Pinoy Foodie

I was born and raised in the Philippines. Recently, I realized that many of my good memories of life in the country are about food or are food-related. I created this blog to share with you my pleasant memories as well as my random thoughts on food, cooking and eating. Hope you enjoy reading my posts. I welcome your comments.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Unique Gift for Pinoy Foodie

I received a pasalubong (a present from a traveler) from Cynch, handcarried by a common friend who just returned from a trip to the Philippines. It was a jar of dulong fish packed in olive oil, garlic and other spices.

Dulong mga kapatid!

Let me introduce you to dulong if this is the first time you have heard of it. My internet search yielded very little information about this tropical freshwater fish (there was more about the Chinese ethnic minority or the French family) except for its English name “dwarf goby”and its scientific name “Pandaka Pygmaea”. Now if you’re in America and more familiar with Shark and Marlin steaks, you’ll probably think dwarf is as tiny as smelts or anchovies. But people in the Philippines who are more familiar with anchovies will know how tiny a dwarf can be. Dulong is about 1.1 to 1.5 cm long and is like the alamang in your bagoong--- you can’t see its shape until you look really close and you may need to put on your reading glasses to do this. I see black dots that I assume are the eyes. There must be thousands of them in the small jar (I just noticed that the label doesn’t give standard information like the weight and the expiry date).

I also found a recipe for Dulong Omelet on the internet. But I don’t want to use my precious supply for that esp. if this fish is in danger of getting extinct. The label says it is good for pasta but I may have to use the entire bottle for one pasta recipe so no way. Cynch says she uses it as canapé topping and that was how I tried it. I put some on Finnish crisp bread called Kavli. Then on French melba toast. Then on crackers. It played the role well on all kinds of base. However I thought it needed a little kick. It was subtly spiced which was good but the fish itself was bland. I experimented with pickles, mustard, mango, chili etc. but in the end the best partner was capers, just what Cynch recommended.

My friends are eager for the dinner I am hosting soon hoping that they too can partake of this unique gift for a Pinoy foodie abroad. Shall I grant them the privilege?

But of course because a foodie's joy is in the sharing.

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