I'm Also A Street Food Junkie

spinning cotton candy

Contrary to what some of my friends and acquaintances may perceive of me, I do like to eat street food. Possibly, the reason behind that I like them so much because I was kinda sheltered during my childhood days. My Nanay and my Tita would always scold me if they saw me milling around a cart that fries fish balls and squid balls along with other kids. Their usual litany were there's so many people who already dipped on those sauces provided for the fish balls that I may not know if its still clean or not. Or that the factory where the fish balls and the squid balls were made might be unclean and my health might suffer as a result of it.

But when I reached high school, they sort of slacken their tight grip on me. But they still cringe when they learned that I just took a big bite of betamax (barbecued coagulated chicken blood) that my Kuya Carlo had offered me. My Kuya lived for this 'bloody' stuff and would chomp on it as casually as he would eat a regular pork barbecue. I'm not really fond of the stuff, but my Kuya's appetite is quite infectuous that even I would gladly eat his share of betamax if he offered me some.

frying fish balls, squid balls & some hotdogs

fish balls & squid balls with some sweet-spicy sauce

When I was still working in Greenhills years ago for a company that sells two-way radios, there was this cart that sells fish balls and squid balls that I always come to before heading home. Situated just right across the road fronting the shopping center, I would usually rush to where manong's cart is and squeeze my way through since there a lot...quite a lot of people also positioned around manong's cart of fried edible balls, their sticks piercing one after the other on those balls submerged in hot oil on a large wok. I think Haidee, the girl whom I worked with on the two-way radio shop was the one who introduced me to manong and his overly delicious balls...edible fried balls, that is. What makes the difference were the sauces. The sauces in this fish ball cart was really slick yet thick. It coats the squid balls (my choice over fish balls) quite nicely. I like mixing sauces of spicy and sweet. And once I pop those balls in my mouth, slick and covered all over with the sauce, I'd go bonkers right away. Delicious!

But when I went back to Greenhills a couple of years after, manong and his stall of fried balls were gone. I tried fried balls on other stalls (more particularly those stalls beside the jeepney station in front of Robinsons Galleria but it just wasn't the same. The one that came close would be this stall shown on the above photo in Makati. I'm not certain but I think you could find this stall along the Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue near McDonald's. A friend led me to where manong and his cart of fried balls were. And I was uber-happy that I finally found a replacement to those delicious fried squid balls that I so missed.

sundot kulangot

nilupak

taho

Sundot Kulangot is a very popular snack during my childhood days. The English translation of this snack would be---don't laugh, or puke---Poke Your Bugger or Picked Snot. Oddity of the name aside, the components of this sticky edible snack is nothing to be puke about: water, glutinous rice flour and molasses. Taste was very similar to coco jam or really thick arnibal (sugar plum). Placed inside halves of pitogo shells and the contents inside was picked by the use of toothpicks, thus the odd moniker. I usually buy five pieces of these at a time and really scrape off all the contents inside vigorously with the use of a toothpick. These snacks has been gone for quite a while and glad when it suddenly made a comeback. I only noticed that the contents inside has gone scarcer.

I've heard of nilupak before but never actually tried it until just recently. Usually a mixture of mashed cassava or sweet potato mixed with muscovado or brown sugar and usually served with margarine. I've been yearning to try this kakanin when one day, as I walked down the street towards our house, I saw a man on his bicycle yelling "Nilupak!" down the road. I ran hurriedly to catch up on him. The nilupak was placed on a container positioned on his bike's sidecar. Formed like a round cake, he apportioned me two handfuls of the nilupak mold. Once I got my purchase I ran again past manong and his bicycle towards my house which only just a stone throw away so I could try this native sweet delicacy. I admire the two-tone color of white and purple of this sticky treat, with a dash of yellow from the Star Margarine that manong had spread over it. The taste was a bit starchy. Also sweet with a dash of saltiness from the margarine. 

There was a time that my craving for taho was so strong I ate taho for one straight week each morning. Taho was made from silken tofu, so soft that its spoonable. It was mixed with arnibal  and sago (tapioca balls). But when I order taho, I usually asked for the sago to be omitted and to add more syrup instead. You might think I'm weird not liking sago on my taho, but that's just me. I just want the silky smooth taho with sweetness that abounds from the arnibal. Smoothness uninterrupted by the sago.

upscale street food at Banchetto

isaws and kebabs

meat on a spit

my order of shawarma

I also have this inherent love barbecued meat, isaw and kebabs. So far, the best isaw that I've tried was the one in Karangalan in Cainta, Rizal. On a stall just right outside my friend's house. Maybe it's in the vinegar-chili sauce that I dipped the isaw that spelled the difference. But for a more upscale version, one can go to Midnight Mercato or Banchetto. I've only been to Banchetto. And was able to visit a mini-version of sort at Rockwell Business Center in Ortigas when I visited a friend who was confined at The Medical City.

cakes by Cakes By K

Though food abounds that night, I only settled for a moderately spiced up shawarma from Shawarma Boy and cake slices from Cakes By K. Shawarma is always messy to eat but a good mess nonetheless. I was drawn by the chocolate cake's folding layer design at Cakes By K so I bought a slice, along with another slice of their blueberry cheesecake. We brought all of our food purchases to our friend's room at the hospital and we polished it all off there. Creating a little mess of crumbs inside the room. I was guilty on creating such a big stain on my friend's bedsheets when a large glob of meat rolled down from my shawarma and landed straight on the bed's pristine white sheet. This led me to vow to myself never to eat or order shawarma if I'm on a date. Hmmm...I wonder when that will happen? He-he! ;)

pink cotton candy

Japanese cake

Japanese cake cart

rows of batter being cooked

my Japanese cakes purchase for the day

It's been ages since the last time I ate cotton candy. So, you could just imagine my sheer joy and excitement when I saw manong with his cart of cotton candy slowly making its way on our street before halting to a stop in front of our next-door neighbor's house. You see, there's a public high school right down our street. Naturally, vendors would drop by on our place especially on school days at around two in the afternoon which normally the time when the classes end. But what really got me going and hurriedly descended the stairs of our house towards manong and his cottony candy floss was the color of the cotton candy that he's spinning. It's powdery pink! I was in awe as I watch pink sugar strands weaves around a large bowl. It's like watching a spider weave its own web. The taste of this cotton candy was somehow different from the way I remember it, the texture was more gummier this time around. But it still has the familiar saccharinely sweet quality and the way it disintegrate once it comes in contact with my tongue that I so much missed. Thus this cotton candy made me feel so happy and a little nostalgic.

I first tried Japanese cake when my Nanay went to Cainta to do some errands and she bought these tiny little discs of what seems to me like pancakes filled with processed cheese inside. I was surprised by how good these cakes were, it's even at par (or better) than the homemade pancakes that my Tita would do at home. But it's very seldom that my Nanay would go to Cainta and the last time she checked, the stall where she previously bought those cakes was nowhere to be seen. Perchance, the cosmic universe conspired so that I don't need to go to any other place to try out this cake since there's a vendor who now frequently visit our village to sell these oh-so-yummy cakes. Again, thanks to the public high school just right down the street from where I live. These cakes were perfectly golden brown on each side, although it can be extremely sweet depending on how the batter was prepared. 

stall for penoy and balut

midnight snack with balut as the main attraction

balut (up close)

I've been craving for balut for quite sometime now. But because of my high-blood pressure, I wasn't able to eat this umami filled fertilized duck embryo as often as I would want. So eating balut is a luxury to me. One evening, I was with my Nanay heading for home when I spied a balut vendor. My feet led me straight in front of the vendor and her styrofoam box where all the balut and penoy eggs were placed as if pulled by gravity or a giant magnet. I know my Nanay disapproves of this spur-of-the-moment outbursts of mine especially when my health is concerned but she let it pass this time because I only have this treat once in a blue moon. Aside from balut, we also bought some breads and pastries at a nearby street corner bakery. And it resulted to a wonderful midnight snack with me, my Nanay and my two Titas to share. 

I just recently learned that balut is now paired with vinegar as sawsawan (for dipping), but I still like it the old fashioned way. Crack the top part, sprinkled some rock salt, slurp the juice, then peel off the rest of the egg shells. I eat first the duck embryo, and for some reason I inadvertently close my eyes when I do so. Maybe I'm still a little gross out by the sight of it but the taste that followed as soon as my teeth sink into the flesh bursts with deliciousness beyond compare. Then I eat the yellow part last, which I was told the yolk part of the balut, as the grand finale. ;)