8 years ago
To Manlayohin
Posted by Anonymous in featured contributor on Friday, August 14, 2009
We Were So Fortunate After All
Raw Scallops, Top Shell Filled Off
Sometimes you don’t consider you self lucky until someone or something realize it for you. Have you experienced feeling odious on consuming something? hat peculiarly tends you to find to consider other food as your lunch. Well, back in our small coastal place Manlayo, where Guinayangan has it as the seafood’s gate for tasting rare Scallops shell fish (not knowing it was). My father was a trawl fisherman then, I was about 9-10 yrs old, when I could barely eat much of things to consider as rare dishes. Trawling is a form of dredge fishing that the nets actually scoop everything out of its path, hence the word “trawl”. Scallops are sea bed shellfish catch that my father use to take-home, segregated as “dyako” or fish meal from shrimps, crabs, and “hoyas” rare fish (i.e. Lapu Lapu, maya maya,malakapas, etc.)Yes you heard me segregated to process as fishmeal, my fellow Manlayohin could attest to that. My father, with his willingness to offer us a chance to study and live a good life, large size scallops with about 2 to 3 inches diameter shells would become our meal for the day just to save other catch to be converted to cash. Half basket full of brown and white shells would become our dishes for the day. My older sibling became expert in cooking these. Sautéed’ scallops, Steak scallops, Grilled scallops and sometimes Seviche’ or “Kilawin” in Tagalog other country called it Ceviche,or Cebiche. Did I mentioned odious, for scallops, not actually, I was just telling a monotonous meal that my young taste then had been consuming to the point where me and my dismayed sisters don’t want to have it anymore. Why? To our young minds those days, we look to ourselves as so unfortunate, that my classmates in school use to telltales about our dishes for the day. We sarcastically uttered “Ayon,Capis na naman, buti pa kayo Manok” Trans: As usual, Scallops again, it’s good that you had Chicken. Though unhappy, but we love what our father use to bring in, it is his sweat, his catch for the tiring overnight trawling.
Baked Scallops
When I am about 25, we used to dine with my officemates and sometimes with special customers a “thank you meal” to give them a fine dining. We have treated them to some fancy restaurant, with sea foods sometimes as the choice of gourmet meals. One time, I am the host, as the waiter approaches me and casually as him, -(clearing my throat –eherm! besides crabs, shrimps and fish, what do you have here as the best! - Of course sir we have the best and the tastiest, but of course it costly sir, as he pointing his finger to the sumptuous picture of scallop dishes. I grinned and I almost interrupted the waiter, but, hey it’s true! Rows of tables adjacent to us ordered Scallops; a man in a couple besides our table seems loved to impress his date, ordering this. I said to myself, we were already that fortunate we just don’t realize. We were dining like kings and royals those days. And so before my father died last April, I dined with him in fancy restaurant and offered him the scallops, our sincere thankfulness and of course our apologies. Thank you Tatay!
- Cornelio Cenizal
