Burnt Lumpia

A Fish Story

The following is loosely based on actual events...

INT.  LOCAL FILIPINO MARKET - NOON

Marvin zips through the automated market doors and makes a beeline toward the back of the store--past the colorful bottles of banana ketchup and fish sauce, and beyond the refrigerated aisles of fermented shrimp paste and calamansi-flavored sodas. He reaches the fish counter in a huff.

OLD FISHMONGER GUY

What you want?

MARVIN
(perusing the assortment of fresh fish on ice)

Uh, you don't have any snapper today, huh?

OLD FISHMONGER GUY
(saying something in Tagalog that Marvin can't understand)

Blah, blah, blah, isda, blah.

MARVIN

(sheepishly)

Uh, I don't speak Tagalog.

OLD FISHMONGER GUY

You are not Filipino?

MARVIN

I am. I just don't speak Tagalog.

OLD FISHMONGER GUY

You look Korean.

MARVIN
(thinking to himself)

If I look Korean, why the hell are you talking to me in Tagalog?

(to the Fishmonger)

I get that all the time, but I'm Filipino.

Homemade Longanisa v2.0

During the lifespan of this here Filipino Food Blog, I've made some food that I never thought I'd have the skill, chops, or know-how, to make. I'm not saying any of this food has been perfect, I'm an inexperienced hack after all, but I've at least been able to avoid self-induced food poisoning that could have been caused by my overwhelming lack of said skill, chops, or know-how. But it turns out that with a little research, and a lot of patience, seemingly difficult dishes can be prepared with relative ease.

Take for instance, the Filipino pork sausage known as Longanisa (also spelled longanissa, longganisa, longannisa, and everything in between). Almost 2 years ago, I made my own homemade Longanisa from scratch. This initial foray into sausage making, while daunting, resulted in some dang tasty pork links. Overall, it was a satisfying enough experience that I had to pat myself on the back a la Barry Horowitz.

However, after a visit to the Philippines last year and sampling the awesomely fatty Ilocano sausages of Batac, and after Josh Bousel of Serious Eats adapted my longanisa recipe with fantastic results, I realized that there was still much room for improvement in my original recipe (let's call that one Homemade Longanisa v1.0, or HL1).

So after some tinkering and fine-tuning here at the Burnt Lumpia Worldwide Headquarters, I've finally devised a better sausage--a tastier, fattier sausage more evocative of the Longanisa I enjoyed in the Northern Philippines last summer. Ah yes, by streamlining a few ingredients while simultaneously adding more pork fat(!), I was able to evolve my old recipe into a new and improved version: Homemade Longanisa v2.0!

And with this New and Improved (Now with 50% MORE Fat!) version of Longanisa, I am happy to add it to my personal list of Porky Pinoy Pavorites...

Spicy Filipino Vinegar

Old empty jars are a hot commodity in my mother's kitchen. Mayonnaise jars, pickle jars, spaghetti sauce jars, peanut butter jars, jelly jars, jar jars... if it's glass and has a screw-top lid and is almost empty, chances are that my mother will soon rinse out any remnants and set the jar aside for another use.

For instance, the ol' lass has been known to pour cooled bacon grease straight from skillet to mayo jar (though she also sometimes uses an old coffee can for grease containment). My mother has also taken to the practice of pouring some oil and vinegar into a jar, screwing on the lid, and then shaking the bejeebus out of the jar to make a simple vinaigrette (I'm not sure that my mom owns a whisk).

However, perhaps the most common purpose for my mother's repurposed jars is in the containment of Spicy Filipino Vinegar: vinegar that has been infused with Siling Labuyo (Thai chili/Bird's eye peppers). This fiery concoction is also known as Sili Suka, Sukang Sili, Suka't Sili, and/or Sinamak (I didn't know of the Sinamak nomenclature until some readers commented on it in my last post on Filipino Vinegars).