Exotic Food That Invites You To Eat

I went to the market today in Chinatown. While there, I saw some vegetables that made me remember our traditional Filipino food. There were eggplants, “ampalaya” a.k.a. bitter gourd, or bitter melon and morning glory ("kangkong"). At once, I bought them as I was anticipating about eating, cooking and coming home ASAP. I was starving because right after attending mass at 12:15 noontime at Ss Peter and Paul, I went to the market, impromptu. There, I also found and bought “bagoong” or shrimp paste. As soon as I arrived in our flat, I started to unpack and prepared to cook the boiled veggies. I ate them for lunch. After relocating here for three years now, it was my first time to buy shrimp paste and to cook it!


FYI, the Thais eat shrimps paste, too. However, they don't cook the shrimp paste as we Filipinos do. Thais make their version to be a bit watery and they add some local herbs that makes it very aromatic. They serve this with fried fish, assorted mix of boiled veggies and steamed rice.

If you were not born in Asia you won't want to eat this dish as this might not taste delicious in your palette at all as it is an acquired taste. But for the hundreds of Caucasians that I worked with overseas, over a period of time, they learned to eat the local food of the Filipinos, Thais, Burmese, Indians, Vietnamese and Koreans.

The shrimp paste I bought is from China. It is is creamy. In the Philippines, you can still see the texture of the tiny shrimps (they are a different variety, they are as small as a pin) and they are meant to be cooked only as shirmp paste or bagoong. Now I remember how those tiny shrimps are called- "ALAMANG!"

My paternal grandma whom we called "Nanay" (mother) instead of "Lola" (grandma) cooked it differently not as shrimp paste but as a regular viand. She fries the minced garlic first, then adds the onions and salt. After that, she pours the "alamang" until it gets a bit toasted. While it's being cooked, you can smell it- it's good and not stinky unlike the shrimp paste! Sometimes, she adds Italian coriander or Chinese celery to add flavor to it. My version is I do the above plus I add chili pepper. I want my food to be burning hot with chili pepper!

How did I cook the shrimp paste today?

I sautéed it in garlic and onions, added chili pepper and sugar plus vinegar to taste. Once cooked, I cooled it then placed it in the bottle. While cooking, I had to turn on the exhaust fan in the bathroom plus the kitchen exhaust.

Why did I turn on the fan despite the fact that it is so cool and breezy today in San Francisco?

Because shrimp paste is so stinky, I hope my neighbors were not scandalized by the odor. Hahahaha! To camouflage the odor, I lighted two huge aroma- therapy candles (apple flavor) and lit my honey suckle air freshener that boils with the tiny round candles underneath it. After 3 hours, the odor was gone! Gosh, talking about sacrifices to be able to eat my local delicacy, I had to do it to satisfy my gastronomic delight! Have a great day!