danggit flower

danggit flower – /dáng-git flá-wer/ (Pangasinense dried fish) [n.] dried danggit arranged like a starflower.

The danggit fish (rabbitfish) is scaled, its gills and viscera removed, washed clean, and butterflied and the side of fillet with no bones is detached and set aside for use in making another version of dried danggit - a sheet of dried danggit fillet. 

The splits of danggit fish are immersed briefly in brine solution and then laid flat and neatly arranged on screen wire (mesh or bamboo stick mat) like overlapping petals of a flower. 

The arranged fish are then dried under intense sunlight for about 2 to 3 days or until the fish is stiff and very dry and the splits of danggit would stick together to hold its shape resembling a starflower.

Danggit flowers sold along the roadside (highway) stalls of Damortis in Santo Tomas, Pangasinan

To cook, danggit flower is fried on medium to low heat, turned over, and done when it is crisp brown. Must be cooked until light brown. Dark browned danggit is already burnt.  

 

Fried dried danggit  served with sliced tomatoes and dipping of sukang Iloko (Ilocano sugarcane vinegar) or baak (aged sukang Iloko) with minced garlic.

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tinagtag

tinagtag –  /ti-nág-tag/ Maguindanaon snack) [n.] rice fritter.

Other local names

ja in Tausug (Suluanon, Joloanon, and Tawi-tawianon)
amik in Davao del Sur & South Cotabato
lukot-lukot in Chavacano (Zamboangueño)
tagaktak in Cebuano

This native snack of Maguindanaons looks like a triangular net of fine and curly strands of browned pancit bihon. This is similar to Cebuano’s tagaktak which is also folded into a triangle. 

This delicacy is made with finely ground rice, sugar, and some water, mix well to become a thick but flowing batter. The batter is placed in a pangulayan (a native coconut shell strainer). The batter would pass through the tiny perforation drilled at the bottom of the coconut shell, coming out like a string of noodles falling directly into the hot pan with cooking oil. The pangulayan is quickly swayed in crisscrossing or circular motion so the falling strands would create a net-like pattern on the pan. The falling strands of batter are quickly fried and cooked until it is golden brown and crisp. Using gagawi (long wooden ladle), the rice fritter is removed from the pan and immediately folded into a half-moon (done by folding once into a semi-circle) or rolled to form a tube.  Tinagtag would stiffen and turn crisp as soon as it cool down. 

Maguindanaon vendors of native delicacies at the Cotabato City's Super Market (not supermarket).

As part of the ceremonial cooking, the Maguindanaons would ask first for the blessings of Allah before cooking this delicacy. They also profess that the presence of a wicked person or someone who has a bad disposition, while tinagtag is being prepared, would cause the tinagtag to have an unpleasant taste or easily get spoiled. 

A good and finely cooked rice fritter has a shelf life of one month or even more. Maguindanaons traditionally would prepare and offer this delicacy during special occasions such as weddings, feasts, and during the observance of Eid al Fitr or the end of Ramadan or Maulidin Nabi. 

They traditionally have to perform the ceremonial preparation and cooking of tinagtag while listening to the rhythmic beat of balabad (wooden drumstick) and dabakan (a native drum made with dried animal skin).

Two shapes of tinagtag sold by Maguindanaon vendor at the Cotabato City Public Supermarket in Cotabato City, Maguindanao province. Above, is the half-moon or semi-circle (folded disc-shaped tinagtag). Below, is a tubular or rolled tinagtag. 

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Edgie Polistico

 

tagaktak

tagaktak – /ta-gák-tak/ Cebuano snack [n.] rice fritter

 

a.k.a. tinagaktak in Cebuano
amik in Davao del Sur
lukot-lukot in Chavacano [Zamboangueño]
tinagtag in Maguindanaon
tiyatug or tiyanug in Maranao
ja in Ta’u-sug

A net-like rice fritter, made with sticky rice batter, blended with fresh coconut milk, beaten chicken egg, and sugar. The color and size of the strands look like intertwined fried pancit bihon. Fine and crisp. If desired to make it even crispier, there are those who would add kamote flour (sweet potato flour) to the batter.

Tagaktak is produced using a coconut shell with small perforations that serve as a strainer. The coco shell is tied with string and hung directly over a pan with deep oil heated on medium fire. The prepared rice batter is poured into the coco shell, allowing it to pass through down the small holes like a water sprinkler. The batter would come out continuously as thin strings falling directly into the pan and are immediately fried upon contact with the boiling oil. While the batter is dripping, the strainer is swayed alternately in crisscrossing and circular motion to create a net-like pattern of rice fritter.

Tagaktak being sold on sidewalk stalls across the entrance gate of Basilica Minore del Sto Niño de Cebu (a.k.a. Sto Niño Church) in Cebu City.

The rice fritter is then folded in half and folded further into a triangle, making it to like a folded flag. Turned over to fry the other side until golden brown and crisp. Tagaktak is then taken out right away from the pan when the right color is attained. Otherwise, it would turn darker, indicating that tagaktak is already burnt. Excess oil is drained before tagaktak is served on a banana leaf or plate, or put in a plastic cellophane bag.

The name tagaktak is from the Cebuano word tagak, which means “to drop” or "to fall" The derivative word tagaktak means “continuous falling or dropping” referring to the rice batter falling out from the strainer. If coconut shell is not available, tagaktak makers would use empty milk can as a replacement. The bottom of the can is perforated by hammering a 2-inch nail through it. A long handle can be attached to the shell or can so as to avoid the cook from getting hurt from the spattering hot oil and steam when cooking tagaktak.

This rice fritter is similar to the tiyanug of Maranao, the ja of Tausug, or the tinagtag of Maguindanaon, only that they are pliable and often shaped into tubes. Tagaktak is traditionally triangular, very crisp, and would easily brittle.

These pieces of tagaktak are manufactured in Mandaue City and sold on sidewalk stalls near the Nuestra Señora Virgen de Regla church in Poblacion, Lapulapu City, Mactan island, Cebu.

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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

 

one-day-old chick

Freshly fried one day old chicks at the Public Market of Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

one-day-old chick – (wan de owld tsik; Tagalog delicacy) [n.] deep-fried one-day-old chick. 

A delicacy in the Philipines that is made with a chick of a fully fertilized chicken egg or the day-old chicken (DOC). The chick could  had just been hatched or is about to be hatched on that day. It is another gross-looking Filipino street food but is considered a favorite delicacy by some locals because of its savory taste. 

Another tray of still to be fried one day old chicks found in the grocery of Market Market in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.

If the chick in the egg is still to be hatched, as in between 20 to 21 days of incubation period, the eggs are prematurely cracked open and the chicks are removed from the shells. The chicks are then parboiled to easily remove visible hairs and then fried in deep oil until  crisp and reddish or brownish-orange in color.

Fried one-day-old chicks are served either skewered in bamboo sticks or put in a plastic cups and drenched in spiced-up vinegar or sweet brown sauce.

A gruesome story behind one-day-old chicks.

Did you know that the major source of one-day-old chicks delicacy are culled male chicks from the egg farms?

It is a practice for poultry producers that they would favor to grow female chicken for meat as they grow faster.  They would routinely and systematically remove the male chicks at the very start of growing the chick in a process known as culling or the harvesting and killing of chicks.

In the industry of growing chickens, chicken farmers would start to cull their chicks out of fear that the cost of poultry production will continue to rise while poultry  income would drop due to low farm gate prices or too much overhead expenses.

Poultry farmers would routinely  cull male chicks  as part of their cost-cutting strategy for poultry production and to increase their return on investment.  Male chicks are not grown  for meat as they would cost more to feed and house than they would produce income.  

Biologically, it is impossible for male chickens to lay eggs as they do not have ovaries where eggs are developed inside the chicken's body. Only female chickens have an ovary and are able to lay eggs. The females could also lay eggs continuously even if there is no male chicken present. Yes, they can spontaneously develop an egg inside their bodies and lay eggs all by themselves. Males have no role in the egg-laying process.  The females (hen or pullets) would only need a male (rooster or cockerel) when it comes to fertilizing an egg to produce another batch or next generation of chicks. 

Thus, male chicks are deemed worthless in the egg industry and they are mercilessly culled or brutally killed.

Culling usually starts as early as when the undesired chicks are hatched or just a day-old chicks. In big poultry farms, chicks are routinely culled by shredding them alive, though some farmers would electrocute, suffocate in bags, or gas the chicks to death before macerating them. Some would resort to brutal killing by using extremely cruel techniques of shredding chicks alive, burning, crushing, drowning, electrocuting, gassing using CO2 gas, or suffocating them in bags. 

In 2021, it was reported that a total of more than 6 billion chicks are killed every year around the world by industrial farmers as they are considered useless by both egg and chicken meat producers.

However, in the Philippines, culled chicks are sold to street food entrepreneurs  who would then fry the chicks in oil and sold as a delicacy.    

The advancing technology of eliminating male chicks.

Even when in-ovo sexing technology is implemented to help abolish the culling of male chicks, as what the animal welfare activists are lobbying for, Philippine's one-day-old chicks delicacy will not totally disappear in the food map. In-ovo sexing is just a process of determining the sex of a chicken before the egg hatches. Thus, fully developed chicks are still there waiting to be cracked open and fried into a "one-day-old chick" Pinoy food delicacy. 

What may likely stop male chicks from fully developing and being allowed to hatch and be culled is the use of "endocrinological gender identification" technology, a kind of test similar to a human pregnancy test. It is done during the 8th to 14th day incubation period when a sample of liquid from each fertilized egg is taken and examined for the presence of a female hormone by looking for a color-changing reaction. The female eggs continue toward hatching, while the male eggs will be removed and used for animal feed for us Filipinos, we can boil these eggs and pass them on as the chicken version of balut penoy.

But endocrinological gender identification is far from becoming a normal practice aside from being a very costly process. There is an issue that complicates this process - that it is uncertain when an embryo becomes a chick to feel pain. Some researchers say chick embryos can begin to experience pain at day 7 of incubation. If true, sexing the eggs 8 to 14 days after incubation would end up trading animal welfare problems even if electricity is used to help anesthetize the eggs.

Unless technology is developed that can control and change the sex of chicks before they even hatch, culling male chicks will not stop.  The technique could be the use of hormonal treatments, where the future fertilized egg will permanently produce all-female laying-breed chicks. From then, culling chicks will be eliminated and one-day-old chicks may start to dwindle and disappear in the street food markets.

References: 

• Poultry World, "Philippine farmers cull chicken early to improve local prices," Jul 11, 2012, https://www.poultryworld.net/Broilers/Markets--Trade/2012/7/Philippine-farmers-cull-chicken-early-to-improve-local-prices-WP010623W/

• Animal Equality,  "STOP THE MASSACRE OF MALE CHICKS," https://animalequality.org/action/ban-chick-culling

• Danovich, Tove K., "Why the US egg industry is still killing 300 million chicks a year," Vox, Apr 12, 2021, https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22374193/eggs-chickens-animal-welfare-culling

• CNN Philippines, "France to ban mass shredding of live chicks," Sara Spary, Saskya Vandoorne and Fanny Bobille, CNN, Jan 30, 2020, https://cnnphilippines.com/world/2020/1/30/france-bans-chick-shredding.html?fbclid=IwAR29lVpv_FInQ-fEhjc3ZDLHOkk2hX8sEzGAnCMkGKyXUSsOT2t3BH3ynzU

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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

 

fisharon

fisharon - /fish sa-rón/  dw Amer. fish + Span. chicharrón [fried pork crackling]) [n.] fish skin cracker

Other local name:

• a.k.a. tuna chip or fish skin crackers

It is made with deep-fried skin of matured fish, such as bangus (milkfish), tuna, and tilapia (St. Peter's fish). A Pinoy delicacy.

A recently invented "pulutan" (finger food that accompanies in drinking session). 

Tuna chips (fisharon) from Gen. Santos City

The word fisharon is coined after combining the English word "fish" and "chicharon" (from Span. chicharron, meaning fried pork crackling). 

Tuna fisharon is also known as Tuna chip in Gen. Santos City.

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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