Nuffnang

12/09/2007

Isabela Eating Places- Aling Amie's Barbecue

Everyone has their own favorite barbecue place. Be it along a busy sidewalk (or the sidewalk itself), under an old tree (kapre inhabited? probably) or some dangerous alley or eskinita. Whatever the case may be, no matter how far, sometimes even at a risk to personal safety (or maybe not, but you get my point), most of us have an allegiance to a particular barbecue place with the recipe that best suits our taste.


Street food being a favorite in the Philippines ranging from kwek-kwek to the newly popular fried humongous mutant calamari and of course the all time favorite barbecue stalls, they would easily number in the tens of thousands by my estimation (a good part of which would profess to be the "best" or "D' Best!").


So in the barbecue category which I believe to be the most popular, my favorite sadly is Aling Amie's. I say sadly because as much as Aling Amie's big hearty smile makes my day as soon as I walk up to her stall, and even before a chunk of her barbecue grazes my palate, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that ours is a long distance love affair (sorry Liv honey it's nothing personal. Its just barbecue). She's in Isabela.




Aling Amie operates a small stall in Santiago City's wet market. Her place is located in a narrow aisle in a far flung side of the market. Not many people who don't go marketing there have heard of her. Living in obscurity, hidden in a dingy nook, I thought that this was indeed the kind of place where legends gestate prior to their perfect moment with destiny. Like Obi Wan and Yoda who had to lose themselves in the deserts of Tatooine and the jungles of Dagobah before playing their most important roles in the universe.
Aling Amie is no Jedi (at least not that I've seen her wield any lightsabers) but if you would ask me, her sticks of barbecue are almost just as deadly (pardon the way I get carried away with my analogies).


So what's with these unassuming sticks of skewered pork?







Simply, Aling Amie's years of experience and mastery.

Grilled a bit well done, her barbecue remains tender enough to be chewed with a smile of delight. I wouldn't say it's the tenderest of all but its up there. The cut of the meat is chunky enough that each uling(coal) streaked extraction of the meat from the skewer rewards the eater with significant portions of meat to sink the teeth into. More than the texture however, its the flavor that I constantly crave. A flavor that reminds me of Aristocrat (one of my barbecue favorites in Metro Manila) I can't quite point a finger why exactly but it does. This taste according to aling Amie is achieved by marinating the pork for a long time in her special marinade. The rest is achieved through the Force.

Yep, for P20 I get a barbecue as tasty without the need for any sauce or dip and an urge as seductive as the dark side to pair it with her pancit palabok, her real specialty, which deserves a new post altogether.


Coming Soon: Aling Amie's Pancit Palabok "A Disturbance in the Force"

15 comments:

Gita Asuncion said...

kakainggit ka naman! you get to try out a lot of great dining places on your travels!

Anonymous said...

O Gad I miss Manila!

Oggi said...

Street food are the best, specially pork barbecue. The hubby said the secret ingredient is probably alikabok.:D

Ruy said...

Gita: Hello! I guess its a perk of my job but I really have to keep my eyes and ears open to find the good eating places.

Ruy said...

Spacemai: Hi! Thanks for dropping by! Uwi muna kayo dito.=)

Ruy said...

Oggi: Hehe... Or the drops of sweat from the barbecue vendor's vigorous fanning. ;p

Anonymous said...

man, street food in manila is the best. i miss bbq soaked in maanghang na suka!

carlotta1924 said...

i love pork barbecue!!

spanx said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

ahhh...
Obi-Wan,


with this Ruy Skywalker,
strong The Force is!

Ruy said...

Abby: Depending on how clean the suka seems and the establishment's policy on double dipping, I usually like to keep mine immersed for 30 seconds at least.

Carlotta: Me too. When I was a growing teen I'd always make sure there's lots of leftover rice (lamig) from lunch for my merienda with barbecue (I was a growing kid).

Yoda: Master! I've come back to complete my training!

Chibog in Chief said...

i love street foods, specially fishball and scramblle!!!:-) question what is a kwek kwek??

Ruy said...

Kwek kwek (aka tukneneng) is quail egg dipped in orange (sometimes pink) batter and deep fried. The end result is a quail egg covered in a crisp coating which you dip in vinegar.

Forever59er said...

You're right ... everyone has his or her favorite barbecue places. Mine is our own backyard grill. haha although i prefer inihaw na liempo. But I love the barbecue parts that are semi-burnt.

Ruy said...

Annamanila: Oohhh I love the semi burnt parts too. Specially the fatty part they always put at the end of the barbecue stick like there was an unspoken rule in BBQ skewering. Meat, meat, meat, fat... Meat, meat, meat, fat...

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