Summer is all about travel, adventures, reunions, and discoveries. For many, going on the road means new and exciting culinary thrills found only in specific towns or barrios.
One of the best examples is the sinarapan, listed as the tiniest fish in the world and found in Lake Buhi, Camarines Sur. Almost depleted due to overfishing, the fish is now protected by the very communities that once threatened its survival.
The Bicolanos prepare sinarapan in a simple sauté with garlic, onions, and tomatoes. Young would-be chefs go beyond traditional recipes, baking the small fish with olive oil and a very light touch of herbs. And there are the purists who simply scoop a wiggling handful into their mouths, followed by a squeeze of calamansi and a bite of siling labuyo (hot chili pepper).
Just a wee bit larger than its Bicolano cousin is ipon, caught in Ilocos Norte’s picturesque and clean Paoay Lake. With its almost transparent body seeming invisible to the naked eye, ipon appears almost magically out of nowhere a few weeks a year.
For many Ilocano families, starting a meal with ipon is almost a sacred ritual, with several generations gathered around the table while grandmas and mothers prepare the vine-ripened tomatoes and purple native onions, which are dropped into boiling water or hugas-bigas (water in which rice was washed).
Only after making sure that everyone is seated does grandma stir the ipon gently into the boiling broth and the pot is brought to the center of the table. Everyone is served. The dish is immediately consumed and not allowed to get cold. Any fish left uncooked is made into individual pancake-like torta.
Ilocos fishermen, like their brethren in Bicol, cannot resist having a little “jumping salad” of live ipon in Ilocos vinegar, tomatoes, lasona, and hot peppers. Small fish for the rest of the country generally means dilis (anchovy), which very often is bought and cooked sun-dried. Raw anchovy seasoned or cured in vinegar or calamansi is a favorite pulutan served with alcohol around the country. In parts of the Visayas, pure coconut milk is added right before serving to give the dish a creamy texture.
A new danggit has hit the market in a big way. It is not from the fish called samara, the original danggit, but from inch-long baby tilapia that fishpond owners consider as pests. The new danggit cooks faster. It has a more mellow flavor than the Cebu original. Today tilapia danggit is much in demand, no longer a fishpond menace but an income-giver.