Chanos chanos

The Good Life with Eli F.J. Tajanlangit

That is the scientific name for our beloved bangrus, bangus to the rest of the nation, or milkfish to the rest of the world. Science may have reasons why this fish is called Chanos chanos; to my mind, it is so appropriate, it sounds exactly like the part we all love in this fish, the tiyan, or belly.

The Lenten season is on, and meatless Fridays are here again. Like last year, I thought we’d devote some time on the goodness of our fish resources hereabouts, because truth to tell, this island, in fact this country has a whole, is so blessed with a wide selection of fishes.

The bangus, of course is the most prized and popular in this kingdom. We may love the sea bass or bulgan, the blue marlin or manumbok but they cannot quite approximate our reverence and fondness for the bangus. Well, it is not called national fish for nothing; its popularity has spawned an entire industry that begins from its hatching to its cooking. There is no fish like that in our culture, is there?

It is so popular and so versatile, it is good done in the simplest of ways, like maybe just salt it and grill it right away, perhaps throw it into soured broth for the simple sinabawan.

Or one can start getting complicated and subject it to culinary ceremony. Just grilling it can be done in many ways already that run the gamut a laborious to complex. One can stuff its belly with onions and tomatoes, or wrapped it in banana leaves lined with fresh lemon grass. Or go further and jack it up with spices.  Some cut it up, use the heads and tails for soup, and the belly for grilling.

Given its firm flesh, deboning it has become popular, leading to such dishes as bangus steak, bangus ala pobre, or simply fried bangus. And then there is bangus sardines, Spanish style, as well as in tomato sauce, bangus tocino, even bangus chorizo. There is also smoked and salted bangus, a great addition to any Pinoy deli shelf.

The deboning process has led to some new bangus dishes as well, as it produces plain bangus flesh, extracted from the bones that are taken from the fish. This is where bangus sisig, the fish version of the beloved Pampango dish, and bangus lumpia.

And then we go all out by making bangus relleno, an heirloom banquet dish that recalls the womenfolk starting their work at the break of dawn, cleaning, deboning, cooking, and garnishing, stuffing and hen frying, so the dish can be served by lunchtime. There are many ways now of making relleno bangus, some faster and more convenient, but sentimental old folks like me, prefer the old, prolonged way the one where the bangus was not cut but pounded, and then inverted by way of the opening near its gills, the flesh taken out, cleaned of the bones, cooked with the rest of the ingredients and returned, again through the same cavity, and then the entire stuffed fish fried.

But why complicate things when bangus, as it is, is one glorious fish? Some of the most memorable eating adventures I’ve had is eating grilled bangus that had nothing in it but salt. Good Friend C, one foodie with a very extensive resume to boot, swears by baby bangus grilled right there in the fishpond: the fish caught, cleaned, salted and then laid on live charcoals immediately.

C, like Famous Person D, likes baby bangus, the one that comes three to the kilo as they are sweeter and creamier. But that is the beauty of bangus: it has its merits at any size. Bigger than three-to-a-kilo, it can come great as boneless steak.*

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