The smell of inun-unan (paksiw) na isda is something I can identify blindfolded. My mom cooked this dish often and it was definitely a comfort food for her and my dad. I wasn’t a fan of the dish as a kid. Today, I appreciate the simple yet satisfying dish a lot more… and when the crew gets back from the fish market, they often prepare a simple late breakfast or early lunch with whatever they find at the market that was incredibly fresh… This morning that dish was inun-unan na dilis.
Rinse the fish and place it in a pot with vinegar, a little water, salt, ginger, garlic and chillies and let it boil gently until cooked. Some folks add a touch of fat or even patis. The one time we made a similar dish in a palayok, I thought it tasted even better than those cooked in stainless or aluminum pots (actually, don’t use aluminum pots if you are cooking with a lot of acid like vinegar). They also made a seaweed salad to have with the inun-unan/paksiw. Yum.
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simple and easy but delicious and utterly satisfying with a lot of hot steamed rice…..and of course that salad on the side will make you consume even more…..
my parents and grandmother used to cook this at home, in cebu. and i missed it a lot now, especially the seaweeds like guso and lato. yummy…
i can even smell it from here… hehehe…
ingat…:p
In Australia small fish known as whiting are about the same size as dilis, which I cook as Ukoy, but paksiw is a really good idea, which I’ll try next time.
i really do not like paksiw or inun-unan (also the name in Bicol) but I love it when it gets fried after several days!
the Austraian fish is known as whitebait, not whiting, my apologies.
I love it wrapped in banana leaves and cooked the same way, but like bernadette, I go crazy with the fried leftovers!!!! Yum!
fried dilis, especially when spicy is delicious!
On my last visit to Quezon Province last year, a passing fish vendor was adamant in showing me what she got in her basket, she knew I was a Balikbayan and that I would wanted a bigger fish than the Dilis she have. Well, I bought all of what she got and cooked it paksiw style, the way I remember my Nanay does it. Wrapped in Banana leaves, add fresh kamias, whole peppercorn, salt, and fresh coco vinegar. Cooked slow in palayok.. gosh, it was lunch & dinner. And the left over, next morning, fried and eaten with sinangag. It was heaven.
This post reminds me of my father who likes kilawin na Dilis. He will soak a large dilis on a native vinegar till it was cooked then mixed with lots of ginger, spring onions, freshly ground pepper, and green sili. If God will give me another chance to spend a day with my parents. I will definitely spend a day cooking for them their favorite dish….Ahhh Food it always bring back happy memories.
THIS is the kind of inun-unan i’ve been craving for. I love this with lugaw! Thanks MM.
the best, MM!!!
Yummy! When I was a kid growing up in Leyte, my mom would cook paksiw with the fish wrapped in young mango leaves (the soft ones). She’d make a cone with the leaf, then drop the dilis (bulinaw?) in and somehow end up with a triangular shaped package that she’d layer in an earthen pot (daba). Fragrant and delicious! Ah, the memories… :)
diliscious?
lee, :) how do you maintain form for quips like that on a Sunday morning?
i love this but i always put a dab of soy sauce to the boiling liquid, lessens the acidity for me.. simple and delicious.. now am hungry again..
my mom used to add fresh kamias on this dish and it is so good even if its already 3 day old..she also wrapped this in banana leaves..we call this in the quezon province “sinaing”. i miss this dish.. cant do this here because its hard to find fresh anchovies here in the asian shops..
my mom does this around once a month using different fish – palayok and all. i do like the paksiw taste but not being a fish person, i usually just have a taste.
what i love is eating the sili :) i soak my rice with the broth, dip the sili in patis and chow down
inun-unan! wow! talk about comfort food! here its called “pinamalhan”. are you from Cebu MarketMan?
love all these comfort food! and the reminiscences that go with it. thank you, MM, for bringing such an electic choice to the table – one day, mozzarella and the next day, dilis.
Love this dish. I grew up with this in my house as part of breakfast with scrambled eggs and steamed white rice. How I wish I could still replicate this dish here in the States. Where might I find fresh dilis here?
browsing marketmanila before breakfast sharpens the brain and the appetite
Good thing I decided to give your malunggay pod post a once over to realize that I almost missed Joy’s comment and your reply.
She needs to drop the letter j from her nom de porn. Oy is both succint and accurate.
..lee is just a wordsmith–a word-wizard.
my mom-in-law would never eat breakfast without paksiw of some kind, but one of the versions i grew to love was paksiw na dilis wrapped in turmeric (luyang dilaw) leaves.
Wow that looks delicious- reminds me of something my late grandmother would have made.
Like Lizzy’s mom, my mother used to wrap the ‘inun-unan bolinao’ in young mango leaves with ‘mantika sa baboy’ and chillies.
Anchovies can be prepared in many ways and the most preffered for me is kinilaw..My first time of tasting it was in muscat,oman few years ago when one of my bisaya friend prepared it,(fortunately we just get it free and fresh from the fishermen on the beaches) it is very delicious with lemon,onion leaf, ginger and black pepper. it was so easy to prepare even removing its bones..taste is fantastic with minimal amount of salt and chilli…raw is the best after all…
theknittymommy, dilis (anchovies) are used for bait here in the U.S. so if you want to get them, try going to the bait and tackle shops, they probably have them in their freezer section. But if you have an oriental store (Seafood city or Ranch 99) in your area, it is available in their wet stalls as well.
I love fried dilis on champorado.
seeing this makes me miss home…i had inun-unan just now but salmon inun-unan though…i love this but i usually eat leaving the bones..yes, i would paintakingly remove the meat from the bones…=P cheers!
I love this!!! I know we don’t use Dilis though, my yaya used to make this with Tawilis. I loved it fried too. Since my dad is from Taal, we always eat this fried with tsokolate(tablea), sinangag,and tomatoes for breakfast. I suddenly missed home, it’s crazy how food can just bring you back to the past like it was just yesterday.
my Papa served inun-unan to us always, when I was little….now, my niece is getting the same dish :) and is becoming her fave at age 1 yr old and 8 months!
This reminds me of how my mother used to preapare a dish so similar to this…sometimes she uses dulong. The fish is wrapped in banana leaves and stacked on top of one another in a clay pot, with kamias (or sampalok) and/or tomatoes piled on top…and seasoned to cook in a slow lo heat.
You have a great site and I just love reading through it and being transported to wonderful memories of yesteryears while reminding me of the lovely unique products that our country offers. I am still yearning to put up some kind of store or outlet to showcase these items/products that we/I do not see here in my state and can all be proud of.
Tina
Does anyone know where to buy large volume of dilis here in the Philippines?
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