Thursday, August 11, 2005

 

Food Review 1: Day of the Tentacle

Key Words:

Hepa Contessa
The Hepa Contessa
New Section: Food Review
I'm starting a new section in this blog. I think I can fill up a gap in the food review scene by taking on the assignments that most culinary critics shy away from. Here I intend to give my comments on some of the "less-cultured" food places in Metro Manila. I love eating at these cut-away places.

Street vendors, Holes in the Wall, Carinderia's, Aristo-karts, Jolly Jeeps! Watch out! The Hepa-immune Connoisseur is on the prowl.
Tentacle Time!
I've always loved street food. Everything from "Green Mangoes on a Stick with Bagoong" to "Isaw" to "Fish balls" to "Samalamig" to "Scrambol". Every once in a while, though, I find some unconventional street fare that may be local to a certain portion of Metro Manila, Seasonal, or at the Experimental Stage.

Recently, I discovered one such gem along the crowded streets surrounding the University of Santo Tomas area. Street Fried Calamari, served with a generous bath of spiced vinegar and eaten from a paper boat tray with a barbecue stick. That's something you don't find all around the capital. And passing through the Dapitan streets, one can't help but be seduced by the smells wafting from this delicacy of sorts.

I took time out last Saturday to interview Mang Felipe, mollusk tycoon and entreprenuer extraordinaire. He gave me a quick lesson on the proper way of prepping and street frying the calamari.

In the Raw
In the Raw

Washbasin
Magic Washbasin

Breaded Tentacle
Breaded Tentacle

Frying in the Rain
I'll do my frying in the rain

Fried Heaven
Fried Heaven

Hot Vinegar
Hot Vinegar!

Breaded Tentacle Recipe
Ingredients:

  • 1 big red pail of Tentacle Beast Meat (it just wouldn't be right to call it squid
  • 1 sack of Bread Flour (the kind you can buy from bakeries)

  • 1 pack of Ajinomoto MSG

  • 1 pack Rock Salt

  • 1 pack Ground Black Pepper

  • 1 Gallon Baguio Cooking Oil

Procedure:

Take three large scoops of tentacle beast meat from the red pail and put it into an aluminum washbasin. Add the other ingredients except for the oil. Mix well and let sit for 5 minutes. While marinating the tentacle beast meat, pour a good amount of oil into a heated wok. Fry until crispy and golden brown. Serve on a wire-mesh strainer.
All in all it was, as it always is, a very pleasant experience. The only down side was having to deal with Mox's ire once she found out that I was getting my MSG overload. But for 20 Philippine Pesos for 7 large pieces of Breaded Mutant Calamari, it was well worth it. I got to have good food which was more than a steal, shoot the bull with a working man who had good stories to tell, and hang around old Manila which buzzed in a way that would make a bee hive proud. At the risk of sounding like a greeting card: In life you have to stop once in a while... and enjoy the fried tentacles.

# posted by ManongGuard @ 4:07 PM
Comments:
this will be fun to try out... just need to find them tentacle beasts. :)
# posted by Blogger r. : 1:08 PM
 
so this is new fare at the dapitan-asturias "streetlife's streetfood"? i still get a kick out of seiing one of the stalls there that says "shark spin".
# posted by Blogger ejpadero : 3:40 PM
 
typo on "seeing". nahilo ang shark. ;p
# posted by Blogger ejpadero : 3:41 PM
 
Nice one, dude! What're you gonna hit next?
# posted by Blogger Pinoy Wargamer : 12:12 PM
 
suggestments for next hepa episode: day-old chicks at your local market/sidewalk or how about a visit to QC's isaw mecca - UP Diliman (that isaw corner near the Protestant Church)?
# posted by Blogger ejpadero : 9:23 PM
 
I was told that octopus and squid is a high calorie, high cholesterol type of food. Is this true?
# posted by Blogger Janette Toral : 12:27 PM
 
Hmm... I'm not so sure. I do know that these are high on iodine which is not necessarily bad for you.

Still, whether they're using squid or octopi for these tentacle things, I'm pretty sure that health-buffs have taken notice to the MSG content. That alone means that you should try this at your own risk. Hehe.
# posted by Blogger ManongGuard : 2:36 PM
 
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