Street food

The street food situation in the Philippines is an experience in gastronomy. It is a strong word that I use to describe it because you experience a lot of textures and flavors. You can find textures in grilled barbequed chicken feet which, funny enough, is called Adidas because of the three stripes. The variety of grilled meats are abundant as well. 

The best among them all, in my opinion, is fishball. Street carts fry these in front of you. You are then given a barbeque stick which you poke the golden brown fishballs on the frying pan. The trick is to poke at the ones that are floating. This means they are done. While they are still hot, you can dip them in your choice of sauces. 

Oh, those beautifully simple sauces. You choices are ranging from sweet, creamy brown sauce to spiced vinegar. 

Remembering these experiences makes me miss these foods. I think it would be great to recreate it for dinner at home. 

Streetfood

for dinner

Any Asian grocer will stock premade fishballs. I found lobster balls, fish balls, and pork butt (shoulder) strips. This will do to make a perfect dinner.

Ingredients

Fishball

Lobster balls

1 lbs pork shoulder sliced into strips. 

Barbeque sticks

Marinade

1/2 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons cane vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Sauce

1/2 cup Brown sugar

1 small onion diced

1/2 stick butter

2 tablespoons flour

water

Procedure

For BBQ

Combine all marinade ingredients in a bowl. Then add pork strips and leave for 2 hours to 24 hours. 

Preheat oven or grill to 350 degrees F.

Take strips and skewer them into barbeque sticks. Once you have all the meat on skewers place in a grill rack and into the oven or grill.  It takes about 30 to 45 minutes to fully cooked. Keep an eye on it because the sugars can easily burn. 

For the fish ball and lobster balls.

Heat a skillet with canola oil. These can be shallow fried if you do not have access to a deep fryer. Fry off the fish balls in batches. Do not overcrowd them as it will lower the temperature of the oil. Once they have a nice golden brown color they are done. It should be 5-7 minutes till they are done. Keep rolling them with a wooden spoon to cook them evenly. Once you get all of them done, put four (4) balls in 1 barbecue stick. 

Sweet sauce

For the sauce

In a skillet, melt 1/2 stick of butter. Then add diced onions. Once translucent, add your sugar. Let it caramelize. Add water . Next, whisk in flour slowly so as to not get lumps. Add chili flakes if desired. Put in a sauce bowl. 

Dip fishballs in sauce and enjoy.