WHENEVER you have company, you put your best plates forward, so to say, don’t you? You dress the table and the food to impress.
I recently had a conversation with my cousin Dona about food and the Filipino’s penchant for hot soup especially on rainy days. One favorite soup is misua (very fine noodles) cooked with sardines in tomato sauce.
“We locals call it sardinas, which we take as generic for any kind of fish cooked in tomato sauce. So we hear people buying sardinas, even if it’s mackerel in tomato sauce or have sardinas nga puso sa saging (sardined banana blossom) and sardinas nga tulingan (sardined skipjack tuna).”
“We’re funny. It’s like with Xerox, Colgate and Gasul, right?”
“At home we call misua with sardines soup as Misua En Rouge or misuang sinabaw,” she said.
“Oh, that sounds fine dining. This talk just gave the inspiration for this column.”
In the spirit of fun, please accept the honor I am giving to lowly dishes by giving them fine dining titles.
Bouillabaisse (boo-yah-behss). American chef and food writer Julia Child once said, “To me, the telling flavor of bouillabaisse comes from two things: the soup base—garlic, onions, tomatoes, olive oil, fennel, saffron, thyme, bay and usually a bit of dried orange peel—and, of course, the fish.”
Bolabes is a soup made with pork meatballs dropped in a pork soup (made from stock). Season with minced spring onions, salt and pepper.
Moules Marinières. It is a French dish made from cooked mussels and onions in a white wine marinade.
Sardini Ni Kumare Ner is not made with tahong or mussels, although Filipinos have a dish made with tahong, minus the white wine. The Sardini soup is made with fish in red sauce (sardines in tomato sauce). To prevent the soup from having a fishy smell, remove whatever fish scales are still attached on the fish; discard the dark meat, bones and innards. Saute onions and garlic, then add the strained tomato sauce, water and the fish. Skim the surface for bubbles. Add odong noodles (a type of soba or udon) and cook until al dente. Add minced green onions and season to taste.
Ceviche. It is a Peruvian fresh raw fish cured in lemon or lime juice, chili peppers, chopped onions, salt and cilantro.
Ceviche Sardinate is a salad made with sardines in tomato sauce. Cebu does have a variety of ceviche that uses thick coconut milk, onions, ginger, chili peppers, lime juice and vinegar. The sardinate is made with canned fish mixed with vinegar, chopped onions, sliced finger peppers and salt to taste. It’s so good, it will kill your vow to skip rice.