The holiday season is upon us; it's in the cool mornings and long Christmas station ID songs that seem never-ending. And, of course, it is the time of year for special meals and Christmas food baskets.
Large corporations send expensive food baskets to present and prospective clients,  and special friends. These usually contain a bottle or two of imported wine, cans of imported nuts, fruit cake, olives, chocolate mix, chocolate bars and candies, canned processed meats. dry cooking mixes and spices, fruit drinks, canned and dried fruits.
Most of these pricey baskets are selected by company officials with no concern for specific taste and needs of individual recipients. As a result, the gift baskets are taken apart, rewrapped, and sent out to recipients' friends who could better use and appreciate the expensive items. Some of the more exotic items, however, are too fancy—they stay on the shelf for several months.
It is not unusual for some of these Christmas basket white elephants to be cleaned out when the next Christmas season starts in September.
December is always a good time for adventurous  eaters; it is the season for reunions with friends and family members. There are also numerous office events and client invites we can't turn down. Most of these mean calorie-laden meals at hotels, restaurants, and events venues.
Our social calendars show a feeding schedule that threatens to sabotage our diets—we could only compensate by balancing with simple, non-oily meals at home.
Several years ago, a friend showed me the perfect Christmas food gift. Instead of the usual food basket, she sent a box containing several kinds of dried fish: tuyo (salted sardines and herring), danggit (kippered rabbit fish from Cebu), biya  (goby from Laguna), espada (scabbard fish from Pangasinan), inch-long baby tilapia from Rizal.
The box also contained a bag of half-ripe tomatoes and several green mangoes. The gift arrived  a day before Christmas with a note to consume on December 26 and January 2.
I have since included other items: bottles of sauteed bagoong, atsarang papaya, and burong isda from Pampanga.
Plaza Miranda, set of my favorite teleserye, is a bazaar of authentic Filipino dishes that could be added to any post-holiday food box. Every afternoon, housewives from  Batangas, Laguna, and Cavite turn the famous plaza into a talipapa selling their homecooked dishes.
These peasant fare take many hours to cook, and are therefore hardly ever made at home by ordinary housewives. They travel well and keep a few days without freezing. And because the vendors purchase the fresh fish directly from fishermen and cook it themselves, the Sinaing in Quiapo is often cheaper than if you bought fresh fish and cooked it yourself.
Here are other things you can buy there:

1. Sinaing na Tulingan - Also called Pinangat na Tulingan (mackerel tuna) is traditionally cooked whole in large custom-made clay pots. Seasoned with  salt, layered with dried kamias and pork fat, the fish is stewed from several hours in its own juices until the bones are tender and the fish oil is rendered. The Pinangat stays unspoiled in the ref for a couple of days if kept in its original wrapper.

2. Paksiw na Galunggong - Small horse mackerel or round scad is gutted but kept whole, wrapped  in bunches of four to six, and stewed slowly  in vinegar with chili, garlic, ginger and other herbs. The fish bones disappear, blending with the greaseless flesh. My kids like the galunggong fried until the skin is crisp and brown. Goes well with tomatoes, green mango, and atsara.
 

3. Hipong Tagunton Adobo sa Gata - Small freshwater shrimp cooked in coconut cream until dry. Perfect with grilled or steamed vegetables. I use it as topping to make a simple Laing or Bicol Express special.

4. Kalderetang Itik = Duck parts from Fried Itik makers: neck, head, wing tips, liver, gizzard. Seasoned with spices, pineapple juice, garlic. Onions and chili.

Tinapa town 
A barrio in Cavite is so famous for its smoked fish that the sardine they make into tinapa is called Tinapang Salinas, confusing everyone into presuming that Salinas is the name of the fish and not salinyasi.
Tinapa is another excellent food gift for the season, and the best way to make the most of it is by going to the town of Rosario, proceed to barrio Salinas and buy wholesale direct from the makers. The new highways shorten the trip from Manila to an hour.
The fish they use are: salinyasi, banak, bangus, tilapia, and kabasi. Once in a while, they have dilis (anchovy) which could be used as canape topping.