Lugadang Dilis

Lugada is an authentic Caviteno dish that involves sauteeing seafood with greens. It's usually a showcase dish for sting ray, but I learned recently that it is also good with dilis, or anchovies.

And because I had access to fresh dilis, and because I didn't know how to clean and cook sting rays (though I don't lack instruction - vendors at the market assure me they would clean and chop the ray so it's ready for cooking), I took the opportunity to make lugadang dilis.

Lugada rhymes with regada, the water festival celebrated around the Feast of St. John in Cavite City. So it was even more appropriate that we had lugada.


Lugadang dilis, more or less, is sauteeing in a little oil crushed garlic, sliced onions, ginger and tomatoes, then putting in the washed and cleaned fresh anchovies and a little miso after everything has wilted. Then mix sliced mustard greens and native pechay, which will leach out water that would cook all the ingredients.

That's basically it, but a fishmonger's version includes diced salted duck eggs (itlog na maalat)and fresh Cavite carabao's milk cheese (kasilyo), so I included them as well.

It's important to behead the dilis to be able to conveniently enjoy this dish. I actually had qualms about cooking dilis this way because of the tinik - a bane for mothers. But as long as the anchovies are beheaded and the main spines pulled out, this dish is spot on. The process could be cumbersome, but fresh anchovies can be bought already cleaned at the Cavite wet market.

What defines this dish is the mustasa. Ordinarily, mustard greens can be very peppery for comfort - the bite is overpowering for children and even for adults. But mixed with pechay, the bite is diluted and is reduced to an accent, but still very much present. With the umami aspect of anchovies and the salty-creamy notes of the egg and the cheese, this is a multi-dimensional, sophisticated dish inspite of the ordinary and common ingredients.


Mustasa is also made into buro in Cavite, preserved in brine. This tempers the peppery trait of the vegetable, and is eaten as a side, perhaps with the function of a pickle. It is washed before cooking, and is also sauteed sliced with garlic, ginger, and tomatoes.

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---

Bahay Kubo

Bahay kubo, kahit munti
Ang halaman doon ay sari-sari
Singkamas at talong, sigarillas at mani
Sitaw, bataw, patani

Kundol, patola, upo’t kalabasa
At saka meron pa, labanos, mustasa
Sibuyas, kamatis, bawang at luya
Sa paligid-ligid ay puno ng linga


Roughly translated as:

Bahay Kubo
(Filipino folk song)

Nipa hut, even though small
the plants surrounding it are varied and many
turnips and eggplants, winged beans and peanuts
yard-long beans, hyacinth beans, lima beans

wax gourd, sponge gourd, bottle gourd, squash
and there’s more, radish, mustard
onions, tomatoes, garlic and ginger
the surrounding spaces filled with sesame

---

Pangasinan Pancitan

Pansit con Sabaw, De Luxe Panciteria

The other day my kids' yaya was distraught and had to call me from school because she had brought my son his lunch, but the boy was so engrossed in the film showing of Jose Rizal's biopic that he didn't want to take it.

I perfectly understood my son, as I often forget about meals myself when I am involved in something, so I let the kid have his way. But yeah, I remembered the occasion - who wouldn't when a weekday was declared as a special holiday to mark it?

So since it's a landmark birthday even though he's dead, and even though I'm from UP and I'm appropriately brainwashed when it came to Rizal, still, pansit came to mind.

Pansit, the eternal symbol of long life. Despite being almost replaced by spaghetti with the sweet red sauce and sliced hotdogs, still pansit appears in most tables on birthdays, noodles uncut and heaped with sahog.

Pancit Guisado, De Luxe Panciteria

I grew up to be a pancit addict, because every time my family ate out it was in a panciteria. In every party we went to there was pancit.

When I turned a teen I became a turncoat and listed spaghetti as my favorite in all those slumbooks of my friends. But onto adulthood I outgrew it, and until now whenever I go home to Pangasinan I seek out my favorite panciterias. Or at least those still operating.

Before all other restaurants, there was the panciteria. I think this is true across the Philippine islands, because in every town and provincial/regional capital I visit there is a dingy old panciteria.

I remember with sincerest fondness regular trips to the pilgrimage town of Manaoag to hear mass, and to have sotanghon sabaw by the numerous stalls in front of the cathedral premises, along with the flat, yeasty, anise-flecked puto.

My mother also used to buy me as a special treat a bowl of sotanghon sabaw with a hard-boiled egg in the eateries in the center of the old Dagupan market, where CSI Plaza now stands.

Pancit con Sabaw, New Mangaldan Panciteria

When I grew up the Manaoag sotanghon sabaw suddenly didn't taste as good as it previously did, while the Dagupan market was gutted by fire and was subsequently torn down.

But the panciteria where my lola brought us after a trip to the bank, or a transaction at the various government offices, and where my parents took us for a half-pint of ice cream (literally, as in the plastic pint container was cut in half and served on a plate) with a bowl of pancit con sabaw on the side, still exists.

And exists to my delight. De Luxe Panciteria is still in the second floor of the original building along A.B. Fernandez Avenue, but it has expanded with a new towering building for catered parties in the outskirts of downtown Dagupan.

It had been the panciteria to go to for as long as I can remember. Other panciterias imitated it but came and went. For a time I particularly liked Golden Peacock, despite the sleazy vibe of the place with the mini-skirted waitresses and its come-on as a drinking venue. I actually thought the pancit there was better than at De Luxe's, but not a lot of people shared my opinion, as Golden Peacock disappeared after several years.

Pancit Guisado, New Mangaldan Panciteria

At De Luxe we only ordered two things - the pancit guisado, greasy miki and bihon noodles stir-fried in lard and soy sauce, with sliced meat rolls and huge cuts of chicken, and the pancit con sabaw, same ingredients but without the soy sauce and braised in chicken broth.

A platter of the guisado usually sufficed for the family, along with some siopao and the ice cream, for afternoon meryenda. The meat rolls were topnotch, and the grease and the toyo coating the noodles elevated the dish to an almost gourmet experience, at that point in time, to my uninitiated palate.

I know no one could go wrong with pancit, whatever the ingredients, the cooking method. Pancit is pancit. But I have never encountered pancit as the one in Dagupan anywhere else in the country. And no matter how often we cook pancit at home we could not replicate it.

The sabaw version was the ultimate comfort food, especially for the rainy days - hot, filling, savory. We used to share a huge bowl, but by the time I was in college I could finish a bowl by myself, along with a whole siopao, too. I am actually craving for one, now, while a typhoon is battering Metro Manila.

Back when I was in college we discovered during one of our pilgrimages to Manaoag that a good panciteria existed in Mangaldan. This was to our advantage because we didn't need to go all the way to Dagupan for pancit on the way home.

The panciteria was called banking, purportedly due to the disability of the owner or cook. Banking in the Pangasinan language means crooked - the owner/cook walked with a limp. But it has since expanded and been renamed New Mangaldan Panciteria. Back then word went around that the cook used to work at De Luxe, which was why the pancit was equally good.

Though the two panciterias approximate each other's pancit, there are marked differences. Banking's pancit is full of pork slices and pork liver, along with generous slices of an excellent meatroll that can also be ordered by itself. It has also more vegetables.

But either panciteria satiates my pancit craving whenever I go home. When I could find the time, and the stomach space, I even make it a point to visit both. Such sentimental value cannot be ignored. Plus, nothing comes close.

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Isdang Cavite

It intermittently rains in Cavite now, what with LPAs one after another, usually embedded in ITCZ, sometimes bonding together to form a super typhoon.

When it rains the whole day, no fish can be found at the Cavite wet market. Fishermen cannot go out in the inclement weather, and fish dive deep to avoid the commotion at the sea surface. Whatever fish is being sold at the market after the rains would be leftovers from the day before, or usually freshwater fish like tilapia and bangus from Batangas.

So I've learned to schedule market days around rainy days. When the rains do let up I troop to the market with big bags and buy tons of fish. For at this time of the year the variety is astounding.

I have a grand time choosing, and a grander time sampling those I haven't tried. Though I think I have encountered a lot of them in Pangasinan previously, I don't think I had them frequently as a child. And I have difficulty remembering how they were called back in my childhood.

Dulong is not really plentiful these days, but when they appear they are so fresh that they're so slimy and transparent. We usually have dulong mixed in an egg-flour batter and fried into torta (fish cakes), but dulong this fresh is particularly awesome in dulong pate - boiled briefly in vinegar with minced garlic and ginger - that is spread on soda crackers.


Dilis (anchovies) are many times larger than dulong but are still miniscule by marine fish standards. These fish abound all over the archipelago, and are mostly turned into daing (salted, sun-dried fish).

In Pangasinan dilis is turned into bagoong - a treasured cooking ingredient and immortal eating accompaniment - so that we rarely had them fresh. But while dilis is transported straight from the sea to the bagoongan plants in Pangasinan, in Cavite I've learned to like them fresh. I usually dredge them in flour and fry each individually, which provide a crunchy mouthful for breakfast with hot rice and sliced tomatoes.

While haggling for dilis the other day, an elderly tita conspiratorially whispered to me as I stood nearby that she loved lugadang dilis, an original Caviteno dish. Of course I asked how it is cooked, and several fish vendors contributed their versions. Perhaps I'll cook some for my next post.


This fish I remember eating, with relish, in Pangasinan. It is called talimusak in Cavite, but I can't remember the term in my mother language (bonor, please see comments below). But I do know that this is so tasty and is great fried to a crunch, while the smaller variety is cooked in a bit of kalamansi juice til soft in Pangasinan.


Talimusak is slightly bigger, and stouter than dilis. They are usually greyish with dark or brownish thin stripes, and look a lot like flying fish, without the "wings."


These fish I may have encountered during my childhood, called bolasi in Pangasinan, but I have no memory of eating them. They look like they are good for paksiw (stewed in vinegar), but in Cavite they are called abukos or asobe. Vendors slice off the fleshy parts to be sold as (very small) fillets.

the remnants, for pets

These are called lawlaw, and they look a lot like the fish that's made into tuyo (heavily salted dried fish) in Pangasinan. They're not scaly, though, but are also filleted.

I like lawlaw fillets better than asobe. They are very tasty dredged in seasoned flour and fried, and provide variety for our breakfast fare, especially if dipped in spiced vinegar.


My family had a snobbish streak when it came to crustaceans - they overlooked the supposedly inferior alimasag due to loyalty to the tougher-shelled, solid-fat-laden alama (alimango). Both kinds abound in Pangasinan, but in Cavite alimango are rare.


But blue crabs, the white-curlicued, soft-shelled alimasag, are plentiful and cheap. And I've discovered my family's snobbery had been without basis. For blue crabs have such succulent, sweet flesh, and even though a lot of those caught are males I don't mind because they are so fleshy I don't miss the females' yellow fat.


In Cavite blue crabs are stewed in coconut milk with sliced young jackfruit. In Pangasinan we prefer crabs lightly steamed, perhaps toasting them in a little oil and salt afterwards. Or sometimes we like to have them in sinigang.


Several times a year I chance upon a pagi (sting ray) or two at the wet market.


I am told the flesh is more delicate than a fish', and is great in a lugada. Though I am offered some, I always decline since I don't know how to prep one up for cooking. One day....


Multi-colored loro, or parrotfish, great big samples of which I've eaten in some small, isolated islands in the Visayas. Those sold in Cavite are not so fresh, so I don't buy because these fish rot swiftly.


Malacapas are one of my outstanding discoveries. These are delicately-fleshed fish, so sweet when fresh, and splendid in paksiw.


Bakoko, or sea bream. These are a bit bland-tasting - perhaps I haven't yet discovered the best way of cooking them. They are only good in a paksiw because the intensity of the vinegar makes up for the fish' lack of flavor.


Bagaong, which my brother tells me are plentiful in Pangasinan these days. I think they are the fish my Manila-raised uncle always requested my mother to grill when he visited us at home. He ate them with a kalamansi-agamang dip.

These fish have thick, rough skins, are very fleshy, and can grow very large. They are available almost any time of the year in Cavite.


Lastly we have native Cavite tilapia, with blue and yellow specks. These are quite small relative to the Batangas black variety, and are very, very sweet. I always buy a kilo or two of these when they appear. They are caught in the waters of Manila Bay and cost half the price of the out of towners.

They are marvelous in pesa with native pechay, in sinigang, and with saluyot and banana blossoms. I also like them butterflied and marinated in vinegar and garlic for frying, which are called pinindar in Pangasinan.

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