washed clean and nothing is spared

The whole chicken is minced including the head, bones, and feet

The siling kulikot (bird’s eye chili) is equivalent to the amount of chicken meat.

Adding finely chopped and pounded ginger is optional. Adding some sliced and pounded ginger, would spike the piquancy more that it would virtually burn your lips, throat, and stomach.

The siling kulikot (siling labuyo in Tagalog) are minced similar to that of chicken meat.

The liver and gizzard are chopped into small pieces.

The complete set of ingredients for taguto.

The finely chopped siling kulikot (bird’s eye chili) is added in quantity equivalent to the amount of chopped chicken meat. Thus, if the minced chicken measures 1 liter, one liter of minced chilies is used.

The minced chilies are sauteed with garlic and red onion.

The minced chicken is added in the sauté.

The dish is seasoned with soy sauce and/or salt to suit one's taste.

The chicken blood is added then seasoned with soy sauce and/or salt to suit the taste and then stirred continuously on medium fire until cooked.

The liver and blood are added towards the end of cooking to keep them tender and from getting overcooked.

The chopped gizzard is included

Taguto is often served as sumsuman (hors d'oeuvre) in drinking sessions and is extremely fiery hot.

So called taguto because the tiny pieces of bones would crack little sounds and the usual reaction of the eater is to cluck through one’s teeth known as taguto in Cebuano.

This enormous amount of siling kulikot makes the pulutan last long and for everyone to go slowly in devouring the dish. For sure, everyone will have a fair share of protein and will surely swig his tagay every after bite.

The piquancy (chili heat) of taguto is so intense it would virtually burn your lips, throat, and stomach, the sensation that would initiate you to warm your body and stay awake in the cold night or rainy day.

Taguto is considered a body warmer. It will keep you warm in the cold of the night and on rainy days. Usually taken as pulutan with the bahalina (aged coconut wine) when having a night swimming picnic at the beach.

Sorry if this makes you think "na para bagang ayaw ipakain at pinagdamutan ang gustong mamulutan." It seems, but you are wrong. We acquired the taste, and we love it. Of course, when you got the taste, you will surely love it too.

Watch the TAGUTO of Inopacan, Leyte featured in GMA7 episode of Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho (KMJS). Published in Youtube on Jun 19, 2017.This was made possible through the food research of Edgie Polistico and the people of Inopacan.

Now you have reason to forget the Bicol express of Bicolandia and the palapa of Lanao as the hottest dishes in the country. Here comes the TAGUTO of Leyte

There is this later variation of taguto that uses tuno (coconut milk) which causes the milder effect of chilies. Instead of using all the bones when mincing the chicken, only the soft bones of the breast part and neck are included, and more often the intestine is excluded being it is a very tedious process to clean the chicken bowels. This version of taguto is a bit soupy and is alternatively called as the halang-halang manok tinunoan (spicy hot chicken in coconut milk).

Related posts:

Siling labuyo

Wild chili ale

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

June 22, 2013

CD-CD

This was when Compact Disc (CD) was still the popular file storage media for all your digital files. I found this CD-CD cracker from a stall in the Commercial Center of Tacloban City's downtown last summer of 2010.

CD-CD - /si-di si-dì/ (Waray [eastern Leyte] biscuit) [n.] cracker biscuit shaped like a CD (compact disc) or DVD (digital video disc) disc.

After kneading the dough of mixed flour, baking powder, salt, and water, it is flattened into a thin sheet and a punch cutter is used to get those disc-shaped cutouts with donut holes.

The cutouts are placed in a baking tray and placed in the oven to become biscuits. Towards the end of baking, each disc is sprinkled with grains of brown or coarse white sugar that melted slightly and stuck on the surface of the CD-CD biscuit.

Packs of CD-CD biscuits on display for sale in the Commercial Center, downtown of Tacloban City last summer 2010.

CD-CD biscuits can be eaten as is or paired with a cup of hot coffee, or with a bottle of cold softdrink (soda).

Before, when CD (compact disc) was not yet invented, this biscuit was a small-sized disc and used to be called galyeta by the Warays of eastern Leyte. Yeah, it was the size of a mini-disc of those erstwhile applications or software file installers. And yeah, it already had its donut hole then. The bakers eventually enlarged the size to match and make it look like the bigger CD of the 1990s until the early decades of 2000s.

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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.

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Edgie Polistico

December 17, 2010

kabkab

kabkab - /kab-kab/ Leyteño snack [n.] cassava wafer \cassava crisp.

Other local names:

sitsaritsit or saritsit in Digos City, Davao del Sur
kiping in Chavacano [Zamboangueño], Camiguinian, Misamisnon [Misamis oriental] and the rest of northern Mindanao
burikit in Dipolognon (Dipolog City, Zamboanga del sur and nearby towns)
buriki in Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental
piking in Cuyonon [Palaweño], and Waray (Sulat, Eastern Samar)

It is made with cassava tuber grated finely into pulp. The pulp is then flavored with dash of salt and subtly sweetened with not so much sugar, all blended well to mix. A scoop of the mixture is spread thinly on a banana leaf, forming a disc (about the size of a dinner plate), and then put in a steamer. The steaming hot vapor of boiling water would cook the cassava spread until translucent or paste-like in consistency. Then it is taken out from the steamer and set to dry, either by air drying or sun drying, until it stiffens and holds its flat shape as a raw wafer similar to kiping of Tayabas, Quezon. At this stage, the dried cassava wafer can be stored for months until needed in cooking.

To cook, the wafer is deep-fried in cooking oil. The oil must be very hot, preferably boiling, before the cassava wafer is dipped and fried. While being fried, the wafer would expand and cooking is done when it turns golden (yellowish brown) and very crisp. It is important not to overcook the wafer. When overcooked it becomes dark brown or very dark in hue, an indication that the wafer is burnt and would taste bitter.

When serving kabkab, the crisp cassava wafer is laid on a plate or on a sheet of banana leaf and topped with a spread or swirling streak of sweet latik (coconut milk and sugar syrup).

Kabkab would easily brittle and crumble in every bite. Crunchy when chewed. By the time crumbled pieces melt in the mouth, the goodness of starchy flavor and sweetness of latik will delight your palate.