The Diaspora of the Calamares (Sun.Star Pampanga Oct. 6, 2007)

Saturday, October 06, 2007

The Diaspora of the Calamares
By Ian Ocampo Flora

Food for most ordinary KAPAMPANGANS is very confusing. Ask Kapampangans of what they like to eat; you would have a cacophony of answers that would trigger diarrhea. The diversity in taste and preference is characteristic to a race that has been used to good food. But the real test, they say, of ones gastronomical strength would depend on a person’s tolerance of street food and its derivatives.

Being a ‘struggling writer’ I usually subsist on street food. Because I usually eat practically anything that is edible I usually include a couple of loperamide pills in my knapsack. There is an apparent fad now among ambulant vendors and customers. Like any business, ambulant vending has its own occasional fad. Few years back the ‘fish ball’ and the ‘kikiam’ ruled the streets. Then came those odd-looking quail eggs coated in orange flour which have reigned in the streets for so long now, just to be unseated - by squids.

The gluttonous scent of sizzling oil hover in a small strip of the road at the side of Nepo Mart, a couple of customers would huddle around a movable stall. Squids chopped into round rings and quoted in plain starch are excavated from a pool of golden brown oil. Placed into sticks (four rings a stick) each sells P10 per stick. If sold sparingly, a ring of the juicy flesh would fetch P3 each.

Ambulant vendors though not monitored by the DTI would seem to have an unwritten rule in food pricing. Wherever you are in the province the price is all the same (with a few slight differences).

Squids, locally known as Pusit or Calamares are continuously gaining a good market on the busy streets of Angeles City and parts of San Fernando. Three years back we saw the same food stuff sold in the old Crissologo Street and in front of the Suiquia Museum in Vigan City. Then the fad skirted to Manila and few months later it came to the streets of Angeles and neighboring areas. Squids or Calamares are bought at P160 per kilo, a hefty price for a micro business. But when the tentacled-creature is sliced into rings the cost is easily recovered.

If you have not yet tasted the new fad in street food try visiting areas were it is commonly sold along with benefiting from the dangers of unsanitized cooking procedures. The food stuff is sold at the Capitol grounds, Social Action Center of Pampanga (Sacop) in Maimpis, in the side of Pure Gold in Dau, Nepo Mart in Angeles City, and allegedly the best ones are sold at Fields Avenue, there is a difference in pricing since the place caters to foreign nationals. Behind the Capitol building in San Fernando, the squids are bigger the cut into tender sizes sold at P20 (seven rings).

The squids are dozed with a vinegar concoction of garlic, onions and chili. The vinegar retards the ‘malansa’ smell and gives the squids a tingling taste.

Eating this delectable street food would teach you to be careful not to spend too much if you run on tight budget. It would be practical to buy the squids fresh from the market and cook them yourself, but then again where is the novelty in that? As they say, street food is best eaten - on the streets.

For comments and suggestions: email: ianocampoflora@yahoo.com.