linabog nga tilapia

linabog nga tilapia - /li-na-bóg nga ti-láp-ya/ Ilonggo, Cebuano, and Boholano dish) [n.] Tilapia fish in thick  and spicy hot coconut milk.

Fresh tilapias are gutted and scaled

Linabog is an old-time Visayan seafood delicacy.  Originally, it uses meat from cartilaginous fish, such as pagi (ray) or iho (shark). The meat of dugong (manatee), butanding (whale shark), and balyena (whale) are also favored when available. If not available, slimy freshwater fish is used, like the hito (catfish) or the haluan (mudfish). 

The ingredients

When Visayans migrated to Mindanao at the height of the “Land of Promise” campaign in the 1970s, they brought along with them the traditional Visayan seafood dishes that included linabog. This explains why linabog is also found in Mindanao.

The ingredients are prepared and ready.

In the olden days, the pagi or iho was cooked into inun-onan (boiled in vinegar) without any condiment, as it was merely a process of preserving the catch to last for days without getting rotten. Later on, the inun-onan evolved with condiments introduced to the islands.  The thick coconut cream was used as a desirable ingredient and thought to be a natural protection from possible food poisoning. Hot spice is also added to mask any nasty taste. What used to be thrown away, eventually became a delectable delicacy.

The fish are cooked in vinegar with garlic and salt to taste. Just the way you cook paksiw na isda. Banana leaves are used to wrap each fish to keep the fishes from sticking to each other. The leaves also add aroma to the dish.

When boiled and cooked, excess vinegar is drained.

Now that the Philippine and International Laws on Marine Wildlife Protection prohibits the capture and consumption of the sea fish mentioned above, the tradition of cooking the original linabog shunned away the locals from savoring their old-time favorite linabog. But the taste of linabog lingers making the locals keep on longing for it. When pagi and iho are not available, they resort to hito or haluan. Later on, tilapia is also used.

Cooking oil is added and brought to boil. The fish are fried well until crisp with those bones and fins on the edges would easily brittle.

Excess oil is drained right away after frying, or the fishes are removed from the oil.

Braising the fish first in vinegar with salt and spices transforms “nasty” to “tasty.” It removes the nasty fishy odor of the fish. Cooking is exactly the same way as you cook paksiw na isda. In my recipe, I made the twist of frying the fish after braising them in vinegar with condiments to attain the crispiness of the skin and edges of the fish, which is a favorite of mine when it comes to tilapia. Chewing the crisp-fried bones is nice and tasty. It also eliminates the hassle of picking those tiny bones around the edges, which I often feared might prick my throat if I accidentally swallowed them.

All the spices are sauteed until they caramelize then added with some water, simmered for awhile, then coconut cream is added (below).

Visayans are known to be fond of using creamy coconut milk in their seafood delicacies. Almost all Visayan seafood cooked with coconut cream or coconut milk are my favorites, among them are the tinunoang kinilaw (fish ceviche in coconut cream), the tinunoang kinhason (shellfish in coconut milk), and linabog.

Curry powder

Hot chili pepper

Salt

Sibuyas dahon (chive)

I was inspired by the sinugno of Quezon province that I added pechay leaves (in place of mustasa) in my recipe. Chilies are not strange to Visayans. They use it to spice in many of their dishes. They even have a dish called halang-halang for that. They also squeeze chilies in kinilaw.

Bell pepper (green and red)

Pechay leaves buried in thick coconut sauce, simmered, then transferred onto deep serving dish.

Here’s my version of linabog and enjoy cooking and dining with my fellow Visayan’s comfort food. This will make linabog continue to live on - in a new form

The crisp fried tilapias are arranged on top the savory spicy coconut sauce. To eat, flake the fish, dip or combine it in the sauce, and savor every bite.

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How to cook Linabog Nga Tilapia
A fully illustrated recipe by Edgie Polistico
 

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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. 

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.

miracle fruit

A miracle fruit tree on the roadside of Brgy. Mambago, Sta. Rosa, Babak, Island Garden City of Samal (IGACOS) in Samal island, Davao del sur.

miracle fruit - (Mindanao fruit) [n.] calabash (sc.name: Crescentia cujete).

Miracle  fruit (Calabash) is used to be known only in Mindanao. It was seen growing anywhere there (in red). Latest distribution inventory shows miracle fruit is now all over the Philippines. I marked the provinces and islands in orange labels where miracle fruit is now grown and distributed by locals.

Miracle fruit (internationally known as the calabash) is a tree that bears huge fruits that looks like a buko (young coconut). It grows abundantly everywhere in Mindanao, some parts of the Bicol region, and in the Visayas. Few are also growing in Luzon up to the northern part of Ilocos and Cagayan region (see the food map, above, for the latest inventory). 

At first glance, you could have mistaken this as a young coconut fruit growing on a small tree.

Sadly, most of the fallen fruits were left to rot on the ground. Most local folks do not know what to do to make good use of this wonderful fruit. They dreaded the black color of its flesh and the gummy smell. What they do not realize is that black juice is sweet and has healing wonders, the reason why old folks called it the "miracle fruit."

I tried one. And yes, it was wonderful.

The  outer shell is very hard that you have to cut it with a saw to split open into halves You cannot just cut the calabash fruit with a knife, unless you use a big bolo or machete.   

Many who tried this drink claimed they experienced rejuvenating vigor and mental alertness. It is good when you are going to study, review, or take an exam.  

Local women who have tried the freshly extracted black juice claimed it helped ease their menstrual pain. 

Drinking miracle fruit juice is relaxing and helps you go to sleep, relieve stress, and feel well-rested as you wake up. It makes the skin glow healthy, and feel younger again.

Good for those who are recuperating from sickness and a treat after a weary activity. 

The flesh is white, moist, and soft.

 

I experimented with the first calabash fruit I got from Mindanao. I extracted the juice and processed my first miracle fruit wine at home. I hand-carried one fresh green fruit of calabash on my flight from Misamis Oriental to Metro Manila. I cut open and processed the fruit juice into miracle fruit wine using the needed ingredients that were found in the groceries. After three months of fermentation, I had the wine and enjoyed it.

I wonder if this fruit once grew in the fountain of youth. The vigor made me feel younger. Next time, I will no longer bring a calabash fruit. I will bring the tree.

When boiled, the flesh of calabash turns black.

Here's a calabash fruit I found in Cagayan de oro City, Misamis Oriental in Mindanao. I brought it home in Metro Manila. Cooked it into tea and later processed into wine.

How to know if the miracle fruit is already ripe to harvest:

• The color of the fruit is dark green and has slight shades and spots of brown.
• The surface or outer skin is no longer shiny.
• It is heavier and sounds dull when you knock it with your fingers.         

Personal Notes

Miracle fruit (Calabash) is used to be known only in Mindanao. It was seen growing anywhere there (shaded red in the food map, above). The latest distribution inventory shows miracle fruit is now all over the Philippines. I marked the provinces and islands in orange labels where miracle fruit is now grown and distributed by locals.

I first saw this fruit and the tree on the campus of Notre Dame University, Cotabato City on November 10, 2010. Since then, I took notes on where else I found miracle fruit in Mindanao.

In 2017, I picked a fruit from a tree in Cagayan de Oro and hand-carried it on my flight back to Manila where I tried to process it into wine. The wine turned out good - it tastes jammy and fruity. I kept a bottle of it until now for aging.

Related readings:

• Calabash the miracle fruit, Henrylito D. Tacio, Business Mirror,  Oct. 15, 2015, https://businessmirror.com.ph/2015/10/15/calabash-the-miracle-fruit/
• Calabash Tree (Crescentia cujete Linn.), Dr. Godofredo Stuart, Stuart Xchange, http://www.stuartxchange.org/Cujete

Know more about calabash here 

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Related posts:

How to make miracle fruit juice
or miracle fruit tea.

How to make miracle fruit wine

Lipote

Sawa

Dugyan (Philippine red durian)

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.

Thank you for all the encouragement and enthusiasm. I need your moral support, prayers, and what else that can uplift my spirit and keep my good reasons. Keep them coming. 

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Edgie Polistico

For more abou

 

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

tarang bulan

tarang bulan - /ta-ráng bu-lan/ Ta'u-sug snack; dw Bahasa Melayo tarang [bright] + Tausug bulan [moon]) [n.] bright moon pancake \stuffed folded golden pancake.

Other local name:

• Muslim hotcake in Chavacano [Zamboangueño]

A traditional pancake made with a runny batter of flour mixed with some water (or fresh milk), baking powder, sugar, and yellow-orange food color.

A Tausug lass selling tarang bulan in Zamboanga City public market.

A pan is pre-heated and brushed with butter (or margarine) on the surface. A scoop of the batter is poured on the pan and set to cook on medium fire until the batter formed into a round patty of pancake with bubbly perforation on its surface and smooth on the underside. The pancake is removed from the pan and the top side is spread with sweetened boiled mongo beans (mung beans) then folded halfway making it look like a half-moon.

When serving, the tarang bulan is sliced into parts.

This snack originated in neighboring Asian countries and can be found also in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Tausug tarang bulan in the corner of Zamboanga City's public market (2013). 

.

The name tarang bulan is from the Bahasa Melayo tarang meaning "bright" and Tausug bulan meaning "moon." The shape and its bright yellow-orange color are enough explanations for why this folded stuffed pancake is aptly called the bright moon.

What makes tarang bulang different from the usual pancake we have in other regions is that it has a spread of sweetened boiled mongo beans inside the fold.

Personal notes:

If you need to look for this in Metro Manila, don't go far, you can find them on weekends in Maharlika Village near the Blue Mosque.

If you prepare the pancake of tarang bulan by yourself, you can follow the way western pancake or the Tagalog and Visayan hot cake is done. Just make it way a lot bigger and thicker than those you found in the morning menu of Jollibee and McDo. You sprinkle the batter with a little amount of ground salt to make the patty pancake more savory. Adding a dash of cinnamon powder or droplets of vanilla extract would make the pancake lusciously aromatic. Boiled pandan leaf extract will do it too.

For the sweetened mongo beans, you can prepare them like the way minatamis na monggo is done for the traditional summer halo-halo or of pan de mongo and hopia monggo. It's the same sweetened mongo you can find stuffed in ensaymadang monggo.

If you're fed up with mung beans all your life or afraid of having gout pains later in your joints, you can vary the fillings.  Instead of sweetened mung beans, use haleyang ube, strawberry jam (from Benguet), minatamis na buko or macapuno, peanut butter, cheese, omellete, chocolate spread, or leche flan.

For fresh milk, you can substitute it with milk powder mixed with water.  Try kakang gata, it will do wonder too.

Related posts:

Parirutong

Bibingka royal


Daral

All photos by Edgie Polistico in this blog are copyrighted. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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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. 

If you are pleased or happy with this blog, please share the PHILIPPINE FOOD ILLUSTRATED. It is energizing that my blog is shared with others. 

Edgie Polistico  

  

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

buteteng laot

buteteng laot - /bu-te-teng la-ot/ Tagalog sea fish /seafood) 1. [n.] porcupine fish \spot-fin porcupinefish (sc.name: Diodon hystrix); 2. [n.] oceanic puffer (sc.name: Lagocephalus lagocephalus). Another species of buteteng laot known plainly as the butete has been banned permanently by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) from gathering, marketing, and consumption, because it naturally contains a toxin called tetrodotoxin which renders the fish unfit for consumption.

Other local common names: 

also spelled as boteteng laot in Tagalog

a.k.a. buktit in Tagalog

butete tunokon, tagutong, or tagutungan in Cebuano

tagutungan in Boholano and Leyteño [western Leyte]

otit in Waray-waray (eastern Samar)

mosi in Bicolano

tagutongan in Davaoeño

busisi in Ilokano

butbutan in Zambaleño

lukoh itingan or tagutugan in Chavacano (Zamboanga)

dautdotan in Maranao, Tausug, and Samal

buntal in Sinama (Bahasa Bajau of Sulu archipelago)

 

A species of puffer fish considered edible and safe for consumption but has to avoid the internal organs, particularly the liver where a tiny sac of highly deadly poison can be found. As much as possible, only the meat is used in cooking. 

Maypay is a Cebuano name for that tiny sac of highly poisonous glands. It's attached to the liver and would require an expert to safely remove it because even a slightest leak could be very fatal. It's far more lethal than cyanide.

The big-sized liver though is the most sought part of the fish in making the Cebuano linarang with coconut milk. It needs to be an expert to safely remove the tiny monggo-size sac of poison called maypay in Cebuano. It has to be taken out intact because a slightest leakage can be fatal when it contacts the flesh or contaminates the water used in washing the fish.

 

A slight contact on flesh or contamination of the water used in washing the fish could be fatal. Yes, because maypay is far more lethal than cyanide. It could no longer be removed or rinsed off. BE EXTRA CAREFUL WHEN YOU PREPARE TO COOK THIS FISH.

In my hometown's small fishing village, maypay was used to poison cats that stole food in the kitchen (I felt sorry for the naughty pussy cat). 

Porcupine fish can be prepared as tinola (boiled), nilarang tinunoan (boiled with coconut milk and spices), inadobo (adobo-style), pinirito (fried), ginataan (cooked in coconut milk with malunggay or dahon ng sili, and sauteeing first in garlic and other spices the flaked parboiled fish), nilubihan (cooked with grated meat of not-so-matured green coconut fruit), or into Bicolano kinunot (braised shredded fish fillet). 

The fish has to be gutted completely and carefully so as not to burst open any of its internal organs to avoid possibly getting poisoned, and the sturdy spikes around the skin have to be removed by parboiling first the whole fish and then pulling out the spikes using pliers. 

Vegetables commonly used as suitable optional ingredients when cooking this fish into a soupy ginataan or tinola dish are malunggay or dahon ng sili, talong, okra, kalabasa, sitaw, alugbati, pichay, and/or pako.

The big-sized liver though is the most sought part of the fish when cooking a linarang dish with coconut milk (linarang is boiled fish with different spices and salt to taste). You can have this linarang from some eateries in Cebu City and other towns in Visayas.

While in the Tabuh of Bongao, Tawi-Tawi

While in the Tabuh of Bongao, Tawi-Tawi

While in the Tabuh of Bongao, Tawi-Tawi

"Yong mga nagsabi na di daw to nakakalason at nakakatikim na sila, nakaswerte lang sila at magaling yong gumawa ng ulam. Di naman kasi madaling puputok yong maypay pagka fresh pa yong isda. Baka sa susunod kapag masyadong kampante na sila, mamalasin na. Wag naman po. Ingat lang. And I share it here para alam nyo na ano yong isang maliit na bagay na nakakamatay. Yong sa butete iba pa yon. Mas matindi yon. Mas delicate. Pati balat nakakalason."

"It's safer to slice na lang a portion of the liver around the "maypay" at least, 1-inch diameter or more! Wag nang manghinayang sa matatapong kapirasong atay, manghinayang sa buhay!"

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