Unsalted Daing na Dilis from Iloilo

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At the Salcedo market this morning, I ran across Josie of Josie’s Empanadas and Tita Cely Kalaw of the Sinigang Bar and Bicol Express fame, and they handed me some fried unsalted dilis with a twist. It was delicious – lighter than most daings, and not salty, but possessing that characteristic dried fish aroma and flavor that is probably acquired by so many Filipinos in their early years. The dried dilis were from the Iloilo dreid fish stand and they were quickly fried up and served with a tomato and salted egg salad… Of course, I immediately purchased several packages of the dried dilis (PHP75 each) and minutes after getting home, decided to fry some up for breakfast! The tiny fresh dilis are apparently decapitated, filleted and some of the innards scraped off then dried without any added salt. They are available on a “seasonal” basis only…

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Simply heat up a frying pan and add a little vegetable oil, just enough to coat the base of the pan, not deep fry the dried dilis. Fry the dilis until crisp and just slightly colored. Serve over a simple salad of tomatoes and red egg with a vinegar or kalamansi dressing and a nice little mountain of rice. Simple, comforting and delicious… These would also make a nice pulutan with some ice cold beer. But if used as a pulutan, you may want to add some chilli salt to give it some added zing…

Iloilo Dried Fish
At the Saturday Salcedo Market, Makati
426-03-45 or 426-03-49

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19 Responses

  1. Oh! I believe the Filipino community here (WDC, VA, MD) call it Jeproks! Best dipped in sinamak (vinegar from Iloilo)! Kanamit!!!!!:-)

  2. how many grams is in each package?

    thanks for the simple recipe of how to serve the dilis… will try it out! usually i just eat ’em as is :)

  3. wow those dilis look really good! must plan a trip to salcedo market soon for those dilis. and do they sell bicol express there too?

  4. I had that three days ago, when it was all rainy and cool in the morning, matching it with champorado mixed with evap milk and brown sugar. Champion breakfast!!!

  5. navyGOLF, champion talaga! Brings back childhood memories. I just hope this can be available more often in the market.

  6. corrine and navyGOLF, the saltiness and crispness of the daing with the sweet chocolately rice is a uniquely pinoy breakfast treat I would think… Em Dy, yes sinangag and a fried egg! Mandy, Cely Kalaw has a stall there so all of her favorites, including bicol express is on offer. volans, it was roughly 100 grams per package, it served 4-6 people for breakfast. britelite, nipis… thanks, and it makes sense…

  7. Hi! some Korean friends thought me a new way of serving this… instead of frying try popping it in the Microwave for a couple of seconds and use Japanese Mayonnaise as dipping sauce… a nice alternative to our usual breakfast fare. Nice with soujo or ice cold beer.

  8. We first ran across these flakes when we were in Boracay last February. Our hotel’s buffet breakfast had these. They call it dilis flakes. Really delicious! After much scouting, we found out that it is available in most SM groceries for less than 100php for 100 grams.

  9. sa tingin palang masarap na.thanks for featuring nipis it gives me new idea to be added in my menu.namit gid ini pamasawan (papakin)dito sa marbel

  10. These are (now) referred to as BONELESS DILIS. Mounds of these can be found at the wet markets here in Iloilo City. They are sold around 450/kilo.
    There are big and small varieties of thiose boneless dilis. It tastes much better than the regular dilis.

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