My Family Health Blog

Committed Family Healer's Research

Medicinal Raw Honey Hunting in Ifugao and Ilocos

by

One of the goals of our 10 day Luzon road trip was to hunt for wild honey in the far flung provincial markets. My usual suppliers of honey have dried up. Even the bees in the farm in Alaminos are on honey strike when I visited last month.

Our first leg through Nueva Ecija, to Bayombong, to Ifugao netted 2 big quattro kantos bottles in Lagawe costing a lot each.

Later in Bangui, Ilocos Norte we were able to buy up 10 bottles of wild honey, of course they tasted different from the Ifugao wild honey. But this was much cheaper per quattro kantos. They also sold en mass some farmed honey which was obvious to my taste buds, they cost less, but still I only bought 1 farmed honey bottle.

Later on in Vigan, we met up with my sister in law who just went honey hunting in the wild mountains with native honey gatherers and she brought back 30 bottles (tasted different too)! And she’s asking us to pack this big box in our car! And she gave us the story of how they got the honey and with pictures too.

Of course we will find a way to accommodate this new honey stash. We will be sending our used clothes in our big maleta by bus. Then we can stuff the big honey box in the car! Hooray for honey.

I’ve learned how hard it is to have to go out of your way to collect true wild honey. And found out from Ifugao that the people there just buy up all the wild honey immediately… it is medicine… medicine primarily for children.

I give raw honey for myself and my children as a digestive aid. Raw honey with raw calamansi is also a remedy for coughs. I’m valuing these raw wild honey so much I’m keeping a good amount of stash in the hidden cupboards for medication emergencies. Must never run out of raw wild honey ever again.

Will make a write up of my sister in law’s adventure in wild honey gathering. Awesome story coming up!

Live Raw Ants Eggs: A Yummy Delicacy of Ilocos Norte

by

I remember my in laws saying ants eggs were a delicacy, lip smacking good from Ilocos Norte. We just came from Pagudpud beach on the way down and found myself stopping by at the wet market at Bangui. I first got myself some of the famous traditional Ilocos garlic at only 120 pesos per kilo, then I asked for ants eggs and yes they did have it! Actually, 2 vendors had it!

Ants eggs were a delicacy all right, expensive stuff. 300 pesos per kilo in this far provincial town. At those prices only the rich in these parts can afford that. Good thing I come from Manila, I can afford it. I bought almost 2 kilos of raw live ants eggs, with live ants in them too.

Why wait to cook it? What for? I started eating small hand fulls in the car. Creamy yummy. The ones familiar with it said they wanted it with the live ants because that added a different wonderful dimension to it.

Most people I asked cooked the stuff. I think they resort to cooking it to stop the ants from hatching as that keeps better… maybe… or they are just squeamish at eating live ants.

Well later in the day we did cook a good amount of ants eggs ginisa style, some salt, some onions, some garlic in some virgin coconut oil. Taste? It didn’t taste any different from the raw ants eggs. It’s just that the live ants are dead and they are easier to eat without biting you.

We arrived in Vigan and met my sister in law for dinner. Gave her some cooked ants eggs. She and her friend loved it and ate it all for dinner. I asked if she liked these ants eggs better than the ants eggs she had a few days ago. She said the ants eggs she and her friend ate a few days ago tasted so much better. They were the ones who gathered the ants eggs and they got bitten so many times when they finally were able to sit down for a meal, those ants eggs tasted really great given the effort and the bites they had to endure.

The next time you are in Ilocos Norte, look in the wet markets and get yourselves some nutritious, delicious, exotic ants eggs!

Ants eggs spoil easily. You must let the ants eggs breath. Sealing it in plastic and they die and they don’t taste good anymore even if you cook them, the 2nd batch came out that way the following day.

Just like any meat again, raw and alive just tastes better and is probably far more nutritious. Let go of your squeamishness and just be human. Eat those ants eggs raw and alive. I must plan for a return to this place and establish a contact who will send me some on a regular basis.

Traditional Ilocano Dish: Raw Beef Kinilaw – Ceviche

by

Raw Beef Kinilaw

Kabigan Falls, Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte. We had breakfast in this area. As I was having my raw beef tapa (in coconut vinegar with pepper and garlic), the nice ladies offered me some freshly butchered raw beef at a nearby food stall in Kabigan Falls.

They offered me some slabs of fresh raw beef. Then I noticed a small pot with simple raw beef ceviche / kinilaw. This sold for 50 pesos per little plate. I asked if I could buy the entire pot which they estimated to have 5 servings, the shop owner said yes!

Then I saw the decapitated head of beef, I asked if I could buy the brain. They said they can only sell me half of the brain because they were going to use the other half of the brain to make another traditional Ilocano dish called Dinakdakan.

So I got half a raw brain. Of course it tasted great. We mixed the brain in with the raw beef ceviche. This Ilocos Norte traditional raw beef kinilaw is made with thin slices of raw beef plus calamansi and onions. It is that unbelievably simple.

I wanted this beef ceviche style because it keeps. Currently me and my family are on travel and this goes inside my trusty plastic container and has to keep and not stink. We have no ice.

We had lunch in Laoag with my wife’s Auntie who is an MD anesthesiologist and she was also familiar with this traditional raw beef kinilaw / ceviche. We were in a fine dining restaurant and she and I shared in this glorious fresh concoction which she has fond memories in her youth, she ate a lot of it, said it was fresh and very good.

The waiter in the fine dining place said they had dinakdakan on the menu but said they used mayonnaise instead of raw brain because mayonnaise had less of a smell? I call that BS reasoning. But that is what the waiter said.

What I think is that beef brains are small and there aren’t really enough of it to go around serving dinakdakan in the quantities they sell.

I find it very hard to get hold of raw beef brain in Marikina and Quezon City markets because it is in such great demand.

Anyway, back to the Ilocano traditional raw beef kinilaw… is no exaggeration, it is what it is because it is served in the turo-turo by traditional Ilocano people.

Jumping Shrimp Salad: A Traditional Ilocano Way of Eating Raw Shrimp

by

My previous post discussed about how we caught and cooked the live river shrimp from Kabigan falls in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte. This morning we had breakfast in Kabigan falls. Found out from conversation with 2 women that their usual, traditional Ilocano way of eating those live river shrimp is raw! Yes, a traditional raw paleo diet meal.

How to make Ilocano Jumping Shrimp Salad technique:

1. Sprinkle salt on live shrimp to “kill” them.
2. Remove shells from shrimp.
3. Dip in freshly squeezed calamansi juice.

Eat.

And by the way, even if my 2 younger kids gorged on the cooked shrimp at lunch time, for the very first time, absolutely no allergies came out of their skin.

Which proves that shrimp store toxins if they come from polluted waters. Say a polluted lake, polluted ocean, polluted fish pond. These Kabigan Falls shrimps are so very very very clean.

River Shrimp Paleo Diet: Live from Pristine Waters of Kabigan Falls in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte

by

Kabigan Falls

Kabigan Falls

We are staying in a resort in the beaches of Pagudpud. Yesterday late afternoon the family went to Kabigan falls. Kabigan falls is a pristine impressive waterfall. Our tour guide for the afternoon was Rey.

Kabigan falls is a nice nature trip. The people live at the opening part where the highway is. Then inside the people have planted rice fields and vegetables and grow their own roaming native chicken. You will notice a stream flowing down the middle of everything, a clear clean stream.

Follow that stream and you get to the beginning… Kabigan Falls. Very nice, very cool. The people have tapped the top most source for their drinking water for all their households. Rey says there are some 2000 people who live in these parts.

cooked river shrimp

cooked river shrimp

I asked Rey about what common food they have in these parts, if they had shrimp or fish in their mini-river. He said they usually caught river shrimp for their meals. Aha! Good idea. I made a deal with Rey for him and his buddy to catch me some 2 kilos of live river shrimp for our family breakfast the next day. Rey agreed for a price both of us were happy.

The following day I was prompt at 6:30am and I did get what I ordered. 2 kilos of live river shrimp. They kept the shrimp alive by putting them in a porous basket and dunked in the stream. So when I got to their village, the shrimp were jumping alive. They called this kind of shrimp UDANG.

I came back to the beach and went to my chosen cooking hut and showed the lady my catch and that I wanted them to cook it GISADO. She was wide eyed impressed by my catch, she knew what it was but was puzzled where I could get such a prize.

I fetched my kids and they played around with the river shrimp for a few minutes before we proceeded to cook them. I was there to watch every step they took so we could have a clean breakfast. They had sea salt, onions, coconut oil, onions… and the extra special 7-Up softdrink that when it evaporates in the pot gives good flavor… it’s an old chef’s trick with shrimp.

They suggested margarine 2 times but I turned them down both times. Let’s keep this paleo diet guys.

Finally, the 2 kilos of river shrimp were done and served to excited children. Normally, my 2nd son and my daughter are allergic to shrimp, but I figured these were absolutely clean shrimp from the most pristine natural waters, so let’s take the risk. They initially had only 2 shrimp each at breakfast, but lunch time they just chowed down on the shrimp.

This nutritious paleo diet was brought to you by parent ingenuity. This dish is not available in any menu of any resort or cooking outfit in the Pagudpud beaches. With deliberate paleo diet “hunting”, we get food that’s best.

I had to drive some 15 minutes from Pagudpud beach to Kabigan falls and back and had them cooked just the way I liked and watching over the shrimp so they did it right. Parental labor of love.

If you are in Pagudpud and would like to catch some live river shrimp, call on Rey at 0930-5591605

Be Afraid of GMO Cows Mimicking Human Milk

by

Thinking of having a new baby? Thinking of the convenience of commercial milk substitutes and condemning your child’s health by not giving him your mother’s milk? Thinking of avoiding breast feeding? Total Frankenstein’s monster news:

Genetically modified cows produce ‘human’ milk, Scientists have created genetically modified cattle that produce “human” milk in a bid to make cows’ milk more nutritious. The scientists have successfully introduced human genes into 300 dairy cows to produce milk with the same properties as human breast milk.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/geneticmodification/8423536/Genetically-modified-cows-produce-human-milk.html

First off, it is insane why some mothers do not breast feed their own children. You put your child at risk for many many things, at risk to die, at risk to grow up sub optimal and for what? Because you actually think breast feeding is a hassle? That breast feeding is no longer the domain? That you have mutated to a higher life form? That those infant formulas can actually deliver? Puhleez.

And now this freak show comes along and they may silently eventually just sneak it into the infant formula… again, a new generation of human guinea pigs. Raise your hands those who want to willingly participate in this freak show experiment.

Erectile Dysfunction Treatment Forum to be Cured without Drugs?

by

Are you looking for an erectile dysfunction treatment forum to be cured without drugs?  Well I just so happened to write an erectile dysfunction cure protocol at http://www.curemanual.com/diseases-and-tweaks/how-to-cure-erectile-dysfunction/ and I posted an erectile dysfunction cure thread at the raw paleo diet forum at http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/health/how-to-cure-erectile-dysfunction.

Any questions regarding erectile dysfunction should be posted in the forum thread.  If you are serious about erectile dysfunction cure, you will get into a raw paleo diet.