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Off With Its Head!

One of my favorite places to lunch is a small, non-descript eatery called Ulo-Ulo sa Veteran's (Project 6, in an alley behind the Veteran's Memorial Hospital). The specialty of the house: sinigang na ulo-ulo ng maya-maya (red snapper heads in tamarind-soured broth), which is served, steaming hot, in humongous proportions to droves of diners from all walks of life who pack the place to the rafters by the time noon comes around. To avoid the midday rush, I've always made it a point to either order carry-out (as early as 10:30 a.m.) or actually eat there way after the lunchtime crowd has dissipated (2:00 pm onwards), so it's really not a place to have a (comfortable) noontime meal on a whim.

Today, I decided to take a shot at making my own version of this comfort food favorite, especially conducive on this nice rainy day. I picked up a salmon head and some salmon bellies (I'll deal with them later this week) for a steal at Makro last weekend, figuring that they'd make a great sinigang - and I wasn't disappointed.

I have no photos as of yet (don't worry, I had the whole head chopped nicely such that I didn't have to stare back at a decapitated fish in my soup), but the whole experiment turned out pretty well. I like my sinigang slightly spicy, so aside from the green siling mahaba, I sauteed some chopped siling labuyo (bird's eye chilis) with tomatoes, onions, and ginger (which is not traditional in Tagalog sinigang, but works so well to add flavor and eliminate the lansa or "fishyness" of the salmon). Sinigang na ulo-ulo, with a side of bagoong na isda with more crushed labuyo and a mound of freshly steamed rice...a relatively healthy meal that's just super saraaap to the (fish) bones.

Sinigang na Ulo-Ulo ng Salmon recipe here.

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