Click here to view crispy pata recipe.
I grew up knowing certain dishes' names as a kid not knowing that some of these are Spanish-inspired dishes, taking the Spanish dish's name with it. As I get older, some of these dishes became obvious to me as native to the Philippines, dish name included. Something tells me it's the kind of dishes that get the Philippines featured on Fear Factor ... ... kidding! It's just "balut" that got featured on Fear Factor so far. I eat balut whenever I feel like it and never get paid for it yet their contestants compete to eat "balut" for a prize money worth $50,000.00. Whatever happened to social justice. Well, before we explore further the popularity or infamy (depending which side are you on) of "balut", let's also discuss the other native foods found here in our beloved country. "Kinilaw" according to the website KinilawMix.com, is "the art of staying fresh". This dish is usually cooked not over fire like an earthen stove or even the modern cooking appliances that we have now but with the help of vinegar. If ever there is one dish that explained best about the potent acidity levels of vinegar, it's "kinilaw". You find the courage to eat raw fish or other seafood with the help of the kinilaw recipe (and it doesn't taste THAT raw either, thanks to vinegar) "Dinuguan" is loosely translated into "pork blood stew" because that is whatit really is - meat cooked in pork's blood. It's one of the Filipino dishes today that caused some restaurants to allegedly sell pigs' parts that they usually throw away. Filipinos like to eat and waste food away. So it doesn't surprise locals like me to find pig's blood, knuckles and intestines cooked for daily consumption too. In "dinuguan", pork's intestines often serve as ingredient extenders too. Speaking of knuckles, this brings us to another fave of mine, the crispy pata. "Pata" in Tagalog means "pig knuckles. "Pata" is also what some of my friends called my thighs because I am fat. Even Filipino food enthusiasts often call this dish as "sinful" knowing that most of the fat can be found in this particular part. This is why whenever cooked into crispy pata, it ends up becoming the tastiest pork dish ever in my opinion. It's perfect for Red Horse drinking sessions with friends. Click here to view crispy pata recipe. Some of the best dishes in the Philippines are brought about by ingenuity and practicality. It's easy to understand the popularity of balut as a delicacy. Apart from being a tasty snack, duck meat is at its nutritious when still in its unborn or un-hatched phase. It's also known as "pampatigas ng tuhod" (makes the knees durable) which might also caused the rumor that "balut" is an aphrodisiac. What else would you need those durable knees for? I plan to cover this topic more in the succeeding blog posts knowing that there are still a lot of Filipino food worth tackling. I just need to come up eventually with better photos (photos that don't contain copyright watermarks hopefully). To keep yourself updated with the latest blog entries about learning Tagalog, just subscribe to my newsletter. Thanks for reading.
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Jing DalaganI've been blogging for as long as I could remember. But I made it a career as of late as a home-based writer. It is something I find comfort in doing. Archives
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