"Bulad" or "Tuyo" depending on your dialect....

Or "Gross" in my dialect:) This is a treat in the Filipino culture....little fishes...usually fried and eaten like popcorn. They smell so bad that cooking in the house is not a good idea. One time my mother-in-law was cooking them outside in the back yard. I came in the house through the front door(at the opposite end of the house) and the smell hit me like a ton of bricks....and she wasn't even in the house! That tells you how bad they smell:) BUT my sweet sister-in-law didn't fry them when we visited this weekend-she baked them so the smell was just a faint odor in the house.

This was the same night as Nate's birthday with all that pizza so the kids had already eaten before this delicacy was cooked. All the adults(except me) were feasting on this and other dishes when Sophia came to me and said "Mmmmmmm....what's that smell?" I knew what she was asking about....the bulad! She is truely a Filipino. She loves this fish, sardines(not the ones in the roll-top can), the pink shrimp paste, and all the things that make me a little nauseated:) She makes her Daddy proud:)


here they are coming out of the oven....not sure what the big pieces are....probably some fish jerky or something like that.


Sophia and the other kids didn't like to eat the heads for some reason. I am sure they taste just like the rest of the fish but how would I know! I think she just couldn't get past eating some animal's head!


yummmm.....give me more!!

here is one before being devoured!


the head removed and ready to eat!

what a treat!

the feeding frenzy!

I have grown to love some really interesting Filippino dishes but this one I just haven't even tried....but I am not a big fish person so that is probably why....oh and anything that smells as bad as this does just doesn't make me salivate. One of my favorites are the dishes made with ampalaya (http://www.ampalaya.com/). It has a certain taste that you have to get use to but it is so good to me now. Richard said they were made to eat it when they were growing up because it had so much iron in it but they hated it. It is 3x more bitter than brussel sprouts but a good taste.