I visited my cousin living in the town of Catbalogan, Samar province. It’s a small town with not much growth because of natural barriers. Motorcycles and bicycles are the chief forms of transport and nobody wears a helmet. The main attraction for me here was this is a fishing village. This meant fresh fish, every single day. Various kinds. I had a blast. I should stay longer next time.
At breakfast I had big raw sea shrimps aka sugpo, and then some raw sardines – wow, for the very first time in my life – we never get raw sardines in Manila, they rot easily. I saw what my cousin meant when they only buy squid that is fresh – changing colors – still alive – and I ate them raw, sweet, yummy. Then I saw some shellfish which I do not know what it was, but it was fatty and tasty.
The culture in fresh sea food land is they put zero ice on their fish. If it has ice, it isn’t fresh. All fish eyes were crystal clear. And I bet most of them taste great due to the freshness. You can see the boats dock on the steps of the fish port and the fish themselves are sold at the steps on tables. Now this is really fresh sea food. Why eating raw sea food makes so much more sense in these conditions.
Here are a couple of pictures. I enjoyed Catbalogan so much, maybe my cousin will be assigned in Borongan – an even smaller fishing town next time and I will visit him there, stay longer and pig out on fresh sea food.
