Fresh, Simple, Luscious...The Capiz Way

MANILA, Philippines - Overwhelmed, amazed, awestruck. Surely that was how we felt on our first day in Capiz, when we arrived nearly lunch time that Saturday morning in Roxas city.

How else would a visitor to feel when met by a group of gracious Capizeños, each one inviting you to partake of massive amounts of food laid out on the long buffet table? And how would one feel seeing giant nets, handled by at least two persons, scoop live fish from their enclosure, then throwing them onto a burning griller and on to the plates of hungry diners?

Capiz food, we heartily found out after a series of dining pleasures, is fresh, simple and luscious. Our hosts were Judy Araneta-Roxas, Marla Yotoko-Chorengel, Governor Victor Tanco, Congressman Antonio del Rosario, Mayor Angel Allan Celino and Vice Mayor Ronnie Dadivas.

Capiz supplies most of the seafood sold in markets all over the country, no doubt leading to the province’s claim as the Seafood Capital of the Philippines. And so when in Roxas city, one must eat as the natives do, and it is an even bigger treat when one is brought to a fish pond (we were in two!) to have those fresh, simply prepared, luscious shells, crabs, fish and prawns.

The Capiz folk do not waste anything. The more traditional grilled seafood is what we would call normal food. But wait til you talk to the ‘natives’ and discover more exotic offerings. There’s adobong tinae – pardon the word – actually innards of fish, mostly bangus. This is rinsed very well, marinated in vinegar or tuba (coconut vinegar), garlic, toyo (soy sauce) and calamansi. Despite the initial turn-off because of its name, this actually tastes good. 

Then there’s gatas-an – mammary glands of pigs – in a recipe unique to the family of sisters Angie, Carmel and Lina, which we had during breakfast at Angie’s home along Baybay Beach. This is seasoned like tapa (cured meat) and has the consistency of full bodied kikiam (Chinese inspired meat rolls) – quite good, as well. There’s bas-oy, similar to our bachoy, but cooked with tomatoes and tanglad (lemongrass). There’s balangchoy, our own tuyo and their short and long longganiza.

Walking along the beach, when one digs (with his feet) into the sand, a tulya-like shell they call cagaykay surfaces and can be collected to be boiled in water and ginger. It makes a good starter dish. And then there is the queen of them all, the diwal, a rare, unique shell commonly called angel wings because the shells opens up like wings. They were nearly extinct but the Capizeños rallied to rescue and bred them, quite successfully. Judy made sure during our last dinner there that we had diwal, truly divine, dripping with its flavorful juice which you slurp up, then follow by savoring its soft flesh that has an almost creamy texture and is more tender than mussels, without the latter’s hairy strips.

And the sweets! A lot of us grew up with pineapple upside down cake. With the advent of the countless nouveau baked goodies, we nearly forgot about how our lolas and mamas fed us with this cake. A couple of young Capizenos, Rayan and his wife, revived the pineapple upside down cake from a recipe left by their lola, the original baker of Angelique’s, which has been renamed Mamaita’s House of Sweets.   We just had to steal a few moments away from the organized activities, curious at what was baking there. We were pleasantly surprised with Patelitos de Mangga, Ita’s Bread Pudding, the fully filled (with heavy creamed egg yolks) brazo de mercedes, which we brought home together with the pastelitos, and custard tarts. A take on modern bakery products is the original fresh orange cake by Carmel, done with the flavor of the citrus and topped with slices of the fresh fruit. She also makes bottled tuyo in olive oil. Truly a very delicious end to a lovely weekend.

Capiz, we just might come again!