jerk bbQ

Jerk has changed quite a bit since its invention in the 17th century by
the escaped slaves known as Maroons. These freedom fighters (and early
gourmets) subsisted on wild boar while they were fighting the British,
and to preserve the meat they rubbed it with a mixture of spices. Today,
the aromatic blend has developed to include allspice, nutmeg, thyme,
and Scotch bonnet chiles. But you see chicken more often than pork, and
grills made from oil drums instead of traditional wood fires. That's why
anyone visiting the North Coast resort town of Ocho Rios should take
the quick 12-mile trip to the valley of Faith's Pen
(about 12 miles south on Highway A3, just past the little town of St.
Faith). Dozens of roadside stalls here serve perfect renditions of jerk
pork loin (and chicken, if you insist). Smoke from the pimento wood
intensifies the already-energetic spices and creates a tasty crust
surrounding the juicy flesh. And you thought you'd find heaven on
Jamaica's beaches!

Chicken Skin Barbecue Recipe, Filipino Street Food

People who like to read, specially those who read about health and who are conscious of it always prefer to eat chicken breast because it has minute amount of fat. People who are either suicidal or brave eat the part that has 75% fat in it – the chicken’s skin. Even though we don’t read, we are not suicidal, we are brave and can pile drive any sort of fowl. Not to mention, the taste of chicken breast compared to chicken skin is like comparing the blind with 20/20 eyesight with night vision goggles in the dark. For those who want to stay healthy but blind can start peeling the skin off the breast. For those who are brave, let’s start skinning the cowards and make chicken skin barbecue.

Marinate your chicken skin with our basic barbecue jus (and as usual, each 100 grams is to):

1 lime or 3 calamansi or if you don’t have either 1/2 a cup of vinegar for every 500 grams

1 tablespoon of banana ketchup or tomato sauce

1 long chili pepper, any color will do including carnation pink

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

1 teaspoon of finely chopped ginger and garlic (did I say for each 100 grams?)

1 small red onion for every 500 grams

2 bay leaves for every 500 grams again

The basic thing to do with your marinade is to mix it all separately first before you dunk Angelina Jolie in to make sure it won’t go brad. Chicken skin is not a sponge; so you need to marinate it for 4 hours first before you poke them with your tiny spears.

Choose bamboo skewers for spears. While you’re marinating your beauties, drown those skewers in water. I don’t know what the reason for it is but I just do it. I suggest you should too because I heard that before they sell those bamboo skewers they put curses in them and the only way to cleanse it from evil incantations is to drop it in water and let it swim. If it stays down it has been cleansed. If it floats you can put a sail on it and maybe take a picture. Too much mucking around 4 hours has passed and your chicken skin is ready for poking!

Now let’s be careful while we do the skewering:

Rule Number 1

Skewer the chicken skins, not your own.

Rule Number 2

Do not play with your food. Do not be silly and spear anyone with your bamboo skewers. Seriously. My auntie-grandma lost her eye when my uncle-grandpa darted in jest a fish bone to her eye.

Rule Number 3

Are your bamboo spears wet? It should be. Because if they are dry as your marriage you can and will plant splinters in your finger. I told you, these bamboo skewers have curses.

Rule Number 4

Don’t be lonely. Skewering your chicken skins require two pairs of hands and up. If you do this alone, I pity you. Grab anyone on the back of their neck to join the poking and spearing spree. If you’re skewering with someone under 18 you might be charged with statutory rape… you fornicator.

Rule Number 5

When skewering, make sure that your chicken skins are not too thick or too thin on the stick. If it’s too thick or too heavy it won’t cook well so you can say hello salmonella. If it’s too thin, you will make coals out of your chicken skin barbecue.

Chicken Skin Barbecue Raw

Happy happy joy joy let’s start doing our chicken skin barbecue!

If you are using coal make sure that the gap between your chicken skin barbecue and fire is not less than 2 inches. Because these suckers are made of fat, there will be flames, there will be fire so watch out with a glass of water on hand to extinguish the inferno. It’s cool if you have some burnt areas on the skin but it’s way cooler if it’s not burnt from the tip of the stick to the handle. Watch it carefully like Dracula.

If you are using an oven griller, that’s 225 degrees Celsius or 391 degrees Fahrenheit, again not less than 2 inches gap.

If you are using a barbecue monster machine, choose medium heat.

Before the cooking side gets burnt or displays a few burnt skins, flip it to the other side. To know if it’s cooked or not, get a part of the tip and give it a taste test. Do not taste test yet if you’ve only cooked one side of it, we are not idiots here. And spit it out if it’s still raw, do not force yourself to swallow raw chicken skin. It ain’t cool.

Discard your marinade. For your finishing touches:

2 tablespoons of nut oil

2 tablespoons of ketchup

1 lime

Mix them all together and dab the dressing on your chicken skin barbecues.

Chicken Skin Barbecue

DISCLAIMER

If you hate your partner in life, do no kill him/her/it with this chicken skin barbecue recipe. There are many ways to skin a chicken. I suggest you talk about it and rekindle the lost flame. If you get a sudden surge in your blood pressure, there is this thing called Neobloc for 50 milligrams but do not take it yet. See your doctor instead, he might need money these days as everyone seems to be going the healthy road. This recipe is not for the frail of heart.

Binatog

boiled white corn kernels is a popular Filipino snack and street food. This is made by soaking mature white corn in water and salt until puffed. The soaked corns are then boiled until the skin almost peel off. Excess water is drained and the corn is placed in a bowl or plate then topped with either sugar or salt (sometimes both) and generous amounts of grated coconut.


Whenever I think of this simple yet satisfying Filipino street food, I remember the Binatog vendor that roamed around the streets of our subdivision every afternoon. He was riding a big bicycle with two covered pails secured at the back: the first pail holds all the boiled corn kernels while the other one contains the grated coconut, salt, sugar, and serving spoons. Back in those days, we need to provide our own bowl or container for the Binatog since the vendors do not carry disposable cups or bowls yet. Just like the Taho vendor, the “Magbibinatog” or Binatog vendor also advertises his product by shouting to the top of his lungs …“Binatooog!!!” I wonder if these guys still roam the streets as they do a couple of decades back.

Taco....

Mexico.....The taco is made for snackers on the move, the invention, supposedly, of
itinerant Mexican cowboys who relished the convenience of an edible
plate. Given its modest origins, it's no surprise that when connoisseurs
nominate their favorite taco spots, they're more likely to name street
corners than proper restaurants.

Pinoy popped rice

Most of the time its those ball shape one we get, this popped rice was often a pasalubong treat from the market when we were young. Now it has evolved to those that have been "painted with colors" to entice buyers. But it's still the plain one that makes the most out of this buti memories

Empanadas of ilocos...

The empanada recipe traces itself back to our Spanish heritage, but the recipe varies from country to country (at least, those who have histories of Spanish colonization). Commonly, an empanada is stuffing wrapped in bread. In the Philippines, particularly, they usually contain ground beef or chicken meat, potato, chopped onion, and raisins (somewhat similar to the Cuban “picadillo”) in a sweetish wheat flour dough. There are “bready” baked versions, as well as flaky oil fried versions.

In Manila, empanadas are sold in bakeries and restaurants and are typically small in size. However, empanadas in the northern Ilocos region are very different. These ones can fill a small plate, and is already a small meal in itself. The unusually savory filling is made up of green papaya, monggo beans and, upon request, chopped Ilocano longganisa (Chorizo) and whole egg, to top it off. Rather than the soft, sweet dough favored in the Tagalog versions, the dough used to enclose the filling is thin and crisp, mostly because Ilocano empanada uses rice flour, coloured orange with achuete (annatto), and is deep-fried rather than baked.

ukoy or okoy

Ukoy pronounced as Okoy
is a batter-based, deep-fried street food in the Philippines. It
normally includes bean sprouts and very small shrimps shells and all in
the batter. It is commonly dipped in a combination of vinegar and chili.

Buro...

Buro is freshwater fish fermented in salt and ba-aw (ba-ao, bahaw, steamed rice). It is the foulest smelling edible thing in all the whole wide world, but ironically, it is eaten as an appetizer.

Buro is actually a means of preserving seasonal freshwater fish from the times when electricity has not been invented. The prized fish dalag (mudfish), which comes out of hibernation during the rainy season, is salted and fermented with salted cooked rice to preserve the surplus. So are the native tilapia - small, thin and black - and the rare gourami, which burrow in mud during the dry spell.

These are still the preferred fish to be fermented in a buro today, still as a means of preserving, but more as a way of keeping on with tradition. Nowadays it has actually attained the status of a native delicacy. The buro'n tilapia and gourami are the more common, with the buro'n dalag - since the fish is more rare, the flesh more tasty - commanding about Php250/kg.

I know buro is eaten in other places in the country, like burong talangka (salted fermented mud crabs) in Bulacan, burong hipon (small shrimps fermented in rice) in Pampanga, burong mustasa (salted mustard leaves in water) in Cavite, plus we also have burong mangga (salted unripe mangoes in water) in Pangasinan.

In Pangasinan, though, when you speak of buro - without any qualifier - you refer to the fish fermented with rice. The tang and fermented taste of buro is much, much more pronounced than any other buro outside the province. It is as sour as any spoiled food if you have ventured to eat some (I haven't, but I eat buro).

It is actually indescribable, and those who did not grow up with buro being served on the table will be really turned off by the smell alone. When I was a kid I could not tolerate it on the table if it were placed in front of me. But you get used to it, and once your tastebuds have desensitized a little, you will find that because you're eating it, it will propel you to eat a lot more than what you usually do.

I find this to be the greatest irony of all.


The process of fermentation is pretty straight forward - de-scale, de-gut and clean the fish, rub with sea salt, then mix with cooled steamed rice also mixed with salt. Store, preferably in a covered banga (clay pot) although nowadays it is kept in a plastic container. In three days the buro has fermented well enough to be eaten.

When in season, unripe, julienned labong is topped on the buro before it is fermented.

To tame the taste a little, fresh buro is sauteed with lots of peeled, thinly sliced ginger root and tomatoes. This somewhat defeats the idea of buro, because the tomatoes will shorten the buro's shelf life. But the sauteeing adds to the appeal of buro, enriching the flavors.

Buro is not eaten as an appetizer per se, but small amounts - pea-sized - is eaten along with every spoonful of the meal. It pairs excellently with any native viand and vegetable dish - usually fried or grilled fish, pakbet and dishes cooked in bagoong.

They say that not everybody can make buro - and I agree. Despite the small number of ingredients and the simplicity of the process, not all buro made come out the same.

I have smelled, and not eaten, the buro made by a grand-aunt, who had been the subject of so many grand green jokes and snickers from many of her housemates because of the smell of her buro. It had been called not just ma-anglit, but also ma-ampap. I am not going to translate what these two words mean for purposes of, uhm, sensitivity? delicacy? (let's just say I don't want to offend anybody's sensibilities). But if you're not from the province go ask your Pangasinense friends. You will get my drift.

Shawarma

Shawarma from bahrain..... is a popular local snack consisting of rolled pita bread filled
with lamb or chicken carved from a rotating spit, and a bit of salad to
boot. You’ll see countless roadside restaurants and stands offering
shawarma for as little as 250 fils each, and they make a great
alternative to the usual fast food of burgers and fries. In residential
areas, the small cluster of shops at a mosque is often a good place to
start looking for your local shawarma outlet. These restaurants and
stands usually sell other dishes, such as ‘foul’ (a paste made from fava
beans) and ‘falafel’ (or ta’amiya), which are small savoury balls of
deep-fried beans. Many also offer freshly squeezed fruit juices for
around 300 fils. The Saar/Budaiya area is home to a well-known Lebanese
restaurant, Fakhruddin, whose shawarma are extremely popular with expats
and locals. On the Budaiya Highway, it is hard to beat Golden Dough
take-away for authentic taste. Don’t forget to mention your personal
preferences to the vendor at the shawarma stand, or you may find
yourself dealing with a chip-filled blow-your-brains-out spicy
concoction.

isaw....fishballs....toknene or kwek kwek

Pantawid-gutom, delicacy, pasalubong, forbidden fruit, lunch–Pinoy street food is all these and more. It's what your mother tried to hide from you when you passed it on the street, and it's what probably ended up providing sustenance through hungry periods of empty wallets. Here are a few of your old-time favorites and some fresh-off-the street newbies from the entrails and innards of Quiapo, Taft Avenue and Diliman. 1. Isaw (P3 per stick) Despite horror stories of feces still stuck in these intestines, isaw remains close to the Pinoy's heart. Vendors with a conscience boil the pork and chicken intestines first before grilling them, better when slightly overcooked for that crunch and best with that perfect sawsawan made from seasoned vinegar. Can taste like chicken or pork if you close your eyes. An update to this classic is the breaded isaw, which is what it sounds like: isaw covered with breading. Not a good combination; the original is much better. 2. Fishballs (P10 for 16 to 20 pieces) Though they don't really taste like fish and they're not really balls, fishballs are still one of the best-selling kinds of street food. Made from pulverized fish meat, one could theorize that maybe all that pulverizing took out the fish taste? By itself, fishballs taste a bit bland like flour–but they come alive with the sauce. There are usually three kinds of sauce: sweet and sour, spicy sweet and sour, and seasoned vinegar–hopefully not a.k.a. Hepa A, Hepa B and Gastroenteritis. 3. Kwek kwek (P3 per piece) Kwek kwek or tokneneng are the devious little quail eggs that pack more cholesterol than the average chicken egg. They're hard to miss with that orange wrapping made from flour and orange food coloring. Douse with seasoned vinegar or the same sauces as the fishball and you've got a winner.

calamari..sorbetes...hotcakes

8. Squid Rings (P3 per piece) It's your favorite pulutan, only much cheaper! These deep-fried batter-covered squid rings taste like the usual calamares, but not as soft. What do you expect from three pesos a piece? 9. Dirty Ice Cream Sandwich (P5 per sandwich) No banana split or sundae can ever compare to a piece of monay filled with scoops of mango, chocolate and ube ice cream. The rock-bottom price makes it sweeter. Just get your teeth ready because every cold bite is painful. It's no good when thawed so you either have to literally suck it up or be a pansy and eat it with a spoon. 10. Street hotcakes (P5 per hotcake) Beckoning with their bright orange color, they looks harmless enough; just a little piece of waffle, you think. You're dead wrong. Like the regular hotcake, its batter is made of flour, margarine, sugar–and orange food coloring. It's cooked in front of you with an iron waffle maker, pressed on a plate of sugar and then smothered with even more margarine. The texture is different from the usual hotcake; it's a little sticky, sort of like kakanin. It's such a guilty pleasure that you'll want more than one. Can you say heart attack?

Betamax..

7. Betamax (P3 per stick) The real Betamax might be extinct but this Betamax lives on. They're actually cubes of chicken blood that resemble a Betamax tape, hence the name. The blood is cooked to make it solid, then cut into cubes, grilled and dunked into seasoned vinegar. It looks like chocolate, but without the vinegar it has no flavor. The texture is a bit gummy, which contributes to the initial turn-off factor. Bet that buhlud-YouTube-famous kid won't find this funny either.

helmet....

6. Helmet (P7 per stick) Failure to wear this won't earn you a traffic violation ticket. A "helmet" is actually the head of a chicken that is marinated, skewered and then grilled. One blog says that the name helmet came from the apparel brand Head, which some people called helmet. Once you get past the thought that it's a head with beady eyes staring right at you, it actually tastes quite good. Eating it is like eating chicken neck: lots of bones and little strips of meat.