December 18, 2010

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.

All photos by Edgie Polistico are copyrighted. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

See Index of Entries here

If you liked this post and our site, share it.

Let us know your opinion on the subject. Feel free to comment in the comment section, below. It is important for us to know what you think.

Tell us what other topics you would like us to write, share, and discuss about.

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

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.

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

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.

See Index of Entries here

If you liked this post and our site, share it.

Let us know your opinion on the subject. Feel free to comment in the comment section, below. It is important for us to know what you think.

Tell us what other topics you would like us to write, share, and discuss about.

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

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.

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

ampao

ampaw – /ám-paw/ [n.] puffed rice \pop-rice.

(also spelled as ampaw)

Home-made ampao is made of bahaw rice that is sun-dried and then fried to puff.

Special or commercialized ampao is processed using long-tubular steel with a cover designed like that of a pressurized cooker, installed with a safety device that would prevent the lid from catapulting as soon as it is opened under high pressure. The rice grain and a small amount of cooking oil are put into this cooker, covered tightly, and cooked under heated pressure on a stove. After several minutes of heating and shaking, the lid of the pressurized cooker is loosened at once and the rice would pop aloud as soon as the pressure is released. The sudden release of pressure makes the rice grain pop and become puffy as it enlarges the size of each grain in a snap.

The popped rice is then blended with melted sugar or caramel. The sugar-coated puffed rice is either shaped into ampao balls (the size of a tennis ball) in different colors using food coloring or molded into big rectangular shapes and sliced into blocks or bite-size bars.

In Carcar, Cebu, and in Western Samar, a slice of rectangular ampao is topped with a whole piece of roasted peanut. Unlike the ampaw mentioned above, the ampao Carcar is made of cooked rice that is then dried and fried crisp

A bite of ampao nga may mani from Western Samar.

A similar ampaw na may mani from Carcar, Cebu and it is called ampao Carcar.

Ampao Carcar bought in Cebu City

Unwrapping pinyato (ampao with minced peanut) from Western Samar

A man peddling ampao balls along EDSA in Munoz, Quezon City; An old lady selling ampao balls at the foot of a footbridge along Commonwealth Avenue in Batasan, Quezon City.

Ampao balls sold along the sidewalk under the viaduct in Alabang, Muntinlupa City; Ampao balls sold at Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila by a grandma and her grandson.

Ampao balls from a sidewalk stall in Bicutan, Taguig

Related posts:

Buti-buti

See Index of Entries here

If you liked this post and our site, share it.

Let us know your opinion on the subject. Feel free to comment in the comment section, below. It is important for us to know what you think.

Tell us what other topics you would like us to write, share, and discuss about.

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

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.

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

December 17, 2010

puso (plain rice)

puso – /pu-sô, pusò / Cebuano and Boholano staple [n.] palm-wrapped rice. Rice cooked in the heart-shaped or diamond-shaped woven coconut palm.

This puso is unsweetened and unflavored, starchy and bland, often taken as a pair to sud-an (main dish called viand by Filipinos, any dish paired with rice, bread, or other starch food) served and eaten similar to kan-on (steamed rice).

Other local names:

patupat in Capampangan
bugnoy in Ilonggo [Hiligaynon]
tamu in Tausug

The rice is cooked in a heart-shaped or diamond-shaped pouch of a woven coconut palm. The palm used in weaving the packaging pouch is the young and newly sprouting leaves of coconut, preferably those that are still whitish-yellow in color. It's the same kind of coconut palm used on Palm Sunday by the devotees of the Philippine Catholic churches.

The hanging puso at the Fishport in Danao City, Cebu

The tukog (midrib) is removed and the long strip of palm’s blade is skillfully woven into a diamond-shaped packaging, about the size of an adult human's fist, then half-filled with rice grains.

Weaving a ball of palm requires instruction from a skilled weaver and must be practiced well to perfect the shape, size, and tightness of woven strips.

Through a narrow opening between the overlaying strips, the palm ball is half-filled with bugas humay (hulled rice grains). It is important to keep some space inside to give the rice space to expand inside when cooked. To cook, the filled palm balls are placed in a cooking pot and then filled with water equivalent to the total measurement of all the rice grains used.

Cooking is simply done by boiling until all the water is absorbed. The absorption would cause the grains to expand and fill all the space inside the woven palm ball. When the rice is tender, puso is already cooked.

Puso at the Taboan in Inopacan, Leyte

To serve, puso is sliced into halves and the mold of cooked rice is taken out and eaten either by picking it by hand or cut it further into chunks and scooping the lumps with a spoon.

A basket of puso at the Public Market in Iligan City, North Cotabato

In eateries and barbecue stands in Visayas, puso is sold either hanging or laid on the counter of food stalls.

Visayan folks fondly called it pusô because they likened its shape to the red banana flower bud called by the same name as púsò in Cebuano, Boholano, and Waray.

Puso being sold at the Taboan (trading marketplace) in the Reclamation Area in Inopacan, Leyte

This Cebuano puso is unsweetened and unflavored, starchy and bland, often taken as paired with sud-an (ulam in Tagalog) like the usual steamed rice. It's unlike the Hiligaynon puso of Panay, Capiz which is sweetened with lots of latik sa nipa (nipa palm syrup). But both are called puso after the "pusò sa saging" ("púsò ng saging" in Tagalog) in reference to their shape and not because the banana flower bud is hanging. It was a mistake that puso rice is named after the "heart" known in Tagalog as puso. Notice the accent used in Cebuano and Hiligaynon (pusò/pósò) compared to Tagalog (púsò). In Visayas, a banana flower bud is commonly called pusò or pósò. While a “heart” in Cebuano and Ilonggo/Hiligaynon is called kasíng-kásing, not puso. Hiligaynons often used "tagiposóon" to refer to one's heart. Tagiposóon is derived from pósò (banana flower bud). Thus, tagiposoon would mean "the poso-like" organs of humans and animals.

Most writers, particularly those who are not from Visayas or Mindanao, would call puso "hanging rice" in their write-ups or articles when writing in English. But the truth is, puso is more often displayed and sold as being laid on the table or counter. When dining, puso is not also served hanging or to dangle on the table, but on the plate or tray. It so happened, that those being hung on display are most noticeable than those laid on the counter or table. "Hanging rice" is quite a misnomer for puso. It would better be called puso as "palm-wrapped rice," being rice cooked in woven coconut leaf.