Cooking with Billy and Ferdie

Balaw-Balaw
(March 25, 2005) From a casual food-talk with College of Fine Arts professors, Sir Cabangis and Sir Feleo, I learned that in Angono, Rizal, there is a restaurant, Balaw-Balaw, specializing in exotic dishes - python, monitor lizards (bayawak), etc. These are not endangered species and I have a penchant for food - it's a must-try. It stuck in my mind.

As fate would have it, my Holy Week plans to go north to Sagada in the Mountain Province, a remote tribal place about 14 hours bus ride from Manila, was cancelled when there was no room to squeeze me in. Getting the bus ride a day later meant staying one day less to catch my Tuesday French finals in U.P. I had no choice but to look for other alternatives.

Mount Sembrano
Hurting for a new place to go to, I texted my friend who suggested doing a day-climb at Mt. Sembrano, a beginner mountain trail somewhere in Pililia, a small town about 3 hours ride east. Because of tentative information about the place (and I guess my host's lukewarm motivation to do the climb), we headed for the market to look for stuff on the grill instead. I realized we were close to Angono, so I suggested we go to Balaw-Balaw and check it out...and so we did. I was excited. Unfortunately, because it was Good Friday, a holiday, the place was closed.

Billy and Ferd
Frustrated (again!), we went back to the market and got a few things for the grill - tilapia and squid. This would have been just another regular day, except that my two friends know their way with food. First one is Billy, a sous-chef in Larry Flint's Vegas casino, Hustler. Next one is Ferdie, a self-styled culinary enthusiast (like me, I guess).

It was fun seeing the two chefs at work - preparing the fish with scallion-ginger-garlic, rolling them up with heat-treated banana leaves, and putting them on the grill. Another set of tilapia was prepared with curry sauce, sprinkled with sauteed diced potatoes, carrots and bell peppers and then covered by mustasa.

Bottoms Up
The rest was a mouth-watering gastronomic treat to rival any restaurant within the town. Some friends showed up and we all helped ourselves to Matador brandy over tilapia and squid. Good Friday just got better.

--- TheLoneRider

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