Day 21: Halabos na Alimasag & Tahong Soup

A while earlier, an office mate was asking our group out to lunch at the famous Dampa market where fresh seafood of all shapes and sizes could be purchased, cooked according to your preference and served right there and then. I wasn't able to join the group for lunch but the prospect of having all that seafood was so consuming that my appetite for seafood demanded to be satisfied.

And so we had halabos na alimasag and tahong soup for dinner. It's a modest take on Dampa, just enough to satisfy my craving for seafood. I bought a kilo and a half of Alimasag (P210) and a kilo of Tahong (P40). Not bad for a Dampa-ish dinner sans the traffic, pollution and, yes, it's relatively easy on the budget.

In cooking Halabos na Alimasag, just place the crabs in a pan; add 1/2 cup of water and sprinkle one and a half tablespoons of rock salt over the crabs. Turn on the fire and cover the pan to allow the crabs to cook from the steam created by the boiling water. This process takes only about 15 minutes.

For the Tahong Soup, immerse the mussels in a pot of water for about ten minutes, then remove the mussels from the pot. You will find sediments of sand and other foreign matter at the bottom of the pot. Discard the water and the sediments; discard the mussels that have opened up as it means they have turned bad already and would therefore be unsafe to eat. Remove any beard sticking out from the remaining good ones; return the cleaned mussels into the pot. Add two cloves of minced garlic, an onion that's been sliced and a finger and a half size of ginger that has also been sliced. Add about eight (8) cups of water. Bring the water to a boil and allow it to simmer for a few minutes; it won't take long for the mussels to cook. When the mussels are cooked, turn off the fire and add a bunch of sili leaves. Add patis to taste.

Day 11: Calamares and Sauteed Green Beans

The nice thing about living in the Philippines is that you could never run out of fresh seafood to choose from at the market. The funny thing though is that cooking seafood is more challenging to me compared to cooking meat or poultry. Probably because fish is more delicate to deal with, preparation-wise and cooking-wise. So how to hurdle the preparation? Ask the fish monger to do it for you, of course!



I asked the fish-monger to clean, skin and slice 1/2 a kilo of squid into centimeter-inch thick rings. I squeezed calamansi over the squid and seasoned it with pepper. Then I got about half a cup of flour and seasoned it with salt & pepper. I heated a pan with oil, dredged the squid rings in flour and fried the calamari till they turned golden and crisp. I laid the fried squid on a plate lined with paper towels to remove the excess oils. While the squid was still hot, I seasoned the squid again with some sea salt. This calamares goes well with a vinegar, garlic and chili pepper dip.

As for the green beans, I sliced 1/4 kilo of green beans very thiny on a diagonal, as thinly as possible. (I remember that during my childhood, my grandma would instruct the cook to use a Gillete razor blade in making this dish. It took quite a while to prepare this dish as the cook had to go over each green bean, one at a time, to make paper thin slices.) Nowadays, I just slice them with a knife and I'm no longer particular about making it the way my grandmother did. I sliced three (3) slices of bacon into small pieces and cooked them in a pan till they turned crispy and its fat, fully rendered. I removed the crispy bacon and set it aside for garnishing. I added chopped tomato, shallot and three (3) cloves of garlic to the bacon fat and sauteed them till they turned tanslucent. I then added the green beans, 1/4 cup of water, some patis and pepper to taste. Simmer the green beans till done and transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle the bacon on top of the green beans.

Day 3: Tortang Alimasag at Talong at Minatamis na Saging (Crab & Grilled Eggplant Omelet & Stewed Bananas in Syrup)

The fish monger at our neighborhood grocery had a basin full of fresh crab meat. I instantly knew what we were going to have for dinner, so I bagged 400 grams of crabmeat plus the rest of my ingredients. Eggplants. Check. Spring Onions. Check. Garlic. Check. It’s been a while since we had tortang alimasag.

To add more flavor dimension to this simple dish, it’s best to grill the eggplants first. I’m using six eggplants for this dish. Immediately after grilling the eggplants, place them in a dish/bowl covered in plastic wrap to create steam that would moisten the skin. After about ten minutes, you will find that skinning the eggplants is a cinch. Peel the eggplants and keep the stems intact but resist the temptation to wash them. Washing the eggplants would wash off the grilled flavor. Set aside the skinned eggplants.

In a bowl, mix together the crabmeat, one (1) large egg, a bunch of chopped spring onions, chopped two (2) garlic cloves, a teaspoon of salt and a little bit of pepper to taste.

Beat one large egg in a bowl. Heat vegetable oil in the frying pan. Flatten the eggplant with a fork while being careful not to break it apart. Coat the eggplant with the beaten egg. Transfer the dipped eggplant to the frying pan and fill the face of the eggplant with the crab mixture. Fry till golden brown. Serve with hot rice. You can use catsup as a condiment for this dish.

The Cardaba Banana or Saba is very similar to its Jamaican cousin, the plantain. It’s a cooking variety that is very versatile for both sweet and savory dishes. The minatamis na saba is perhaps one of my most favorite desserts. It’s cheap, festive and simple to make:

Peel and slice a dozen saba bananas into one-inch coins. Place the bananas in a deep casserole with half a liter of water, one a half cups of packed brown sugar and half a teaspoon of salt. Boil for five minutes then simmer until the bananas are tender and opaque in color. Add a teaspoon of vanilla and simmer for another minute. Cool the bananas in syrup and serve it for dessert with crushed ice and fresh milk.