Comments on: Santol & Sugpo sa Gata / Santol and Prawns in Coconut Milk

By: Trina

Trina — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 02:49:35 +0000

In Vinzons, Camarines Norte, that tiny, sleepy Tagalog town in northern Bicol, we add balao, a dry shrimp paste that is more pungent and more potent than bagoong, to our sinantol. Balao is prepared in the coastal barrios in circular blocks about a foot in diameter, but you can have a couple of cubes sliced for you at the local tindahan. When she was alive my grandmother used to just hang a block near her pugon for convenience–balao is used in practically all the traditional Bicol-eastern Quezon dishes. Using balao will assault your olfactory faculties (mabaho talaga!), but will definitely make your sinantol a gustatory delight. ;D Also, we normally use a kudkuran ng niyog to grate a fine, even-textured sinantol off the peels, minus the moisture left in the bigger pieces when chopped.

P.S.
I believe you’ve lived in Indonesia–they also have balao there. :D

By: Blaise

Blaise — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 03:59:34 +0000

I remember that this Santol dish could be eaten by itself, as a side dish for a fried fish.. Yum!!

By: Blaise

Blaise — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 03:57:23 +0000

Oh yes, I remember that we had a similar dish when my college blockmates and I went to Bicol for our practicum.. We couldn’t believe it was santol either, but it was pretty good..

By: kaye

kaye — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 22:31:02 +0000

my grandmother used to cook fresh alamang (small shrimps) with santol.. she would just place the shrimps in a big wok and sautee them without oil and when the shrimps turned pink she would place the santol, which is skinned and cut into quarters with the shrimps. the heat would render the santol to give juice and soften it a little. after cookung i would place some calamnsi juice to my shrimp and santol and eat it with steamed rice. i miss my grandma thinking about this…

By: Lorily

Lorily — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 03:28:33 +0000

I love to try cooking this SINANTOL or gainataang santol, since it’s santol season now.

I’m a little bit afraid i might not get the taste i use to eat before given by my aunt from Quezon.

I’ll share it with you again once i cooked it on my own, hopefully it will turned out YUMMY…

By: Mila

Mila — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 01:02:13 +0000

I bought a Santol Bagoong from Chef’s Exchange last year. It was a different experience, I can say that I’ve never thought of adding santol to bagoong, cooked that is. I may have to try this recipe of MM’s soon!

By: Kai

Kai — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 03:21:08 +0000

A friend once gave me ginataang santol cooked by her mom in Daet. I loved it so much, so now I’m happy I could cook it myself. Thanks!

By: lee

lee — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 02:06:55 +0000

wow. this dish would need endless servings of rice! when will they invent a scent inducing output device in computers which will allow us to smell from the web. i would love the scent of this dish, and just have rice and salt. hehehh

By: Gigi

Gigi — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 23:59:42 +0000

A friend gave me a jar of homemade ginataang santol with shrimps a few weeks back. It was sensational!! I froze the batch and really budgeted my portions. Had it with barbeque (The best for me these days is Heaven’s Barbeque at The Zone where old Toyota Bel-air is and not Ineng’s which has drastically deteriorated).

By: Marketman

Marketman — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 07:50:32 +0000

Aleth I have tried twice to find the ripe native guavas you describe but have not been successful in local markets. It is possible that native guavas peaked earlier and only the large bangkok style guavas remain readily available. If I find some guavas, I will try the sinigang and post it… thanks! Ann, will try other regional recipes when I get the chance…