The Exotic Food Abal-abal (June Beetle)

Call it abal-abal in Ilocos and salagubang in Tagalog, june beetle (or may beetle) is a good food, an exotic one preferred mostly in northern Philippines.

And we have a good cook on it like frying to the crunchiest that when you bite you can hear the crisp from your mouth. We have an iluko word on it, "kumarandikang" and "nagsaramsam".

Too bad this is just once in a year food. Its only during rainy season. And best quality for abal-abal is in the month of May-- when the rain starts to fall. During this time the beetle is said to be meaner and tastier.

Very common that when you go to thrift market many vendors are selling the bug in per ganta or kilo. And its not cheap.

Cooking could be very simple for the household. After removing the wings and feet all you need is to prepare the ingredients for paksiw or adobo: sugarcane vinegar, pepper, salt, laurel leaf and soy (for adobo). Put them together and cook for several minutes.

One secret for some people is deep frying after adobo. The sip of the juice is very tasty. Meat is like chicken.

People would catch or buy abal-abal in bulk. They would cook it at once and stack for future days. They would do it as preparation to the coming months the bug would be nowhere to found. At least they still have the food.

Catching beetles would be fun. During the start of the month of May when first rain fall people also preparing the things needed catching beetles that would come out from soft or sandy soil. People usually use the leaves of the plant biday or the branches of mansanita that beetles really love the aroma.

The next time you visit Ilocos, try this exotic food, one of the best appetizer or pulutan.

Halo-halo De Iloko

In San Fernando La Union Philippines there's one place famous of vintage style restaurant with old bottles and other stuff.

But there's one food that also catch your eyes and taste buds- the halo halo. It catches your eyes because of something innovative style of serving. It catches your tastebuds because the taste, of course.

Something unique, I said, because instead of using glass bottle or bowl they are using fresh coconut fruit. And it really makes you craving. It added interest.

The halohalo ingredients are all in the coconut (sago, milk, ice cream, fruits among other). The yumminess and sweetness are all inside. Of course you can have the fresh cocowater and fresh flesh.

Well, this is the Ilocano way of serving the halo-halo. 

Locals Cook Dishes From Oyster

They have this celebration called 'tirem festival'. Tirem is local name for oysters.

From the month of February to May the season of oysters in the river they called 'sabangan' is at its peak. Sabangan is where the saltwater and freshwater meets and abundance of oyster is there.

The village of Paypayad, Candon City, Ilocos Sur celebrating the abundance of oysters in the first days of May.

They had the cooking contest with the oysters as their main ingredient. Its one of their highlighted event.

Its just an informal contest, cooking easy meals and just integrating the flesh of the oyster.

Here's what they got.
Oyster In Pansit

Correct, oyster can be a good ingredient for a yummy pansit (stir fry noodles). That's the proof. And of course pansit is a versatile food which work in anything like daing and meatballs and why is not to oyster. Love the taste of softy and salty pansit with oyster.

Jar Of Condiments

The Ilocano just went to the next level with jars. And its cute to see them in a glass jar with awesome label and good outlook.

I saw them in display in the trade fair and exhibits of Candon City fiesta. The bugguong, aramang, sapsapuriket among others are deliciously in glass jar. Made by one of the period restaurant in Candon, the Cafe Bossa.

Here are some of the products:
Bugguong Ipon

Spicy Tuyo

Spicy Ipon

Bacalao

Sapsapuriket

How To Cook Tinungbo

Ilocos food tinungbo

Tinungbo is the traditional method of cooking rice mostly in the mountainous part of Ilocandia.

Very few this way is being done now, during special occasions and picnic only.

Tinungbo is when you cook rice not using pan but bolo-- a kind of bamboo with thin layer. Bolo is the best kind of bamboo because of thinness that makes the heat penetrate inside and rice easy to cook.

How to cook tinungbo?

1. Choose one node of bamboo and in one end make hole.
2. Put the cleaned rice in the hole.
3. Add right amount of water.
4. Make some fire with firewoods and above it put the nodes of bamboos with rice.
5. Cook in time turning the bamboo once in a while.

Immediately served the cook rice. This is the best time to eat tinungbo, while it is still hot. Serving tinungbo after hours will make the rice harder.

Tinungbo has the distinction of taste because of the bamboo. While cooking may be challenging because of the right amount of heat but having it in the meal is fulfilling.

With rice cookers and modern tech of cooking in the kitchen trying this old school way could be rewarding to our feeling.

Buridibod Dish

Know this, buridibod dish cannot be buridibod without the rootcrop kamote as main ingredient. This makes difference to famous dinengdeng-- another homegrown recipe of Ilocanos.

Of course, one of the vegetable that should be in the recipe is edible tree fruit called allukon. Allukon is ab elongated kind of soft and furry fruit about the length 3 to 5 inches. It is colored green but when fully ripen turn to brown. There's a variety of tree that round shape fruit of allukon that is also edible and most preferred by other regions.

Then there's kumpitis a kind of green and common pod bean but only smaller. The fruit is harvested when not fully ripe because it is the best time to consume the bean.

There may be other ingredients like string beans, squash blossoms and others but the most important is the kamote rootcrop.

One best ingredient to add aside from these vegetables is fish. A grilled or fried tilapya or bangus make this soup based dish very alluring to have in the table. It is not advisable to add kind of meat. Fish just make the dish awesome.

Buridibod is a great alternative against dinengdeng or inabraw and other veggy dishes like pinakbet.

Of course, do not forget the bagguong to saute the the taste to make the dish very Ilocano.

Homecook Sinigang Na Malaga

If there is one dish that Ilocano usually cook, its sinigang. Living mostly in coastal areas, the abundance of fishes just make it one of the favorite main ingredient of the soury soup base dish. And malaga fish is one at the top of the list of the fishes considered for sinigang.

Malaga is an indigenous fish commonly found in the river where the saltwater and freshwater meet. The right salinity of the water makes this flat and mean fish grow suited to what it needs.

How to cook Sinigang Na Malaga

What you need:

3 kg malaga fish

1 bundle of kangkong (horse radish) young leaves

5 pieces non-hot chili

3 okra (lady finger fruit)

Gabi, mashed

1 cup juiced tamarind

3 pieces tomatoes

Onions

Patis (fish sauce)

Seasoning

5 pieces shrimps

2 pieces string beans

PROCEDURE

1.       Boil water

2.       Put mashed gabi and then tomatoes

3.       Put other vegetables like the string beans and cook for a half minute

4.       Put okra and then malaga fish and cook for 2 minutes

5.       Put all other ingredients for 3 to 5 minutes

6.       Serve