Ayap / Sitaw / 1/4 Yard Short Beans
Heeheehee. I made up that third name in the title of this post. There isn’t a whole lot written on ayap in my reference books or on the net for that matter. Common in Northern Philippine cooking, particularly on the Ilocano coast, even Ilocanos naturally refer to this as ayap or sitaw interchangeably. It is used as sitaw or yard long beans are used, but I find it is up to 1/3 or of the length and is less floppy, but not hard either like a string bean. It lies somewhere in between. Not sure if it evolved from a yard long bean but it is interesting in that it is different… I spotted some from an Ilocano vegetable specialist at the FTI Taguig market so I bought a small bunch for PHP20. It would be an authentic ingredient in my piece de resistance palayok cooking experiment, up soon…
I have never seen this bean before! Do they have a purple tinge or are they just green? I know some sitaw have purple ones.
January 28th, 2008They are mostly a dark green, but I suppose some may have purple, as beans have a tendency to mutate that way… see these beautiful purple beans I found a while back… and I suppose it has something to do with sunlight levels to some degree…
January 28th, 2008I have a feeling you’re going to cook pinakbet in the palayok.
January 28th, 2008This brings back childhood memories, MM!…Thank you for featuring this vegetable. My parents hail from Tanauan, Batanggas and my mom would buy bundles and bundles of these vegetable we call PAAYAP on our week-end trips to Tanauan to visit my LOLA. Then she’d add the PAAYAP to her BULANGLANG. Ask any Batangueno and they would know what I’m talking about…or not?!?….Hey, you’re from Batanggas, MM…does it ring a bell?
January 28th, 2008betty, we have a weekend place in Batangas, but I otherwise am a “foreigner” there… I was born in Cebu… Marketfan, spot on.
January 28th, 2008OH, MM…here’s another childhood memory…eating this fish simmered with coconut milk in the palayok…the fish looks like smelt…the name is at the tip of my tongue and it’s driving me nuts!!!….aarrggh!…Hey… I remembered..it’s BIYA! It is sooo good!
January 28th, 2008I bet its either Kare-Kare, or Bulanglang that your going to cook in your palayok. One staple palayok dish ought to be the “sinaing na tulingan” which I’ll master once I get a yard of my own to cook on.
January 28th, 2008Betty Q is right- those beans are paayap, or cowpea (Vigna unguiculata or Vigna sinensis). Sitaw or yard-long bean is Vigna sesquipedalis.
My Philippine flora books are at work; I only have “In Gardens of Hawaii” by Marie C. Neal at home. Here’s what she wrote:
January 28th, 2008“The cowpea [V. sinensis (L.) Savi], probably from southeastern Asia, is really a bean and has shorter, turgid, green pods, 8 to 12 inches long, which the Chinese prepare for food much as they prepare yard-long beans.”
My mom is from San Pablo City, Laguna. And like your family betty q, we call this bean PAAYAP as well and cooked in the same fashion as the Batanguenos.
January 28th, 2008i prefer these short sitaw over their long counterparts..they are much tastier and much sweeter..too bad its not that easy to find them in markets in manila…i hope Manila Market will cook adobo with them :-)
January 28th, 2008Just looking at these posts,MM…Paayap and the Palayok brings me back in time…to a happy place! Please don’t get me wrong…I am happy where I am…Your post brings back Memories of TAWILIS and DULONG wrapped in young banana leaves cooked in the palayok which my aunt would have prepared for us…I know that I can substitute silverfish here for the dulong but can’t get Tawilis even at Filipino stores here (not where I live anyway)…don’t have access to fresh YOUNG banana leaves…can grow them but no more room in my garden!
January 28th, 2008dhanggit adobo with sitaw?? anyway the philippine store here in Athens sells them and they are grown here … it all started the Ilocanos bringing some seeds over to cut the story short
January 28th, 2008we get them at “manila town”… an area in Athens.
will hop to manila town later on and check whats available.
wished it thursday today cargo from manila arrives with mangoes….
sha, I think dhanggit means adobong sitaw, which is a dish with sitaw, soy sauce and a touch of vinegar and some pork… sha, are there lots of Filipinos in Greece?
January 28th, 2008MM,I think it’s called kibal in Batangas. I remember my mom boils it with ginger and garlic.
January 28th, 2008MM, betty q, et al., I learned something new from you — that a veggie I have called apayap for almost 20 years (that’s what I thought I heard them called it in Tanauan, Batangas market!) is actually paayap!!! Tends to be more crunchy than sitaw, di ba?
January 28th, 2008Cumin: If my memory serves me right, you are abssolutely right…it has texture and a bit of a bite…Are you from Tanauan? if you are, then you know Palairos and the Aling Atay’s BIBINGKA…Does she still make it? Aling Atay told my cousin how to make her bibingka…I have to try it one of these days.
January 29th, 2008Looks like a very good source of fiber and favoring the beans more than the green flesh. Have not seen this one before.
January 29th, 2008This is the kind of sitaw we used to eat at my hometown.
January 29th, 2008betty q: No, I’m not from Tanauan, but I used to go there every weekend for several years. I loved the market, have never before seen those hills of squash and sintones and the most wonderfully fresh veggies. For those who don’t know Tanauan, it’s the ‘bagsakan’ of traders from Mindoro and Batangas, which attracts traders from Manila. I also have fond memories of Panaderia Pantoja across the street from the market which baked all those old fashioned cookies.
January 29th, 2008Hi MM!
Up in the north, esp in Nueva Ecija its called Sitaw na Turo.Its the tougher variety of the more tender sitaw. My mom used to cook it sauteed with onions and tomatoes and topped with lechon kawali or chicharon . When it matured the skin gets stringy and matigas kaya kinikuha na lang ang mga beans sa loob instead of sauteing the whole thing. Great with mounds of hot white rice…
January 29th, 2008Same with luc faminiano, we call it kibal in Batangas. My lola used to grow this in her farm. What we normally do is boil rice wash, put ginger and garlic and then add the meat (preferably beef or pork ribs), then this vegetable. Boil until beef is tender. Serve with patis and kalamansi. hayyy… will try to look for it this weekend… =)
January 29th, 2008we call it kibal too and like jem we put some beef or pork ribs or cook bulanglang with wild mushrooms called kulat-kulat superb with bagoong balayan and kalamansi
January 30th, 2008yup! for us batangueno it’s also called as kibal. the only vegetable i loved to eat when i was just a kid. my lola used to cook it as bulanglang with only minced garlic and ginger to be boiled in a rice wash. when we’re lucky pork ribs were added too. w/ or w/o the flavor of pork i couldn’t hold enough for my appetite to rise up, basta i have sawsawan of kalamnsi and bagoong isda or even salt will do. yummy! up to now it’s one of my fave, still cook as bulanglang but goes with different sorts of vegetables already for my kids nourishment.
January 30th, 2008ala eh i love kibal Inay cooked it simply with ginger and salt
February 2nd, 2008it goes well with pritong tulingan and rice i wish i could find them here in Smoky mountain TN ;) purong Batangueno
This is a very interesting topic. I grew up in Lipa City, Batangas. But I’ve been living abroad since 1982. It really brings back old childhood memories.We call this “kibal”. It’s one of my favorite vegetables which my father used to grow in his farms. The young and still tender ones are called “ngusngusin” and we eat it dipped in kalamansi juice with a bit of bagoong or patis after cooking in rice washing with ginger and salt.
February 2nd, 2008oh i love sitaw.. we usually add this vegie in our sinigang recipes with labanos. match with toyo and kalamansi . the best comfort food for me.
February 3rd, 2008love PAAYAP as bulanglang condiment, but love it better when sauteed with kadyos , condol and ground pork or chicken…
February 3rd, 2008