Hello food lovers,
Today is another recipe for a food that I will present to you. Well, today we're making a salad of latô or in English, they are called sea grapes.
Locally we call this aquatic vegetable latô. For now, I can not specifically explain how they are cultivated but I believe they grow and are harvested by fishermen just like guso (another type of seaweed algae).
Usually, in the morning when you wander around our market here, you will find fresh seafood which already includes different seaweed since this market is located just a few steps away from the sea.
So when I found a very fresh-looking latô that morning I immediately bought a bow.
I also purchase additional ingredients to complete my salad. The green round thing is a lemoncito, it's a kind of citrus here that is very good to use in substituting vinegar. Then I have tomatoes and onions which are very common in preparing salads moreover I add spring onions but it's very optional.
How to prepare the latô.
The preparation of the sea grapes is simple. You just have to wash it thoroughly to remove the sand and if you want to keep eating without interruption, you can also remove the dried stems.
For our dressing, we just have to cut and separate the seeds and squeeze the lemoncito that is just right for the amount of our latô then combine the sliced tomatoes, onions, and spring onions. I didn't use salt here because our seaweed is already salty. In the end, I just put ground black pepper and it's ready to dip. At this moment it's your choice if you want to mix everything but here in Cebu usually this is how we eat this way.
I forgot one thing to make it even better. I forgot to pick chilies and I started eating, I was too lazy to stand up so I just kept eating.
How does it tastes like
Typically latô salads are eaten as an appetizer. To us, it is also best eaten with grilled dishes, especially seafood. When eaten alone, it just tastes like refreshing seawater that "pop" into your mouth. In addition to that, lato is considered a superfood. This food is loaded with nutritional and health benefits and packed with good sources of vitamins and minerals like vitamins A and C, calcium iron, and zinc.
I was also a fan of watching different cooking shows. I can tell I can compare them to caviar. Isn't it look like?