odong

My pancit odong collection.

odong - /o-dóng/ Cebuano, Boholano, Waray, Surigaonon, and Davaoeño noodle [n.] Visayan stick noodle.

 

Sticks of uncooked odong noodles are dry and stiff like raw spaghetti noodle but would break easily when bent.

This Visayan spaghetti-like stick noodle is one of the old-time favorites in the Visayas and Mindanao. It is basically made with wheat flour, salt, water, and food coloring. Some are flavored with seasonings or with chicken eggs.

It is often cooked into a saucy dish with flaked meat of canned sardines, preferably tomato paste flavored.

My pancit odong collection. Some are from Tagum, Davao del Norte; Davao City, and some from Barra, Opol, Misamis Oriental.

Odong is commonly sold in small pack of a dozen (12) sticks, or a little more. Two packs are quite enough to serve one person. When boiled, the sticks will expand and thicken the remaining soup into a delectable sauce.

The usual seasoning spices used are ahos (garlic), sibuyas bombay (red or purple onion), and luy-a (ginger). They are sliced into pieces, and sliced garlic and ginger are pounded lightly and then sautéed at the start of cooking.

Cups of water are added to make the soup and boiled with the tomato red sauce of canned sardines. Canned sardines are casually called by Visayans tinapa or nilatang sardinas. Do not confuse Visayan tinapa with the Tagalog tinapa, which is smoked fish. Smoked fish in the Visayas is called tinap-an or tinap-anan. Though smoked fish can also be a good substitute for canned sardines in pancit odong

Adding one or a combination of leafy vegetables is optional. The most common leafy vegetable used are repolyo (cabbage),  kalamunggay (moringa leaves), and alugbati (Malabar nightshade). You can also use any other leafy vegetables available in the garden or the market. Other vegetables like kalabasa (squash), sayote (mirliton), or batong (string beans) can also be added to pancit odong.  

Added last are flaked meat of sardines, pounded or freshly ground black pepper and salt to suit the taste.

Sinardinasan pancit odong with freshly plucked ashitaba leaves and red chilies. Just take note here that after I took this photo, we covered the dish for a while to let the remaining heat of the freshly cooked pancit odong cook the leaves before we dine it.

Some would also add beaten chicken egg towards the end of cooking.

Chopped sibuyas dahon (spring onion) and bits of browned roasted garlic can be used to garnish a serving of pancit odong, or use your creativity on how to garnish one using other ingredients like this pancit odong we have for lunch with ashitaba leaves and sili (spicy hot red chili).

Pancit odong. In Visayas, sinardinasan means "with sardines."

All photos by Edgie Polistico posted 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. 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.

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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Related posts:

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

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

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.