Market Manila

A seafood paella with squid ink (Arroz Negro) and shellfish seemed like the perfect dish for our “Last Supper” or the evening meal last Holy Thursday. I know, I know, it was a bit extravagant considering the “spirit” of the season but at least it was just one dish, not meat and it served a lot of people. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while now know I have a love-hate relationship with squid ink paella. I have tried to make this in the past and though it tasted good, I didn’t achieve the jet black color I have experienced at good Spanish restaurants. This quest for the blackest paella is the same as my tousle with ube jam and artificial coloring that I finally got right after 3 or 4 attempts. It doesn’t help that some Spanish friends counseled that I should just use the “sachets” of artificial squid ink instead of fussing with the all natural approach…

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There are tons of ripe mangoes at the markets these days. In local Batangas markets, great looking medium sized “native” mangoes were just PHP35 a kilo a few days ago (Indian mangoes can be had for PHP8 per kilo if you bargain well). I bought several kilos to see if I could make some nice ripe mango shakes for the long holiday weekend and several guests who would be out with us at the beach. I am always surprised at how pushy waiters at hotels and good restaurants are about fruit shakes when you sit down for a meal and I think I have figured out why…the margins or profits on a fruit shake are incredibly LARGE, something on the order of a Starbucks Coffee or Tea… What exactly would constitute an ideal ripe mango shake? I thought I should tackle this before I actually pulled out my heavy duty blender and started experimenting…

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The mercury was soaring and Holy Thursday at the beach was HOT, HOT, HOT! Early mornings were spent at the local seaside market, and I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and amount of seafood on offer. Normally, I fret that there is so little for sale during holiday weeks and because times are tougher than ever, merchants just don’t stock up. But the opposite was true and I went a little wild… I bought lots of crabs, squid and lobster then decided to make some cioppino (seafood soup), so I bought fish to make a homemade fish stock… then I got sliced tanguigue, alumahan, matangbaka, tulingan, and on and on… Totally went overboard but that just meant our guests and entire household would be eating well over the next few days…

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So the buzz is Judas wasn’t such a bad guy after all…have you folks been following all this global discussion about the Gospel according to Judas (and a pretty good National Geographic Channel documentary on it as well)? I don’t normally delve into religious waters but it is Easter, after all. So, first of all, Marketman and family wish you all a Happy Easter, if you celebrate it, and a Happy Sunday if you don’t. I didn’t even know there were originally as many as 30 gospels and some church scholars just axed all of them except 4… Hmmm, gotta wonder how accurate the “book” is… At any rate, let’s not get into a serious discussion today so I will segue into Easter eggs, chocolates and other goodies. My family and I have been out of town at the Batangas shore, without email access, for several days now, hence the lack of reactions to your comments since Monday so we will at this point be seriously overfed, lethargic and downright good targets for skin cancer.

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Just two weeks ago my thyme plant looked like this. Today, it is totally totally and utterly DEAD. Crisp, in fact. Boohoo. I kid you not, I have a black thumb. Forget fresh western herbs in our Manila garden (except oregano, which nothing kills). This was the last attempt. And since it is Easter, I am hoping my bushy thyme plant will miraculously come back to life soon…

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Here is a Thai variation of our escabeche-style sweet and sour sauce. My wife purchased her first cookbook when we were assigned to Indonesia soon after we got married, Thai Cooking Class by Somi Anuntra Miller and Patricia Lake. A thin paperback book, it contains some classic Thai recipes and this wonderful fish recipe that we have cooked dozens and dozens of times in the past decade or more. My wife mastered this recipe and has taught all of our cooks since how to cook it. It is simple, relatively quick and absolutely delicious. First, pick a nice sized extremely fresh fish such as a 1 kilo grouper or jack (lapu-lapu or talakitok). You may also substitute a maya-maya or other similar fish. Clean and scale the fish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Either grill the fish over hot coals or fry it in vegetable oil. I prefer it fried as the grilling results in unevenly cooked flesh in many cases…

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It’s seafood week. We are supposed to abstain from meats and instead eat modestly and suffer with seafood. But the way the world works today, that means you pay through the nose for fish and other denizens of the sea and lakes so it costs you more and you aren’t really suffering in any way…think broiled lobster, a nice whole fish, some squid cooked in its own ink. Frankly, I have never cooked adobong pusit though I have eaten it hundreds of times. Turns out it is one of the easiest things to cook, though I am not KEEN on cleaning squid. So if you are inclined, just buy small to medium sized fresh squid, clean out its entrails and the plastic sword in its main body. then rinse and carefully preserve or keep the ink sacks intact. Heat up a pan and saute onions and a little garlic in some vegetable oil. Add the squid, a little patis, salt, pepper and green onions if you have it. Add chili peppers if you like zing. Simmer until the squid is tender and the sauce is nearly jet black (why is a jet black?). Actually, it really is a more murky brown black. Serve with lots of rice. Perfect lenten “suffering” dish. Yeah, right.

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It’s Holy Week in Manila (and elsewhere of course) and that means a fairly massive exodus of MarketManila readers away from the city to the beaches, mountains, and everywhere in between. I, too, have escaped and to a place with no internet access to boot. However, I have left several posts for the days ahead to keep those of you who are on-line amused or entertained. I noticed a massive drop off in comments from my “regulars” a few days ago, however, I note that the number of visits and page views remains quite high. At any rate, I hope you all have a safe holiday and eat more than your recommended daily allowance of fat, carbohydrates and proteins. For those of you abroad, I’m sure you recall just how “dead” Manila is at this time of the year… when I was a kid, there was no tv or radio and certainly no internet on Good Friday…

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