Philippine Food Illustrated: Mindanao

Showing posts with label Mindanao. Show all posts

August 13, 2017

kalintubo

kalintubo - /ka-lin-tú-bo/ (Maguindanaon meal) [n.] A Maguindanaon budget meal similar to pastil or paster. It is made with freshly steamed rice (i.e., steaming hot plain rice) and topped with chicken cutlets stir-fried with soy sauce, or saucy chicken liver cooked adobo-style, then wrapped in banana leaf folded into a conic shape making it look like a small volcano - open on top.

A Maguindanaon elder demonstrating how to prepare kalintubo topped with saucy chicken liver.

Kalintubo topped with chicken cutlets stir-fried with soy sauce.

The opening on top allows the hot rice to cool off without trapping the moisture. Thus, preventing the meal from spoiling fast. It also makes it easy to tell what topping is on the kalintubo. The sight of it makes the meal attractive as well.

The opening can also be made narrow for easy handling when on the go.

You can eat the kalintubo meal either using your fingers, provided you wash your hands first, or with a spoon and fork. The banana leaf would serve enough as a dining plate, though most would prefer to serve and dine kalintubo on a plate.

Kalintubo is often taken with a hard-boiled chicken egg as siding pair to rice

Kalintubo topped with chicken cutlets stir-fried with soy sauce.

Kalintubo topped with saucy chicken liver cooked adobo-style

Related posts:

Pastil

Pasong

Puso (plain rice)

Puso (sweetened rice)

Tapay

See Index of Entries here

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Edgie Polistico

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

June 6, 2015

tindok

tindok - /tin-dok/ (Cebuano fruit) [n.] a giant plantain (sc.name: Musa paradisiaca var. magna).

Other common names

a.k.a. tandok in Cebuano
tenduk or tunduk in Teduray, Lambangian, Dulangan, and Manobo

giant plantain - English

pisang tanduk - Malay (Malaysia)

We found these few pieces of tindok banana in the grocery section of SM Makati in Ayala Center of Makati City way back in 2009.

A very long and large variety of cooking banana fruit.

Its digit is about a foot long or more or about the size of a man's arm. Elongated and commonly a bit curved in form with a thick green banana peel.

The length and size of this banana are even more than that of Margette's arm.

Yes, the one she is holding weighs more than a kilo, and it is priced quite expensive in 2009. The sticker says it is from Dole, a clue that most likely this came from Mindanao.

The tindok plant bears a bunch of fruit that only has around three clusters (piling, sipi, or hand of bananas) in a bunch (buwig) with very few to less than a dozen of digits (daliri or piraso) in each cluster. The bunch would start to sprout at the tip of the banana stem as one big inflorescence (puso ng saging) and would open to bloom only once to produce a few to several digits. Afterward, there will be no more inflorescence (puso) hanging at the end of the bunch. Thus, it also called as "saging na walang puso" (banana with no hanging flower).

Tindok fruit is rich in potassium and starch and is only good when cooked. Green tindok (unripe) is commonly steamed or boiled with its peel intact. When cooked, it is peeled and eaten as a substitute for rice as the main source of carbs or starch.

The pulp of unripe tindok can also be sliced thinly and deep-fried into chips.

Chunks of rare ripe or ripe tindok can also be added as vegetables in boiled bulalo or nilaga similar to saba banana.

Others would have the tindok fruit grilled or broiled, usually sliced lengthwise and served with a spread of peanut butter, fruit jams, or margarine sprinkled with sugar (or press on a bed of sugar).

Below are photos of tindok posted by my friends on Facebook and they are worth sharing here:

A trunk of tindok with a bunch of giant fruits - photo credit to Aveen Acuna-Gulo's FB account

This one is captioned with "Per Datu Leticio Datuwata, some fruits grow to be 4 inches in diameter - photo credit to Aveen Acuna-Gulo's FB account

A pile of tindok at the Bagsakan, Valencia Public Market, Valencia City, Bukidnon - photo credit to Aveen Acuna-Gulo's FB account

A bunch of tindok by Child Andrade Peteros of Hindang, Leyte - photo credit to Child Andrade Peteros' FB account

This giant plantain is commonly grown in Southeast Asian countries, and can also be seen now, though rarely, in Africa, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Personal notes:

Tindok is not a giant lakatan. Jiggy Manicad of Unang Balita (GMA News Online) mistook tindok as giant lakatan in his June 5, 2015 news report "Puno ng saging sa Bulacan, nagbunga ng 'giant lakatan'

Pakbol

See Index of Entries here

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

sasing

sasing – /sa-sing/ Cebuano, Boholano, Davaoeño [southeastern Mindanao] and Misamis occidental [northern Mindanao], Waray, and Romblomanon worm/seafood) [n.] peanut worm (sc.name: Sipunculus nudus).

a.k.a. saypo in Boholano & Cebuano
saypo in Surigaonon
tasing in Cantilangnon (Cantilan, Surigao del sur)

A kind of sand worm or sand burrower of the family Echiurus that burrows under sandy clayish soil of the sea shore.

Sasing burrows in moist sandy-muddy ground along the shore and river deltas. A hole like this is a sign that peanut worm is just around under the sand.

It is an exotic delicacy to some Pinoys. Often eaten as kinilaw nga sasing where the cylindrical body of the worm is inverted inside out and washed thoroughly. The cleaned inverted peanut worm is then dipped in spiced vinegar and munched.

Sasing has a crunchy leathery texture and has to be chewed thoroughly to savor its flavor.

It is considered an exotic delicacy and as an aphrodisiac to some Pinoys when they visit places where sasing are found.

The worms are washed clean then inverted inside out by pushing a bamboo stick from one end and through inside the body so as to clean its muddy contents. The inverted worms are washed again thoroughly, drained and then seasoned with spiced up vinegar to become a kinilaw nga sasing.

So called peanut worm in English because when it is inverted, the inner side of the worm would look like an emptied peanut shell.

Although sasing worms live and feed in the sandy mud shores, some Filipino Muslim (followers of Islam faith) do not consider peanut worm as unclean or filth to be among those forbidden (Haram) in Islamic laws. Nevertheless, this exotic worm should be served with caution to Muslim or any followers of Islamic faith, so as not to offend or insult them

Sasing (Youtube video)

Personal notes

I read an old news feature of GMA Network news that some folks of Inopacan, Leyte believed sasing has curative powers against tuberculosis and anemia. Inopacnons are fond of it and would love to take kinilaw nga sasing as their pulutan with their tuba (coconut wine).

Related posts:

kinilaw nga sasing

See Index of Entries here.

Encouragement and enthusiasm is not enough. I also need moral support, prayers, and what else that can uplift my spirit and keep my good reasons. Keep them coming. Sharing and giving away is happiness to me. If you are pleased and happy of what I am doing, just smile and share the happiness we have in the PHILIPPINE FOOD ILLUSTRATED. I feel energized every time my blog becomes one 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.

April 30, 2015

curacha

curacha – /ku-rát-tsa/ (Zamboanga and Sulu sea crab, seafood; dw Span. cucaracha [cockroach]) [n.] spanner crab (sc.name: Ranina ranina) \red frog crab.

canduyon in Surigaonon (Surigao City, Surigao del norte)
ipis dagat in Batangueño (northern part of Batangas)
ipis in Zambaleno (Sambal of Zambales)
kusimay in Ilocano

pawik in Waray (Northern Samar)

kagang pama or bawa in Tausug

A deep-sea crab with an orange to red colored shell even when uncooked.

In the Philippines, this crab used to be known as endemic to the seas of Zamboanga del Sur and Sulu sea, but my research and later discoveries disproved this contention. Similar or closely-related species are also found in other parts of Mindanao, Visayas (particularly in the Pacific side), and the northeastern part of Luzon, though scarce and hardly seen or caught. Some species are also found thriving on the coasts of Hawaii and Australia.

So called curacha, from Spanish cucaracha, which means "cockroach," because this crustacean looks like a huge cockroach.

The shell (carapace) of curacha is goblet-shaped, with an average size of about the size of a human palm. Some are twice as big as the average ones. The shell has hairy short bristles on the edges, has a pair of large pincers on the sides that extend toward the front. It also has three sets of legs, two of which are attached to a segmented hard-shelled tail similar to that of a lobster but smaller and shorter.

Watch Youtube video:

curacha - redfrog crab, spanner crab

When cooked, curacaha is more of shells than meat but is highly sought after for its delectable taste.

Unlike most crabs, such as the alimasag and the alimango that walk sideward, curacha only moves forward and backward.

The biggest ones are priced at PHP689.00 a kilogram in 2015 in the Shopwise supermarket of Festival Mall, Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

Curacha crabs being sold at the Shopwise supermarket in Festival Mall, Alabang at PHP689.00 a kilogram in 2015.

My Personal Notes:

Many years back, I thought this crab was named after a classic dance with fancy moves. I thought the crab would just move like that or it would be you doing the dancing steps after dining it or when you're pinched by this crab. I was wrong.

I tried also to look for it in the public market of Zamboanga City in my few travels to the Zamboanga peninsula but could hardly find it there these last few years. If I only knew that I could easily find it in the supermarket, a few hundred meters away from my workplace here in Metro Manila, I would not look for this crab that far.

When in Zamboanga, try the Chavacano dish curacha con salsa de gata (spanner crab in coconut cream sauce). [Photo courtesy of Officina de Turismo Local of Zamboanga City Local Government]

See Index of Entries here.

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

April 26, 2015

pakbol

pakbol - /pak-bol/ (Maranao snack) [n.] fried cassava-coated plantain.

The cassava root is peeled, grated into pulp, and squeezed the juice out. The extracted juice is discarded away. A handful of cassava pulp is pressed between palms and molded flat into a mat. A peeled rareripe saba (plantain) is placed in the middle of the flattened cassava pulp and then rolled altogether until the banana is entirely wrapped in the cassava pulp. Pakbol is deep-fried in cooking oil until cooked or golden brown.

When serving, pakbol is pressed and rolled on a bed of white or brown sugar.