Title:
SMALL FISH
Date Created:
2021-07-10
Description:
Consistently around the archipelago, small fish figure in the common diet. Pampanga’s parishes were upstream and not along the bay when in 1732 Fr. Bergano’s dictionary was first released. The word lists for languages of island residents such as in the Visayas have many fish types included. Not so in the Bergano book although not all fish and seafood may have been listed. ASAN is fish in general in Pampangan; MASAN is to eat a meal or fish. Perhaps the fish he included were the most popular ones or the ones he personally ate: ALUBEBAY like a sardine; BIA that was white; DILIS that was white and “good to eat”. A fish could mean more than being a fish. The delicious BUANBUAN was white-scaled and boney. It also meant an untarnished weapon or sword. Fish had power and nobleness associated with it. The CABASI fish gave its name to a kind of texture or weave. ITO was a fish without scales and figured in an adage: NOCARIN MALUN MO ALAN BIYAYAN ITO. The translation by Fr. Venancio Samson is: Where there are waves [such as the sea] no ITO can thrive. He explains that in the 18th-century it implied that every part of the sea has waves; wherever one goes there will be work to be done always. Other common fish of the era’s diet were the mud fish DALAG and TABANGONGO also called CANDOLE. The Pampangan table also served ALIMASAG, sea crab; PARUS, mussels or [other] shellfish; ULANG, prawns or large shrimp. MANULANG was to go looking to catch them specifically. On Wednesday we will share how they were cooked.
Subjects:
Fr. Venancio Samson Fish Island
Exhibition:
Pampaga 1732
Source:
Dreamstime.com Royalty free
Type:
Image;Still Image
Format:
image/jpeg
Source
Preferred Citation:
"SMALL FISH", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
Reference Link:
felicepstamaria.net/items/coll235.html
Rights
Rights:
public domain