Whenever we are out at the beach, we try to hit the local Nasugbu market and stock up on fresh fish. Prices aren’t much lower than Manila, but the quality and freshness is usually well worth the effort. Manang Nene is one of our sukis at the market, and we have been going to her for some 9-10 years. She always seems to have a good selection of alumahan, galunggong, an occasional talakitok, etc. Not the fancier types of fish… more the “everyday” deep fryable, or grillable favorites. On our most recent trip, we stopped by her stall to buy 6 kilos of alumahan.
She almost always has the freshest looking fish, and I suspect her relatives or neighbors actually catch much of it, rather than just re-selling the stock of large suppliers or wholesalers. Her pans of fish rest on top of large pails that hold additional stocks…
…like any truly good suki, she tells me when the fish isn’t as fresh as it should be, hence I pass on whatever she has on offer that day. Located near the street side of the market, she and her partner (not sure if he is a spouse, friend, significant other) can spot me coming to market from 50 plus meters away… And they always let me know if there are good pickings!
I never noticed this sign of hers before, but it hangs just above her head on her corner spot at the market. Look for it the next time you are in the Nasugbu market.
And talk about good timing… check out the t-shirt on Manang’s partner who was tasked with cleaning out the entrails of the fish we just purchased. Does it look familiar? :) Now what are the chances of my dropping in (say 1-2x a month only) and he would be wearing that particular t-shirt?! :)
47 Responses
I was just talking to my dad the other day and have told him how i miss the paksiw na alumahan, my ultimate favorite breakfast with fried rice. Nice shirt too! How can we get one of those..
Deep fried fish with tuyo and lemonsito. Yum..
Nice shirt. Is that on sale somewhere? ;) Those are fresh looking fish! Nice catch!
Those are really fresh fish, the eyes are clear, the belly intact, miss them so much.. salted, panfried till crisp with side of chopped tomatoes mixed with chopped onions and dash of bagoong served with garlic fried rice and hot coffee.
fried alumaha, salted duck eggs & tomoates with sinangag…wow heaven!
Lucky you — those look really FRESH! Initially I thought they were Hasa-hasa, don’t you think they look alike? I always mistake them for the other,hehe. I only get to buy sea foods from SM supermarket wet section :(
Great plugging with the shirt!
MM, love to have the shirt… where can i get one? or two? or three?
what a transition..from white tulips to alumahan suddenly..not complaining though :-)
such freshness!! the skin and eyes are gleaming! i thought that was you squatting in front of aling nene, MM..
While at a beach in Puerto Princesa, the toothless old woman who rented out her thatched kubo for shade saw us grilling tulingan on a makeshift grill. Oh, she said, “we only feed that to the dogs. Come early next time when the fisherfolk arrive for the freshest catch of lapulapu!” What a fishsnob! But the tulingan was dalish with an eggplant salad and some greens.
by looking at the second picture, i think the alumahan is what we call the anduhaw in cebu. am i right, mm? anyone? i love to eat that hot from the fryer and with sukang pinakurat with a little calamansi.
part of buying in palengke is having honest tinderas like manang nene. I have several like her too. They would tell you that a certain produce they sell is not really that cheap nor fresh any more. You wonder why they do that although you see the wisdom in that it will make good business in the long run!
I like posts like these, MM!
My suki in the Macapagal Ave and Baclaran Seaside Market also tells me whenever she doesn’t have the freshest item. I love her for that. Sadly, the same thing cannot be said about her substitutes when she isn’t around.
Biro lang, pero baka yan lang ang t-shirt niya? Hahaha. Dagdagan mo pa kaya…
oh my..i know her.im from nasugbu.every sunday i go there same market!
Big smile re your post on Manang Nene – serependity re the Market Manila shirt.
oops serendipity
Uuuy,gusto ko ng shirt na yan! I like this post!When I was young,every weekend we would visit my lola and go to Dalahican Fishport in Lucena,Quezon.The first fish I knew by heart was the tulingan.
ang cute!!
Anduhaw! Love it. BTW, ConnieC, did the woman say that they feed the dogs tulingan? Aren’t dogs allergic to that? My father mistakenly fed our Lab some tulingan and he broke out in allergies!
Alumahan na pinaksiw then fried. I tried it in San Juan (Batangas) and it was… amazing!
This post made me miss the sight, sound and not to forget the smell of a bustling wet market. I hope the grilled fish turned out good as it looked!
I enjoyed this post, MM. My mom and late grandmother both sold fish at the neighbourhood talipapa and in (I believe) Paco market when they were young. I bet their sukis remember them well too :-)
how serendipitous naman on the guy wearing the Suki shirt. :) those fish look so fresh, not one red eye amongst them. hmm, i don’t think i’ve ever had alumahan…unless it was called something else in kapampangan and i just didn’t know it.
Yes Toping, I thought so too. Even humans react to tulingan . What we actually had is the yellow fin tuna, still a tulingan right? that is why I can never forget the woman’s remarks and snobbish attitude to our fish. We just rolled our eyes and went on with our business. I guess alumahan and galunggong as fresh as they come would belong to that category , if we take the woman’s word seriously.
But maybe her native ascals (asong calle) aren’t as sensitive as your Lab. :)
I want that shirt as well :)
Mr. MM, did somebody tell Manang Neneng’s partner to wear that shirt because you are going there at Nasugbu? I have a strong feeling that he was told to do so. That’s an excellent way of advertising your food blog, and at the same time Manang Neneng got hers too, that’s a give and take public exposure, and hopefully it will help her small business.
correction made: Manang Nene instead of Manang Neneng. Sorry for the typo error. :(
Upstate New Yorker and others… the t-shirt is from the feeding program from 2 years ago. I gave them to readers who donated to the feeding program in the Philippines. They had various sayings, see this post here. They are not for sale, nor are there any left. That Christmas, I gave all of my market sukis those marketmanila.com shirts as a present. The market vendors were supposed to get the dark green shirts only, to differentiate them from the other shirts, in other words, I had dark green specially made as my Christmas gifts, but I must have run out of dark green so this guy got a white one. My trips to Nasugbu are infrequent and totally unannounced. I sincerely doubt the wearing of the t-shirt on that particular day was intentional. And trust me, Manang Nene has no idea why I took her picture at all… :)
It’s always hard to tell which is the hasa-hasa & alumahan at the fish markets but I guess hasa-hasa is smaller & the alumihan looks more plump. A perfect meal that I crave = fried hasa-hasa or alumihan with sliced cucumbers in a simple mixture of vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper with steamed rice :) Thanks for sharing your suki with us!
So alumahan is anduhaw. What is gutob in Tagalog?
That is so cool for you to catch that guy wearing your
t-shirt…what are the chances! Love it!
Alumahan = Long Jawed Mackerel. There are other local names for it as well.
Fried mackerel with spicy vinegar and a side dish of mango-tomatoes-onions-bagoong mashup. Sarap. Just have to be careful of the rice intake.
MM, just wondering when are we going to see your beach house or residence in Urban zone? I like that show.
I love alumahan. They are plentiful in Hong Kong wet markets and cheap too. I usually cut out the head and remove the stomach bones and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Take 2 tablespoons of redcurrant jelly that has been melted on top of boiling water, add grated lime peel and a tablespoon of white wine. Use this to baste the alumahan and grill.
Usually serve it with roasted potatoes and steamed vegetables. You can do this too with galunggung. Yummy!!!
Looking at these pictures makes me really miss home. I love galunggong, it’s my favorite. My father always makes ‘pangat’ or ‘pinangat’ and it’s the best! He ‘pangat’ the galunggong first before frying them.
Talakitok!!! Kaya kong kumain ng isang dosenang pinangat na talakitok sa isang upuan!!!! Na-homesick na naman ako, waaaahhhh!!!!
connie c…i’m not so sure, but as local vendors here in batangas wet market often referred “tambakol” as the yellow fin…
I haven’t seen fish this fresh in ages! Gorgeous! Alumahan looks the same as what we call aguma-a in Waray. We’d usually cook this simply grilled while the smaller hasa-hasa we’d fry until crispy and we’d eat it bones and all. Crunch-crunch, yum! :)
BTW, MM, I’m going to Paris mid-September and I’ve been taking notes from your Paris posts. :)
atbnorge: could it be you are referrring to “maliputo?”
Doc…My Inay would usually buy tambakol but already cut into steaks. Anyway, be it tamakol or tulingan, masarap sila lahat! Like Alilay…I prefer it cooked sinaing with gata.
mdg: thought all tunas are tulingan, or at least they are cousins, the tambakol being the larger cousin.
BettyQ, yes, I also like them cooked in gata, sometimes adding dilaw ( turmeric) to it.
I have only been frequenting the fish market since wintering in Puerto Princesa in the last four years, so I have yet to know my fish.
I will definitely look for manang nene when I go back home to Nasugbu next year :-)
WTF! I know her. She lives across the Nasugbu wet market. I live in Pancit Balita, the panciteria behind the market. ^^ I’ll tell her I saw her on the net. Tee hee.
OMG! Ms Nene died yesterday (14/3/2010)… RIP :-(
Jenny, are you sure? That’s very sad news, she was a gem in the Nasugbu market…
cool T-shirt huh…:) this fish tastes a lil sweet especially if fresh…try it “sinugba” style along with “sinamak” and hot rice cooked in “uling” on a Sunday morning after church….simple…tastes like heaven…:)
sorry to hear about, Manang Nene…:(
i need supplier of galunggong, gagawin lang tinapa. tx me 09266539983