Pancit En Su Tinta Choku

Bernie's

This pancit - stir-fried noodles - has been featured countless times in Philippine published media and television programs that I may not have anything more interesting to say about it.

For those who have come across this only now, this is pancit dyed and flavored with squid ink and soft slices of squid, then topped with fried garlic bits, crushed chicharon, spring onions, and sliced kamias as the souring agent instead of kalamansi. The name means stick noodles in squid ink, from the pidgin Spanish spoken in Cavite City by old-timers.

For those who have read about it and/or come across it on TV, I have news. Asiong's Carinderia, the Cavite City eatery which invented and first sold this dish, closed shop several years ago. A new carinderia, however, has opened its doors and serves almost the exact same menu as Asiong's, including pancit choku, which is referred to as pancit pusit in the menu board behind the display counter. The photo above is the pancit pusit at Bernie's Kitchenette, whose staff told me is owned by a chef friend of  Sonny Lua, Asiong's proprietor. The same staff also told me that Sonny now lives in Silang, Cavite, and has set up a new Asiong's Carinderia there, but that the cook/s at Bernie's are the same as the one/s who used to cook for Asiong's. 

The pancit pusit tasted the same as pancit choku, only that instead of kamias the souring agent used is shredded green mangoes. The carinderia had run out of green mangoes when we ordered, so we were given kalamansi, which I supplemented with the very nice spiced vinegar that's also being sold at the store.

The pancit came to mind because as the kids and I were on our annual  Bisita Iglesia, an officemate called  to ask where she could find the black pancit. I was struck by the term as it was then Black Saturday, more so that we had decided to wear black shirts this year on our pilgrimage. After our survey of six churches in the highlands of Cavite, we decided to push the color motif further and went to Bernie's, to eat black pancit. We deemed it appropriate Lent fare, without meat (we chose to ignore the chicharon which wasn't meat, per se), particularly now that my eldest child is of eligible age for fasting and abstinence. 

Photo of Asiong's pancit choku, with chili garlic in oil, taken five years ago.

Related Post:
Home-Cooked Pancit Negra

Advent Crabs

There are blue crabs, and there are red crabs. Even purple crabs. But I have never heard of, nor read about, any violet-legged crabs, let alone see one. 

Until that fateful weekend not too long ago at the Cavite City public market. I was late, as usual - it was already nearing noontime, and there were not that many vendors at the fish and seafood section. Needless to say, there weren't a lot of choices, and not even a tumpok of the ever-present blue crabs.

So this heap caught my eye. Their color was attractive....but not in a crabby sort of way. Violet crabs? I associate that color with sweetness, as in purple yam sweetness - ube. But seafood? Nah.

It was expensive, at Php180 for the entire lot. More expensive than the Cavite City blue crabs. 

But on second thought, they were not - considering the novelty. And because of the cold weather that has uncharacteristically enveloped the holiday season, there had not been a lot of seafood  choices lately. So, on the basis of supply and demand, these were cheap.

But I was on a budget. And, how sure was I that these were edible? Would they taste great? And they weren't moving anymore, so they might not be that fresh. And on, and on, and on. 

But now, no matter how early I go to the market, or how late, I cannot find any violet-legged crabs. No sign of blue crabs, either. 

So I let an opportunity pass me by. Now I will never know how violet-legged crabs taste like. No matter if they taste bland, or bitter, or they might be diarrhea-inducing. I will never know. 

So this is my new year's resolution. I will not skip something, for I might  regret it later. And reviving this blog is part of it, because I have gone around the country twice, some even thrice, over, and have explored several foreign countries in-between, but I have kept all the memories of these trips to myself. Some I have even forgotten about. 

I don't even know if blogging is still relevant these days. But no matter.

So, violet-legged crabs, watch out.

Hong Kong: Sheung Wan Strolls

Because the dried seafood market of Sheung Wan opens late and closes early, my three-day early morning strolls, before I headed to the hotel cafe for breakfast, had been limited to the "normal" market stalls. By normal I mean the usual market produce, and nothing of the dried kind that Sheung Wan is famous for. 

It was a liability that my hotel featured free buffet breakfast, and when I arrive at my training venue there was free breakfast as well, with even a mid-morning snack after an hour. Which meant I couldn't eat much else before breakfast, which was a pity because the pastries being sold around Sheung Wan were all so very good.

Photo above shows some of those pastries, including the much-touted pineapple bun, top center. The coconut flakes-covered mochi was soft and not so sweet, while the sesame-flecked disc was properly flaky. The bigger hopia-like bread had a wintermelon filling that was so sticky it reminded me of kulambo, and eating it was like eating mochipia or hoptik. Maybe they're one and the same.     

I couldn't get a proper photo of these creatures, but the outline of their shapes is enough clue what they are. I didn't find anything skinned, so maybe the Chinese preferred to prepare them themselves, unlike in Pangasinan where they are sold in the market already skinned, gutted and skewered on barbecue sticks.

Live crabs in leaf straitjackets, a bit OC and overrated for me, being used to crabs crawling all over the place in Philipppine markets. 

Elderly ladies always crowded around this stall selling all kinds of balls. I didn't know what kind they were - I had once bought and eaten tortoise balls in Tsim Shat Sui - but I bought some of each kind, and they were some of the best balls I have had, braised in soup, or noodle soup, or stir-fried with noodles.  

 Chinese deli meats

Chinese crullers, called youtiao, the fried Chinese doughnut, in various shapes sold in many stores around Sheung Wan. I thought youtiao was similar to bitso-bitso, a popular afternoon street snack sold in the Philippines, also fried but sweet and rolled in sugar. 

So when I bought and ate a piece of youtiao, expecting it to be sweet as well, I was shocked by the saltiness of it. Turns out this cruller is eaten with something else in Hong Kong and China, usually for breakfast with soy milk or congee, or sliced and mixed with a meat dish. I sampled it stir-fried with beef later in my trip at Lin Heung Kui. 

It was the cold season, so there was not that good variety of fruits available. 

 pomelos

Makopas so much larger than the Philippine varieties

I once bought a few cobs of corn like this, tri-colored - it had kernels in white, violet and yellow - at SM supermarket. When they were boiled it took forever to soften them. By the end of two hours they were still hard as rocks so we threw them away. I don't know if this is the same variety, but I won't be persuaded into buying a tri-colored corn again.  

Water chestnuts? Water chestnuts are one of my all-time favorite school snacks, boiled, bought at the back of the grade 5 school building of my public elementary school and sold by enterprising residents of the houses around the school. My classmates and I bought plastic bags of it, still warm from boiling, and before we could eat them we skinned them first, using our teeth to scrape the skin off. 

Balimbing,or starfruit or carambola. Maybe this was imported from one  of the countries in Southeast Asia.

Malay cake

Related Posts

Sheung Wan Dried Seafood Market

Lin Heung Kui

Yung Kee

Tim Ho Wan

Eating Around Sheung Wan

Hotel Breakfast

Cliftons Event Catering

Hong Kong: Sheung Wan Dried Seafood Market

When I was booking my hotel for my four-day stay in Hong Kong, a major part of the reason I decided on one in Sheung Wan, apart from its price, was its being located amidst the famous dried seafood market in the island.  

The reviews weren't that great, from a non-Asian point of view. The main drawbacks, according to the reviews, were that the subway doesn't service the area, and the off-putting "smell" of the market.  

That trains do not reach Sheung Wan didn't bother me, as I am used to walking. And further research revealed buses and trams actually serviced the area. My hotel's website also indicated there was a free service shuttle to Hong Kong Central, where my training venue was located. 

As for the "smell," it was a minor inconvenience. I was actually jumpingly excited knowing that I will be living just beside a large - as in blocks and blocks of it! -Chinese market for four days!

And so here is a peep into it. I was a bit frustrated, because in the mornings when I left for my training the stalls were still closed, and when I arrived back in the area in the evenings they were already shuttered. So on my last day in Hong Kong, instead of visiting Kowloon, or even Macau - the ferry terminal was just across the road from my hotel - I indulged myself in a long and winding market stroll.

To say I was shocked is an understatement. I had got this picture in my head of an indoor market in a large hall, much like the public markets in the Philippines. But in Sheung Wan everything was street-side, with row upon row of market stalls along three perpendicular avenues for blocks and blocks. 

I was also imagining the din of vendors, calling to shoppers to come look at their wares, and a heap of products to dig into. But no, all things for sale were neatly and systematically arranged, inside clean stalls that didn't emit any strong smell, and the din came from only the trams and buses that passed to and fro in the adjacent streets.  

What made a lasting impression to me was the variety of sea cucumbers on sale. There were stalls solely dedicated to this Chinese delicacy, selling them in all kinds of color, size, texture. I didn't know how to distinguish one from the other, of course, so I just contented myself in soaking the sights.

Maybe like blue cheese, the moldy ones probably cost more? Or are even preferred more?

Cracklings by the sack just delivered.

I don't even know what these are for. They look like the shell I used to feed to my parakeet. 

My favorite area was the collection of stalls by a side alley selling all kinds of dried shell flesh. It was a bright place, heightened by the orangey hue of the merchandise. 

Dried scallops in varying sizes and shapes, and from different locations across the globe, made my heart skip beats. 

Shrimps and prawns, too, plus dried squid and octopus from miniature to giant. Fried dried squid is one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast, and I pine for the smell of grilling dried squid in the afternoons. Which is why I never thought of living outside of Asia - I cannot forsake the smell of dried squid. 

Dried jelly fish. I have never tasted one, but much as I wanted to, I didn't venture to buy. To my regret. Next time.  

More dried jellyfish, in the foreground. In the background are dried dulong, which came as a surprise. I love to eat crisp-fried daing na dulong, too, for breakfast.

Wee oysters, medium oysters, large oysters

It was truly a learning experience, going around this market. I never saw dried oysters before. In Pangasinan, as well as Cavite, we have heaps and heaps of oysters in varying sizes, but they are all sold, and eaten, fresh. Sometimes they're not even cooked at all. 

This one takes the prize for being the largest and plumpest oysters

I've seen dried seahorses in the Chinese pharmacies in Binondo (Manila Chinatown), so this was old news.  

But this one was new. I thought for a while they were scouring mats. I'd love to know how these black seaweed are eaten. 

Octopus tentacles

Fins of what fish I don't know, though I'm certain they're not from sharks

Are starfish even eaten?

The tuyo - Pinoy slang for dried salted fish - area

All is not seafood. There were strings of Chinese sausages and dried chicken drumsticks. 

Chicken intestines, too

And gizzards

By the length of these wings, I'm guessing they're not white-leghorn. Probably not even chicken at all.

Dried noodles for the dried meats

And various kinds of teas

Dried chrysanthemum flowers. There was this coffee shop in Binondo which used to serve pots of chrysanthemum tea. I brought my friends there, and we all found the tea bitter, and it made our heads ache, but we always ordered a pot whenever we were in the area, just for kicks. Sadly the cafe doesn't serve it anymore.  

After my market stroll I got to eat this steamed atop the chicken dim sum at Lin Heung Kui.

There was one stall selling all manners of fermented vegetables.

And pickled things from the sea. 

Nuts, beans and legumes being dried under the sun along a side alley

Shopping for pasalubong

It is always an enriching experience strolling around markets. This one was so stimulating, visually and cerebrally. It was one morning well-spent, and is a highly recommended prelude to lunch at Lin Heung Kui. 

Related Posts

Strolling Around Sheung Wan

Lin Heung Kui

Tim Ho Wan

Yung Kee

Eating Around Sheung Wan

Hotel Breakfast

Cliftons Event Catering