Today’s young adults, like many of their parents, are familiar with only a few fish—bangus, tilapia, galunggong, dilis, and tuna. Their knowledge of shellfish is even more limited. Most can only recognize tahong and halaan.

Thus, the daily menu of their households is boring and repetitive. Familiarity with the various types of seafood allows for variety at the dining table and a wider choice of nutritious viands.

It also makes good sense economically, allowing one to save money by taking advantage of the seasonal fluctuation of seafood prices. Once the vendors realize how much you know, they will treat you with respect and not try to pass off an inferior variety for a higher price.

For example, saltwater salinyasi in place of tawilis, which is caught only in the sulfuric waters around Taal Volcano. The two look exactly alike, but tawilis costs
more than twice as much. This situation also applies to tamban (herring),
which has several cheap look-alike cousins, such as tulis, turay, and lawlaw.

Only tamban is suitable for paksiw, pinangat, and prito. The rest need to be salted and sun-dried or preserved in oil like Spanish sardines.

By the way, you don’t need a pressure cooker to make Spanish sardines. Just cook the fish submerged in oil (with lemon juice, calamansi or vinegar, whole peppercorn, chili, garlic, a little salt) very slowly for 30 minutes to an hour over low heat.

The fish bones will be melted by the acid if the batch is kept overnight at room temperature. Transfer to glass jars and make sure the fish is covered with oil. Will keep for a week in the ref.

Buy small fish

Very few realize how much money they could save by simply buying smaller size fish. Fish is sold by the kilo and the price decreases with the size of the fish. A big tilapia weighing one kilo could cost up to ₱250 while six pieces of tilapia weighing one kilo would be only ₱100 to ₱120.
This also holds true with other seafood, such as prawns, crabs, bangus, shellfish, etc.

Color matters
The Chinese advise wearing red to greet the New Year to ensure luck and prosperity. Red lapu-lapu (grouper) is also preferred over grey ones. Fish experts have even developed a red strain of tilapia, which is served at five-star restaurants as King Fish, commanding astronomical prices on the menu. This same fish, when sold in ordinary fish wet markets, is simply called “tilapiang pula” by the vendors whofind very few buyers for the strangelooking fish, which looks and tastes exactly like tilapia.

Crab with a cross
Superstition dominates the lives of rural Filipinos, many of whom will not catch or eat a certain kind of swimming crab (alimasag), which bears a white cross image on its top shell. It is a bright orange red when caught, the same color as ordinary cooked crab. Called San Francisco in many parts of the country. this variety has long fleshy legs and sweet, juicy flesh. They are sold for half the price of regular blue crabs, although they are more expensive in other parts of the world. My family has been eating them for more than 50 years and has not met with any unfortunate incidents, which we had often been warned about.

Aquarium display
Summer is when many varieties of fish get caught in the coral reefs. Among the most colorful are parrot fish, called loro in many parts of the Philippines and mulmol in the Visayas. Their bodies are covered with large scales in brilliant orange, turquoise, and a beak-like mouth, which earned them the local name loro or parrot.

Mulmol is the murmur-like sound they make while munching on the coral reefs they call home. Parrot fish are good steamed, baked, grilled whole, or added to other seafood in a stew, such as bouillabaisse. Why are they unpopular among Pinoys? Because they are too pretty to eat?

Pure ground bangus
Marketed by a large company specializing in bangus, boneless bangus meat is one of the best bargains in the frozen section of large supermarkets. We seasoned a pack with langonisa herbs and spices, adding flour and corn starch as binder. Panfried like small burgers, the Bangus Skinless Langonisa is a big hit in my family.

Skinless rellenong bangus

Sauté chopped onions, garlic, black pepper, frozen green peas over medium high heat. Season with salt. Cool. Stir in beaten egg, flour, and corn
starch. Fry as little patties and serve with banana catsup. To ground bangus, add minced garlic, ground black pepper, salt, white vinegar, and paprika. Bind with egg and flour. Mix well, form into patties or nuggets, and fry.