Street Fare: Fishballs

Pinoy food, the Oakland Way.

You probably have seen TV shows featuring gastronomic studies of different areas of the Philippines, Bourdain and Zimmerman were the more popular ones. Street food is a regular feature of the major cities in the Philippines, no matter how sophisticated it is.  From the fried chicks, barbecued chicken intestines, adidas (chicken feet) and my favorite fishballs.  Of course we can only have it in school, where the thought of germies are temporarily overlooked.  Imagine small doughy balls with only a hint of fish flavor, fried in oil that has been used multiple times. After paying, one is given a small skewer (barbecue stick), stab the fish balls from the pan dip on a vinegary sauce, followed by a thicker sweet and sour sauce. 

It was good, not sure if it was really that tasty or the joy of partaking street fare that was more significant.

Those memories were parked in the binder called "youdth", remember, "Joe Pesci"? But I was discovering different Asian markets, I came across a bolltled fish ball sauce. Hmmmm, something must be done about that.  The search for fish balls ensued, I only found the Vietnamese variety.  It worked,  a bag served two big ones, it didn't taste as good though, perhaps it has only the native germies from my kitchen.