BAGOONG with apples.
People look at me kind of weird when I say that I love to dip apple in
bagoong. A big yuck, followed by the sticking out of the tongue is the
usual reaction I get. I dare you to try it, it's simply perfect!
Delicious ika nga.
Actually, I wasn't the one who discovered the goodness of bagoong matched
with apples. Cobbie, an American friend who grew up here, urged my
sister and I to try it after we discovered a bottle of bagoong at the
apartment of a Filipino couple we were staying in in Paris. He told us that
whenever he and his ate felt homesick for the Philippines, they would
sneak out to eat apples with bagoong. Parang mangga at bagoong lang, he said.
I was converted.
Living abroad can really stretch your tongue's imagination. Until
now, i prefer my kare-kare with Baguio beans (instead of sitaw) and
repolyo (to replace puso ng saging). I also learned to tolerate
sinigang with the same two ingredients, though I can't say I liked
that combination as much as I did my kare-kare. Over all, it was our way of adjusting to the environment we were in and enjoy homegrown fare at the same time. You learn
to live with it and learn to love it.
And the bagoong phase? Did I ever outgrow it? Naaah, I extended it to
eating bagoong (alamang or isda) with peaches, pineapples and bananas.
How about you? What unholy combinations have you tried with your
favorite fruit?
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