Semi-Dried Caraballas Fish…

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We spied this man making some semi-dried caraballas (or salay-salay or smooth-tailed trevally) at one end of the fresh seafood market. A huge catch of undersized (shouldn’t they have put them back you think to yourself) caraballas were first soaked in a brine made of salt and water for 6 hours.

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The fish are then rinsed with fresh water to remove excess salt…

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…then placed on nets to semi-dry in the sun.

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They come out looking meatier than the usual fully dried daing, and a little soft to the touch. I am told these are usually consumed within a week or so of buying them, as again, they have a tendency to mold since they are only partially dried.

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Locals in Bantayan and surrounding islands prefer these semi-dried fish as they approximate eating a meaty fresh fish better than the totally parched and heavily salted dried fish that go to big city markets.

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7 Responses

  1. I love it when you post your finds in the local markets, makes me want to come home, buy and try them all. I was in the Philippines for more than 30 years and learned very little about the regional food. I have to say, I know more now than ever since following your blog :) I love salay-salay and I love daing, this food find is just perfect! I wish I were there!

  2. Fresh fish is delightful but dried fish is indispensable. Take for instance the rapidly disappearing cod. Firm and flavourful when fresh but totally addictive as salt cod. Or our tuyo. Pangat na tunsoy or sinilyase is breakfast for a champ but it would not beat tuyo at any count in my book. It’s like the distinction I recently heard: the difference between bull and bullock.

  3. Dalinu-an in our dialect. I never tried this fish in its dried/semi-dried state yet.

  4. We have the equivalent of your semi dried fish over at Korean grocery stores here. They have semi dried yellow croaker and sole threaded by the lip on a rod. Beside it is a pair of scissors and consumer can pick her fish and cut it. Not as salty as our tuyo!

    This is once in a lifetime indulgence for me now …dried fish and desserts or I will croak!

  5. My mother was from bantayan, they call semi-dried fish as labtingaw. Yes it’s better to eat that semi-dried.

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