Fresh Danggit / Rabbitfish / Spinefoot

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I grew up eating fried danggit for breakfast fairly often. With family in Cebu, large boxes of buwad or dried fish were frequently sent our way. The dried danggit were fried until crisp and served with good vinegar and either fried or scrambled eggs and garlic rice. Although I was used to seeing dried danggit for many years, it was only recently that I came across (or took notice of) fresh danggit at the wet markets. The waters in the Visayas must be teeming with this fish as they are caught and dried by the millions… The photo above was taken while on a stroll around the island of Malapascua, on the Northern tip of Cebu.

Fried danggit is probably known or familiar to many, and I did a previous post on this delicacy here. But how folks around the country make the dried danggit is probably unknown to most, and if you are curious, you may want to read this post to learn more. Finally, fewer still are probably familiar with lamayo, a semi-dried, moister preparation which calls for marinating the fish in a bit of vinegar, garlic and pepper and when you fry these up they are meatier, more flavorful and simply addicting. How do you enjoy eating your danggit and are you aware of any other ways that they are prepared, seasoned or preserved?

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39 Responses

  1. i prefer fresh danggit fried to a crisp and then dipped in calamansi. yummy! :D don’t forget the side dish of sliced tomatoes :D

  2. If they are caught by the “millions”, they don’t breed like janitor fish, do they? Just curious…

  3. when my brother visits from puerto princesa, palawan, he always brings fresh danggit marinated in vinegar, garlic, salt, and ground black pepper. we fry them to a crisp as soon as he arrives.

  4. ang bilis naubos nun dried danggit bili ni daddy sa zambo ginawa kcng chippy ni mommy with coke,syempre.

  5. i hope my cousin will bring danggit when he comes back from Palawan. haven’t tried the ones from cebu.

  6. when we visited coron, palawan, i too got addicted to lamayo for breakfast. danggit are also bountiful here in saudi arabia so i have my fill of this fish :-)

  7. Comfort food – lamayo and fried eggs and rice for breakfast – with a good sawsawan. MM, Took out your recommended reference – Alan Davidson’s Seafood of Southeast Asia.

  8. wow!i miss that fish!my nanay always made us sinigang na danggit in mangga.sooo tasty talaga

  9. i wonder if I ever had Danggit, but we had lamayo bangus and many other fishes…but my favorite was lamayo sili ( EEL)…fatty and delicious when char-broiled!

  10. Fresh danggit is my favorite fish. It’s good fried, inihaw, sinigang (with tomatoes and talbos ng kamote) and paksiw.

  11. thank you for the education.

    i ate dried danggit/buwad from cebu all my life in manila and summer visits to cebu. but i had never seen fresh danggit until your photos.

  12. lamayo and bulad are the ways i like it mose. am sometimes put off by a bitterish taste in its belly area, no matter how well you clean it.

  13. Filipino stores here always have frozen danggit. They are called rabbit fish. One of the very few fish that my family eat. The stores sell also the dried ones which I really like. But how come I only see the small size dried danggit here? Never see any large size dried danggit like the frozen ones. How come?

  14. in pangasinan they call it malaga,i like the distinct taste of it either broiled or fried,one of my favorite fish,very versatile also for any other fish dish.

  15. MMMM! danggit! i haven’t tasted lamayo yet but i think a certain dish I ate in Pampanga has the same concept? they were just called “Tilapiatitos” which lead me to believe that they are younger TILAPIA but were not dried to the extent that most “tuyo” are! they were just fried and then served with your usual dipping sauce of soy sauce, calamansi, vinegar and sili. fun part was that each fish can be eaten within 1 to 2 bites and they were juicier and less salty than “tuyo” but has more salt content than your average fried fish… OMG! SARAAAAAAAP! :)

  16. I had lamayo from Blue Kitchen a few months ago which was prepared for us by the hotel kitchen staff while in Makati for breakfast. I’m now addicted to this fish.

  17. Fresh danggit is a pain to clean. The stomach cavity is bursting with entrails reeking with infernal stench and the dorsal fins are razor sharp little demons that nip and slash. All the horror of painful preparation is forgiven once the fish is fried.

  18. Lee, leave the cleaning to the pros. The trick is not to puncture the entrails to avoid the stench. Also, try rubbing some calamansi into the cavity area. I agree with the sharp fins; they’re poisonous to boot! But as the Philip Morris commercial says, “The things we put up with to enjoy it!”

  19. fresh danggit, we call it barangan here in la union is also delicious when cooked as paksiw w/ lots of ginger and garlic or sinigang with kangkong or any fresh vegetables.sarap!

  20. talking about danggit.. i was able to taste the best danggit on earth in anda pangasinan..i have met a friend there who makes the best testing danggit na daing..only because the danggit is freshly catch from the very beautiful sea of anda..my friend debones the danggit unlike the other commercially available danggit na daing in the market that it has fishbones in it.it is not salty as compared to the ones from cebu.danggit fish abound in anda ..it is available all year round…and i swear the taste is more than heaven!

  21. i cook fresh danggit in various ways. as daphne mentioned: paksiw and sinigang. pangat and tinola too. sometimes, i also grill or fry it – leftovers are turned to eschabeche or sarciado.

  22. this is barangan in ilocano and i love having it paksiw style!! sometimes i can find these here in melbourne but they’re gigantic in size! i still prefer the smaller versions because they’re sweeter and tastier =)

    re: escargot in paris. oh my they were heavenly MM! the platter i had was cooked in some pesto style sauce. maybe it’s because i had them in an italian bistro and not in a brasserie…hehe…still jetlagged but enjoyed my trip so much! raring to go back at the end of the year =)

  23. Oh no! I had no idea that these fishes look so cute. Look at those big sad eyes. I always have them dried as pasalubong so I had no idea.

    Still, crispy danggit with sinangag and vinegar with lots of chili is delicious.

  24. Interesting, here in Singapore there’s abundant fresh dangit or rabbit fish in the wet market too

  25. This is one of my favourite breakfast items. Really great with garlic fried rice, tomato salsa and kapeng barako. We call this balawis in Quezon. I love this!

  26. I like ” Kinilaw na Danggit”. It goes with Tuba( local vineger in our province), and sometimes they add coconut milk.

  27. danggit is one of the things i missed so much. i have a fond memory of it. when we were young, my late dad used to buy loads of it and fry them all in one go and saved some in the fridge for the next meal. my siblings, including me used to open the fridge and made excuses to get something else but really took and ate the danggit roes.
    thanks MM for your site. i love reading your blogs, it brings back memories of my childhood and get to know some of the food in other parts of my native philippines. your site is like home away from home for me.

  28. Specially with fresh danggit, it is strongly recommended that you trim of the spiny dorsal fins since they contain some toxins which may cause some irritations of varying degrees depending on the persons metabolism. We get them really big here in our province and really fresh caught.

  29. Fresh danggit is available in SM Hypermarket. It isn’t expensive as well compared to other fishes.

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