Some of the freshest seafood I have ever seen was to be had at the Bantayan Town Market on a Sunday morning. Locals had warned the moon was bright the last few days, hence a likely shortage of catch, and the markets weren’t brimming with fish, but what was there was really fresh. I don’t fancy bobbing up and down in a banca fishing for fresher, so this is about as good as it gets for me. Fresher means I am snorkeling and seeing them alive!
A lady greeted us as the entrance to the market with a pail of fresh and already cleaned sea cucumbers, or locally called “bat”. I thought they would make a great photo, and while I wanted to try making them into a kinilaw, no one else in the group was enthusiastic so we passed on the “bat”.
The first tiled counter with fish had this selection. CLEARLY, just from the wondered hues of color, the clarity of the eyes, the condition of the bodies, these were seriously SEXY fish. And no one in the market even bothered to use ice since the fish would be snapped up within the hour and would probably be on the table for a late breakfast or lunch a few hours away. I wanted to buy almost every fish in the photo. :)
When we hit the second fish vendor, we made a snap decision to buy lots of fish, a cooler and some ice, and have lunch cooked while we spent a few hours on Sugar Beach. Three or four kilos of this fish went into the cooler…
We didn’t get any of this pile of seaweed, but it looked beautiful as well.
Bottled innards and fish which are fermented into a kind of patis or sawsawan.
Just a bit of squid, I wish they had more and when I circled back a few minutes later, they were all gone.
Young or baby rays (not sure what kind).
Bits and bobs of really colorful bumpy shelled crab.
A mottled flatfish or dapa, similar to sole.
I believe these are called leatherjackets or sulay bagyo in Bicol, but not sure what they are called elsewhere. And the unusual looking fish…
…are made even odder by the removal of their tough skins, and are sold “naked”…
Scallops still in their shells. There are several kinds of scallops, and these ones have the thicker rougher shells rather than the smoother thinner shells also common in the islands.
Unfortunately, several baby sharks (thresher ones, I think) were also caught in the nets/hooks and sold alongside the more commonly sought after fish.
A large talakitok or locally known as mamsaa (one of several jacks in these waters) looked great so we bought this fish as well for our lunch.
I passed on this other large talakitok, but take a good look at it and remember the shape as it will emerge soon as part of something I am “cooking up” in Cebu.
A blue-spotted baby ray…
…and a bunch of small blue crabs.
Yet another stunningly fresh talakitok.
And finally, after you have purchased your fish, of course you need one of these natural “flavor/veggie parcels” made up of malunggay, tanglad, talbos ng kamote and kangkong (moringga, lemongrass, sweet potato tendrils and water spinach). Locals insisted this was a sparse morning at the market — I can only imagine what a good day at the market must be like. I will return to this market and others in Bantayan to get the “full” experience in the months ahead.
12 Responses
Wow, so this is what a sea cucumber looks like. For awhile, I thought it was a kind of flower. That blue-spotted baby ray looks gorgeous. I wonder how an expert will cook this. I miss eating “dapa” which I tasted cooked adobo-style at a resto in Bel-Air, Makati named Rickshaw, which nowadays I don’t see anymore. Our country is really rich with natural resources, our seas teeming with such bounty. Thanks, Mr. MM, for beautifully capturing these seemingly “alive” photos.
Seafood restaurant with that fish as trademark? I feel bad I don’t live in Cebu:(
Dapa is hubby’s favorite fish. Hard to find and expensive in Farmer’s Market.
if im not mistaken mm, leatherjackets or sulay bagyo is called saguksuk. i love buwad saguksuk.
Notning like a trip to the wet market to invigorate a tired office worker chained to her desk (me!) – so glad it’s Friday. Tomorrow it’s off to Nasugbu and the market! Yey!
I think Sulaybagyo is the fish used for the translucent sweet fish tapa and fish bone tocino.
The ray you featured is also commonly referred to as a guitarshark from the family Rhinobatidae. The juvenile sharks are not threshers but more likely to be juvenile zebra sharks or dogfish.
Nadia, thanks for that! Now I know better.
Awesome! But if one is booked in annika resort, can we have them cooked there? Pls feature how u cooked these treasures. They are indeed so g
fresh. I suppose they are still.sweet and juicy!
Corrine, we had these cooked on Sugar Beach, where a few stalls are set up with a grill and some kawalis for deep-frying. We didn’t eat this at Annika.
After seeing these photos, the first thing that came to my mind was cioppino! :)
Really concerned about the juvenile sharks caught and sold in the markets, despite their “bad reputation”, they really help keep the ecological balance of underwater life. Most disturbing is when they cut off just the funs and tails and throw away the rest.
I can eat those fresh fish everyday