School days are here again. These means, tusok tusok the fish ball madness is on.
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| Food trip before going home from On-the Job training @ Ortigas MRT Station | Dec. 2012 |
When we say street food, fish ball is the first thing that
comes to our mind. In fact, we can consider fish ball as the Mother of all
street foods. During my elementary days, me and my classmates, we used to sneak
out before the class started and ask the vendor to give us 5 peso worth of fish
balls (it was .25 c per piece back then). It is usually on a stick and dunk on
the jar of sauce of your choice (sweet, sweet and spicy, or spicy vinegar). It was
a hassle for us because we have to go over the fence just to purchase fish balls
but all the efforts are worth it because of its heavenly taste.
Before its invasion to the streets of manila, fish ball was
prominent in Southern China made from fish paste. It is called Surimi ni Japan while in Hong Kong, they
are known as literally fish eggs with yellow and white colors. In Scandinavia,
it is unusually made from cod or haddock fish and similar to meatballs. Faroe
Island’s version was made of ground fish and fat and called knettir and in Fuzhou, fish balls have
minced pork filling. It is called bakso
ikan in Indonesia, served with tofu and fish called otak-otak in clear broth soup as tahu kok and several side dishes. Meanwhile in Malaysia Peninsula
and Singapore, they have several ways of cooking fish balls. Can be served Chiuchow style noodle soup, or Yong Tau
Foo meaning stuff with curd, and stir fried noodles with variety of sauce
called Mee Pok. Can also be eaten
with Curry as the preferred by people in Thailand.
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| Innovation: from sticks, now vendors uses plastic cup to hold fishballs and the sauce @ Ortigas MRT Station | Dec. 2012 |
In the Philippines, fish balls are made flat shaped and most
often ingredient is Cattle or Pollock fish. These are often sold by street
vendors with a push cart that has a stove. You can spot these vendors in public
places usually near the schools, market, church, bus and other transportation
terminals, etc. As time passed by, these vendors innovate and immerge with the
growing food industry. Now, you can even see fish ball stalls on food bazar, inside
the malls, in cinema houses.
Target clients of these vendors are kids and the basic
masses because of its affordable price. But because of its delicious sauce and
literally “grab and go” food, this won the hearts of even young executives and
young at heart. You can even use fish ball as a viand. Basically, we can call
this as food for everyone, why don’t you take a bite.
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