One of Tutubi's fondest childhood memories were the days he spent fishing at dawn in Laguna de Bay with his late maternal grandfather, Dada Julian, where they collected shrimps trapped in simple contractions made of small plants and bushes as well caught the small, tasty yet pricey ayungin (silver perch), using improvised fishing rods with small shrimps as baits.


Ayungin (Scientific name: Leiopotherapon plumbeus), a freshwater fish species endemic in the Philippines, is omnivorous and has a silver color and small scales. It used to be plentiful in Laguna Lake and other freshwater bodies but overfishing by local fishermen coupled with the slow demise of the once pristine lake have now made it scarce. It is said to be the tastiest freshwater fish in the Philippines (the most expensive fish is the ludong, caught in the shores off Cagayan) is endemic to Laguna de Bay and was introduced to San Pablo City's Sampaloc Lake in the 1950s, then later to Taal Lake in the 70s.

Today, seeing ayungin in the public market of Paete is a rare sight, Tutubi buys them as they're unloaded fresh by fishermen on the shores of Laguna de Bay, a place locals call Wawa, at the point where Paete River (creek) meets Laguna Lake.

In Rizal province, particularly in the town of Binangonan, silver perch is caught commercially then made into dried fish (daing na ayungin) whose taste can rival the famous danggit of Cebu. It costs about P200/kilo in Rizal and Laguna and can go as high as P500 per kilo in Manila.

How to eat Ayungin, kamayan style:

Hold the fish with one hand then remove the upper and lower fins. Using your fingers, rub both sides as if you're pinching the fish from tail to head to remove the scales and expose the meat. Partake of the meat and roe, if present. Be careful of small fish bones (para di ma-tinik)

Jose Rizal Trivia:

The ayungin is the Philippine national hero's favorite fish where Jose Rizal reportedly partook the fish, served in different ways, with hefty servings of rice. This was also narrated in his acerbic novel Noli Me Tangere where he wrote "the ayungin is good for sinigang; leave the biya for the escabeche, the dalag and the buan-buan for pesa."

Rizal has a very good reason why the ayungin is his favorite fish!

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Labels: Cuisine, Flora and Fauna, Jose Rizal, Laguna

A recent episode of NBN4's "Out of Town" featured Cardona and Tanay towns of Rizal province capped with a lunch at Kainan sa Dalampasigan where the host ordered sinigang na ulo ng bighead.

On seeing the bighead, it brought back memories and a longing to again taste the bighead fish in sinigang since the fish, raised in Laguna de Bay, is also available in Paete's public market at an unbelievable price of P50/kilo.

Big head, scientific name: Hypophthalmichthys nobilis, is also called chinese carp referring to it's Chinese origin but now raised worldwide. It naturally feeds on plankton and similar to whale sharks as filter-feeders. It's also said to be the most widely eaten fish, considered a delicacy in China and yet it's virtually unknown in Metro Manila-- no wonder it comes at a price cheaper than galunggong (round scad) and tilapia!

Last Sunday morning in Paete, Tutubi requested his father to buy a whole bighead carp, still alive and...swimming, as always the case, in a tub filled also with carp and tilapia (the pla-pla variety, not the newer Gloria). At P50/kilo, the 1.8 kilogram bighead was offered for only P80 and the vendor cleaned the fish's tiny kaliskis (scales) and chopped it into pieces.





At home, using his usual sinigang recipe, Tutubi's father mixed the bighead meat with sitaw (string beans), sigarillas (winged beans), tomatoes, kangkong, gabi (taro) and onions, brought to a boil and added sinigang mix (since there's no fresh tamarind available; the bighead meat was also first washed with calamansi and ginger to remove fishy smell, though it's not really fishy)

What became of the fresh bighead was a slightly spicy sinigang with its sour, spicy soup!



Bighead carp is tasty and fatty, the healthy type of fat that is, available in restaurants in Cardona and Tanay, Rizal province, near the historic parola (lighthouse) but if you want to make it yourself, you can whip up your own wicked sinigang for less than P200 to serve at least five persons.

Beat that for a truly frugal feast!



Related Posts:
Utak Biya
Ayungin

Labels: Cuisine, Flora and Fauna