This late morning we drove down from Tagaytay City to Talisay town, 9 km down and of course headed straight for their wet market. We were curious what fish Talisay is a town beside Taal Lake. I asked what fish they had that was special and one that never got out farther than Tagaytay City. The fish vendor said it was Maliputo Fish. P 300 per kilo when small, but if bigger than 1 kilo per fish are sold at 600 pesos per kilo. Expensive. Must be good.
I ordered 1 kilo of the Maliputo Fish, the vendor’s brother had to get it from their house. I got 7 to 8 inch long Maliputo fish and 5 pieces made 1 kilo.
Had the Maliputo fish cooked lightly – grilled over charcoal. My first son and I arrived around 6:30pm and found the household was already eating. Only one Maliputo Fish left! Maybe it was that good? I ate some of the fish and yes, to be fair it tasted good. Tasted better than the regular talakitok. But I will have to experiment by buying some talakitok of the same size soon.
Maybe the active volcanic lake does something to this talakitok species called Maliputo. The fish market vendors said that the fishermen said this Maliputo fish was hard to catch and easily slipped through their nets. The Maliputo catch is occasional and the demand is high they said, thus the high price.
Maliputo fish from Taal Lake 22 August 2010