CRAVINGS - "kinilaw na isda"

For the past few days, I’ve been craving to make and eat “kinilaw na isda” (raw fish salad) so yesterday morning the girls and I, along with Ate Susan took a trip to Viet Hoa a Vietnamese Supermarket, to buy fresh fish and the rest of the ingredients for the “kinilaw”.













Here are the ingredients we used:
2 ½ lbs Tanigue (I don’t know actually the English name of this fish, but my understanding calls for King Fish)
1 bottle coconut vinegar
3 Lemons squeezed
1 red onion chopped
4 stalks of green onions chopped
5 gloves of garlic minced
3 medium size cucumbers sliced
1 large radish sliced

Here’s the preparation:
We cut the fish into cubes (bite size), washed with water then marinated fish in coconut vinegar and chilled for at least an hour, drained then we combined all the ingredients and squeezed the lemons, seasoned it with salt and pepper and we mixed it!

Tarannnn! Our first KINILAW FISH EVER and believe me it was good, good enough to satisfy my cravings! Making our first “kinilaw” is simple, but it just takes more preparation time cutting all those ingredients.














I always associate the “kinilaw” with a beach outing, but since it was cold yesterday the only perfect place that I can think of and enjoy my “kinilaw” is at the comfort of my dinning table imagining the beach site!

What is "Kinilaw"
"The kinilaw moment is that instant when the raw fish meets the vinegar or other souring agent, and transformation begins from the raw state. The fish is cooked using vinegar as the meat turns opaque in color."

Though “kinilaw” may not be as popular as adobo, it certainly has a one-of-a-kind taste that many Pinoys, just like me who lives far from Philippines crave for.

Just looking at the photos makes me want to eat more “kinilaw na isda”, but it’s all gone! I ate it all for my lunch and dinner, nothing left for the next day, but personally I don’t think” kinilaw” is good on the second day!

My cravings ends with my late snack last night the Mango with bagoong (shrimp paste), lucky I found green mangoes at the market, so to complete all my cravings I bought mangoes too!

Ohh..... a bowl of sliced green mango served with good bagoong. I could feel the crunch of the unripe mango, the slightly astringent, incredibly sour shock to the taste buds, soon mitigated by the gentle squish of tiny shrimp shells that burst with a salty, bagoong flavor.

WOW!!! I just can’t believe that I ate all of this on my own last night!

And if you are staring at your monitors salivating… all I can say is, SORRY I will share it with you NEXT TIME!


THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY!