EARLY FOOD PRESERVATION 
METHODS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Smaller fish may be salted then dried whole (tuyo) individually, or layered in rock salt in containers (balbakwa to the Tagalogs; binuro to the llonggos), and later cooked in vinegar.

 Smaller fish like anchovies and baby sole are dried in neatly-layered mats. Other fish large or small may be smoked until the skin is golden (tinapa).

 Tiny fish that are not commercially viable are salted and allowed to ferment in large earthen jars till they yield the salty sauce called patis, which not only salts food while cooking or on the table, but also adds a subtle sea-salt flavor.

 Tiny shrimps may also be salted and dried (kalkag, among the llonggos) and used to flavor rice; larger ones may be peeled, salted and dried (hibe); or the smallest ones may be salted then fermented into the flavouring paste / relish called bagoong.

Both patis and bagoong, the research of Japanese food anthropologist Naomichi Ishige has shown, have analogues throughout Southeast Asia, and even in China and Japan. This is an Asian way with surplus fish and shrimps that has brought about an Asian flavor principle.


Chef's Notes: Culled from my term papers in graduate school.