Aired (September 1, 2024): In this salty episode, Chef JR Royol learns how Pangasinan’s famous bagoong and patis are made.
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00:00Aside from flavor and the use of salt as a preservative in meat and fish,
00:05you can also find the dominant taste of saltiness in Filipino food
00:09in the different kinds of sauces and condiments that we use every day.
00:13We, as Filipinos, when you say salty,
00:17we really think of the things that we mix in our sauces.
00:22Fish sauce, soy sauce, shrimp paste.
00:26There's a very wide array of salters available to us in the Philippines and around the world.
00:33And when we cook, what we want to build is not just one note.
00:38When you say salty, it's just salty.
00:40You want to build complexity, right?
00:43So when we cook, when we combine all these flavors,
00:46it becomes more interesting to the palate.
00:50One of the people I met in this food adventure
00:52who has already mastered the use of salt and saltiness
00:55to make the perfect sauce is Sir Menandro,
00:59the owner of one of the biggest producers of shrimp paste and fish sauce in Pangasinan,
01:04Merlis Shrimp Paste.
01:07Many people make shrimp paste here because the profits are seasonal.
01:12Yes.
01:13When it's seasonal, that's where they make profits.
01:15I was the first to store it here in Linggayin.
01:20That's why when the profits are seasonal,
01:25my peers would come here to buy shrimp paste.
01:30That's how we started making profits.
01:36This is where we store the shrimp paste.
01:39We store it for six months.
01:42Then we wait for it to grow.
01:47This is also a daily product.
01:49It's also fast.
01:53There.
01:57That's the aroma you're talking about.
01:59Yes, the aroma.
02:02This is just two months old.
02:07It smells good.
02:08It's like you're looking for calamansi, hot rice, and steamed sweet potatoes.
02:13Yes.
02:14Oh, Lord.
02:15Right?
02:17So, this is the fish that we've already cleaned.
02:21Yes.
02:22What happens here is that the bottom is the shrimp paste.
02:26Yes, the meat.
02:27It becomes watery.
02:28The one that rises is the fish sauce.
02:34Just so our family members can imagine,
02:38this is the shrimp paste.
02:40Yes, this is the shrimp paste.
02:41There.
02:42This is the fish sauce.
02:43This is the fish sauce.
02:44This is what we sell.
02:45Yes.
02:46This is what we buy.
02:48This is just fish sauce.
02:49Yes, this is what it looks like.
02:51Okay.
02:52Do you have mangoes, sir?
03:01This is the stir-fried calamansi.
03:05It's good.
03:08And the shrimp paste smells good.
03:10Really?
03:11Yes.
03:14Winner.
03:16In every bottle of salt, the taste of Filipino food becomes alive.
03:21From simple food, salty eggs, to delicious shrimp paste,
03:26salt is not only a flavor, but also an important part of the food experience
03:31that unites us in our land, sea, and tradition.
03:36The salt will bring out the natural taste of the ingredients
03:39and make every bite more delicious.
03:42It unites the deep stories and traditions
03:45that remind us how delicious it is to be a Filipino.
03:49This is just the first taste of our exciting food adventure.
03:53Join us in our celebration of flavors, Food Explorers.
04:09www.FoodExplorers.com