Anchovies On Some Rare Occasions
Hello there Steemians!
It's mostly rare when we get to have anchovies as part of our meal. Personally, I am not so much of a fan of this kind of food. I find it a hassle when I eat this food, and I don't like that feeling when you chew those tiny bones. My parents, especially my father, like anchovies, be it freshly cooked or sun-dried. He actually told me that we can eat the whole of it. However, I don't really do it, I make sure to get rid of the bones and settle with the tiny flesh.
One time, particularly a few days ago before the rainy days apparently, my uncle went to the wet market early in the morning, and saw the freshly-caught tiny little fishes being sold by the fish vendors. Anyhow, he cooked the anchovies with vinegar and garlic, when he got home.
We call this dish "Inun-unang Bolinao" in the Cebuano dialect.
Meal Preparation
After cleaning and rinsing the anchovies, put them in the pan and add vinegar that's just enough to cover the entire anchovies. Add in some cloves of garlic. You may put in 5 cloves or more. Turn on the heat and wait for the vinegar to boil. Once it's boiling add in a half cup of water and a tablespoon of oil. Simmer for a while, until it boils again or until the anchovies are cooked. Then add salt and seasoning for flavoring.
If you have green chili pepper available, I suggest that you could include it in this kind of dish. I bet it's going to be even more tasty. Eventhough, it's kind of complicated thing eating tiny fishes like this, I like it paired with rice especially the sauce.
I certainly love the sauce of this paksiw or inun-unan. In fact, I am solved with just the rice and the sauce. I am not sure how the sauce is actually called, but I say it is "sabaw" in our dialect.
Some Things I Recently Learned About Anchovies
What I only know about this food is that it's called "dilis" in Tagalog, while in our dialect (which is Cebuano-Bisaya), we call it "bolinao".
I just found out that anchovy is also known as whitebait fish. I got this information from the flickr site. Please click here.
Below is a beautiful shot of whitebait fish or anchovies. I do not own the picture below. Click on the image source to view it on the owner's site. (image source)
