Danggit!

Danggit is salted/dried fish fillet about two to three inches in length and very popular locally.  It wasn't always popular in the Metro.  I remember when we were kids, we had the larger fish, samaral or barangan (rabbitfish/spinefoot) as a regular on our table. (hehehe)  And the reason it wasn't popular, judging by the selling price in the market, was because it ugly and doesn't smells worse than fishy.  Which was why we had it regularly, it was cheap.  It's a common food fish in our province.  Fried, or with a sinigang variant, or salted-dried, the barangan is very tasty and a real treat.

There were times when my grandma would salt dry the fish herself.  So what we have are much larger than the danggit now in the market, at least twice as large and more fleshy.  She once gave a comment that fried danggit could be eaten without anything remaining.  Of course, she cheated:  she pounded the fried fish to pulp (flakes?), bones and all.

There was even one time we had dired piay (fish eggs or roe) from the barangan.  That was really something.  And I doubt it would ever again happen for me.

The smell of the danggit may be a turn-off but there's a fool-proof way to mask the smell:  wrap it in carbon paper.  That's not hard to find, if you know where to look.  Carbon paper is still out there and easy to find.  It's between sheets of computer continuous form.

Nowadays, danggit is considered both a delicacy, a staple and a preferred pasalubong.  And it doesn't matter that it's a pasalubong to bring back to Manila, Qatar, Singapore or New York.

Now I can only take a look at the danggit in the fridge.  I'm just getting old, I guess.

--andoy
9 January 2008