Kalamyas

Dinner last night was sinigang na pompano sa kamias. Papa came back last week from a Cagayan de Oro-GenSan-Davao business trip, and he brought back a lot of really gorgeous fish. I'd had pompano before but I'd never cooked it myself. I like my sinigang very sour. Gimme lots of onions, and ugh no gabi please! (my apologies if you're a fan of sinigang thick with gabi) Cabbage is ok for prawns, but for fish gimme kangkong. And don't forget the siling haba! Beware, if I cook it there will probably be several sili, and possibly crushed. But not last night. Now of all the different variants of the humble sinigang, sinigang sa bayabas is my least favorite. Sinigang sa sampalok takes middle rank. I've heard of but not tried sinigang sa pakwan. Sinigang sa kamias has always been my favorite.

Slow fade to memories from my childhood in Batangas City where "kalamyas" as it is called there was so abundant we kids used to pick them off the trees and munch on them. The trees were small and no good for climbing, but the leaves lent good cover to toy soldiers. The mushy overripe fruit served well as harmless grenades during mock wars as we ran around the neighborhood. For cooking, kalamyas could be had both fresh and sun-dried. I never see the dried variety anywhere anymore. In fact the fresh ones aren't so readily available here in Manila either. We're fortunate to have access to a nearby tree. I should try sun-drying a few myself when there are more fruit. This time of year there's only ever a handful of runt fruits on the tree, and all of them were picked for last night's sinigang.

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