And other discoveries on my Batangas food trip
When we did our Foodprints show in Batangas, there was your usual bulalo, lomi from Lipa, and a few others I had come across before. If you know where to go, Batangas is also a food trip destination. You just have to Google the most popular lomi house in Lipa or look for the busiest lomi restaurant. I also remember visiting the restaurant whose owner invented the lomi. Good but I guess the eateries that copied it have surpassed the original in terms of taste. Funny how sometimes a copy can taste better than the original. To me, this happened in Pampanga where the best sisig is no longer from the one that invented it.
My Villanueva family had an ancestral house in Batangas City. I remember it was right across the old city hall right beside the national highway. We would spend some summers there with my cousins. I don’t remember much about the food, then except for the biscocho. I guess I wasn’t such a foodie then at a young age.
Later on, I would experience the other food Batangas is known for, like the tawilis and the hard-to-find Maliputo. The crispy tawilis is what most people pair with the bubbling hot and tender beef bulalo. With a little dab of a mixture of patis, calamnsi, and mashed sili, this dish can make eat more rice than you ordinarily d. I love it when the food is so good you can’t control yourself and not eat it with rice. Bulalo tastes almost the same everywhere you go in the province. I guess it’s the sawsawan that one prepares that sets it apart from the others.
While doing the show, I was a guest of a lady who was making sinaing na tulingan. I am not familiar with what this dish tasted like or how it was made. Looking at it, I didn’t find it appealing. I see tulingan a lot in the Lipa public market. Anyway, The lady showed me the entire process. The fish tail had to be snapped off. She twisted the the tail and pulled what looked like the belly of the fish that they say could make one sick when consumed. In a clay pot, she put dried kamias, pork fat, and water and into it she dropped the banana-wrapped tulingan. This she seasoned with salt and pepper and let it simmer, covered in the pot, for hours. (Note: I’m not sure if I remember all the ingredients she put in). It didn’t really look that attractive to me but when it was time to eat it, boy was I so wrong—what you see in this dish isn’t what you get. I was advised to have it with rice and atchara. Wow! What a winner! I will never pre judge a dish again without trying it first. I ate so much. The dish was the highlight of our Foodprints show. The key? Pork fat. I am told some fry the tulingan and eat it that way. The fish is simmered covered for hours that the bones become edible, much like a sardines. Yummy!
The fish tail had to be snapped off. She twisted the the tail and pulled what looked like the belly of the fish that they say could make one sick when consumed.
Recently, I came across a delicious version of this sinaing na tulingan in Manila. The process is made as I saw it in Batangas, but the big difference is this lady throws paho or salted tiny green mango into the dish. I know paho is hard to come across but she found it. OMG! There goes my resolve to stay away from rice going down the drain.
There are more and more homecooked meals that are sprouting all over in this pandemic lockdown. I am more than happy to discover them. Try Wings Sinaing na Tulingan ( 0915 488 5785). Masarap ha! She uses green mango when she runs out of paho.
Another one I discovered recently was a pork dinuguan and stuffed bangus made by Mama Chit. Melt-in-your-mouth morsels of pork and a thin dark soup. Yummy. Her boneless bangus topped with various veggies is also a winner. (02) 8646 8547. A must try!
I will continue to keep my radars on looking for great food to share.
Happy eating!