Day 1: Inihaw na Bangus at Adobong Kangkong (Stuffed Grilled Milkfish and Water Spinach Adobo)

I asked my officemate ride to stop by the fish market to buy me the freshest fish she could find. She bought me a large-sized milkfish weighing about 1.3 kilos. The milkfish or bangus as it is called in the Philippines, came from one of the fish farms in Dagupan. Dagupan is a city in the Province of Pangasinan, at the northern part of Luzon. It is home to a thriving bangus industry; in fact, Dagupan is the bangus capital of the Philippines. In my view, bangus from Dagupan is the tastiest ever; its meat is creamy and has no muddy aftertaste.

I must say that cooking fish is a lot of work. But if you can have the fish monger clean, butterfly and debone the fish for you, three-fourths of your work is done. The rest of the process in making this dish is fairly easy.

I chopped four (4) cloves of native garlic, two (2) plum tomatoes and a medium-sized red onion, mixed them together with a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper and stuffed it all into the fish. I wrapped the fish in aluminum foil and grilled it on the barbie for about 15 minutes on each side.

My sister helped in making the vegetable accompaniment. Adding a few crispy pork pieces would add great flavor to this dish, but we opted not to. Here’s the recipe for Water Spinach Adobo:

Chop both stems and leaves of two (2) bundles of water spinach, but make sure that the leaves remain segregated from the stems. In a large pan, sauté four (4) cloves of native garlic and one (1) onion in about two tablespoons of oil. Add equal parts of vinegar and soy sauce (about ¼ cup each) and a bay leaf into the onion-garlic mixture. When the mixture starts to boil, drop the chopped stems of the water spinach into the pan. After about two minutes of simmering, add the leaves. Simmer till tender. If you prefer to add pork, make sure to add it after sautéing the onions and garlic. Fry the pork until it crisps up then proceed with the recipe as indicated above.