Bangsi
I decided write in this journal for sake of leap year. Heck, I'm not even sure I did one on 2008. I'll just post what I ate last night which made me miss back from the Philippines. My favorite simple meal consists of fried bangsi (dried flying fish), cooked kamote tops (sweet potato leaves) and sliced tomatoes drench with patis (fish sauce) on top of white rice. The bangsi is perfect to eat for breakfast, but can be eaten anytime of the day.
I could probably eat kamote tops and tomatoes with rice alone because of the fish sauce. The funky smell and salty taste, to some, may be off-putting, but it's essential in some pinoy dishes. I find it best (for me) with cooked leaves, steamed brocolli, tomatoes and grilled fish especially tuna collar/belly.
Sadly, One can't buy bangsi in the United States because the kind I like is from my mother's hometown. It's a specialty in that place where they even have a festival dedicated to this particular dried fish. What I love about it is that it's not too salty like other bulad (dried fish). I believe it's because they marinated the fish, so there's less salt. If there was no rice, I would eat it as a sandwich with a pan de sal (really weird to most people). I think this might be the meal I would eat before I die. Yeah, I ate it with no utensil like it should be.
I took a crappy picture with the web cam.