Hello guys, I am pinkhub and this is my first post here in Foodies Bee Hive. I'm really don't consider myself much of a foodie since I eat almost everything except Crabs and I don't usually care about the taste that is why I said I'm not much of a foodie but more of a glutton. I just want to share one of my favorite food and a little bit of story to go with it. I hope you all enjoy it and happy dinner to everyone
Here in the Philippines, most provincial areas always have a "Tabo Market" during Saturdays. A Tabo Market is a tradition here in the Philippines where they set a certain day of the week where vendors from all over the local province would gather either in the public market or in a designated place to sell their fruits, vegetables, meat, animals and other products. It is most like a flea market but with farms/poultry products included.
Anyways, yesterday was Saturday and there was a Tabo Market in our public market and I always go there early in the morning to buy fruits, meat, fish, spices, condiments and other necessities my family would need for the following week. I do this every single Saturday since prices of good during these times are much cheaper compared to the normal days due to the fact that vendors have a lot of competition. So I was walking in the market looking for the cheapest and freshest things I could buy and I saw this tall pale looking mountain like thing from far away and I would recognize that look from anywhere.
It's a "Bulad Bolinao" or a Dried Anchovy Fish. So I immediately ran towards the dried fish vendor and ask him how much for the bulad bolinao. He said it's 150 pesos / $3 for a 1/4 kilo of bulad bolinao. I was like "What the $U#*(&(@U#&(*&(@#$". I thought to myself why is it so expensive? It's like 600 pesos / $12 per kilogram of that thing. So I had no choice but I only bought 1/8 kilogram of it for 75 pesos or $1.5. I really love this food, it is one of my favorite food when I was young. I grew up in a very poor family and dried fish was one of our most common food because it was so cheap back then. That is why my title of this blog. Dried fish was once only food for the poor as rich people don't like the smell of dried fish. Honestly it stinks that is why they don't like it. Rich kids before would always tease us poor kids that we can only afford to eat dried fish every single day. So why is it so expensive now? It's like dried fishes are now made for the rich people and not for the poor like it used to be.
Nowadays this is now considered a delicacy due to it's crunchiness when fried. And the taste is just amazing well that's my humble opinion. I know many Filipinos here on HIVE would also agree that this food is absolutely tasty even with just a simple frying. But you can cook it in so many ways. I'm pretty sure the foodies here have already tried cooking this thing in many ways possible. But I still like it simple just like what I used to eat when I was young. So that's eat, pun intended. The once food for the poor people like me is now so expensive to the point that only rich people can buy it. I mean poor people can still buy it but that would tear a huge chunk of their budget to be honest.