Weird comfort food is very personal. That’s why it’s weird. Comfort can come in any forms, and food is definitely one source of that! I think the weirder the comfort food is to someone, the more comforting it is to another. Here’s my weird comfort food:
Pili and Hingmay
I bet you don’t know what that is. If you do, you’re most likely Bicolano. 😉
When relatives come over from Bicol, we get to enjoy some fresh black ripe pili fruit. The pili is boiled, peeled and enjoyed best when dipped in hingmay (salted fermented fish). Hingmay is very briny, has a similar taste profile to bagoong balayan. The meat of the pili fruit perfectly partners with the pungent hingmay. If pungent fermented fish isn’t your thing, you can also dip the pili meat in calamansi or patis.
There is no other way to eat it than by hand. Peeling the pili can get quite messy, dipping the slippery meat into the sauce even messier. I slide the meat off the pili nut and then dip into the sauce. I don’t dare eat the meat when it’s still stuck on the pili nut — the meat is so slippery I just might swallow the whole thing! Peeling the meat off first is incredibly messy. But the messy eating making the whole eating experience so much more enjoyable. It tastes better when you eat it this way too.
This is my weird comfort food. I have it whenever pili’s available at home!
What’s your weird comfort food? Do tell!
Hi! I'm Toni Tiu,
and I've been blogging at
at Wifely Steps since 2003. This started as a blog to help newly weds adjust to married life. It has evolved into a home and parenting blog. I write about things close to my heart -- good eats, good reads, family, marriage, and the little things that make everyday happy.
kayni
September 27, 2013 at 2:58 am (11 years ago)this looks good. i’ve never had it.
Toni
September 27, 2013 at 6:02 am (11 years ago)Happy you think it looks good 😀
A Gracious Life
September 27, 2013 at 7:13 am (11 years ago)Wow! I’ve heard about that pili and hingmay for the first time. I thought it was a foreign dish.
Toni
September 27, 2013 at 2:35 pm (11 years ago)Regional snack.
sheng
September 28, 2013 at 5:03 am (11 years ago)Boy, this gets me thinking do i even have a weird comfort food, but okra dipped in bagoong (ulam man or pinapapak) is my weakness.
Toni
October 4, 2013 at 10:44 pm (11 years ago)I love okra in bagoong also!!
You are not alone.
cherx
September 28, 2013 at 12:07 pm (11 years ago)Wow silam! Indeed, boiled pili is best eaten when dipped in hingmay. Whenever am back to my hometown(Catanduanes) for a vacation, I always ask for boiled pili and hingmay to be served. The act of peeling the pili and being messy excites me. Am used to eat it as “ulam” and I can finish two plates of rice…oh I am visualizing and salivating right now…haha!
Toni
September 30, 2013 at 1:42 pm (11 years ago)Hi Cherx! So awesome to know someone from Catanduanes! That’s where my family is from too, though I’ve never been there. When there’s no pili around, we have hingmay at home, which I enjoy eating with rice. Oh yum. Maybe I’ll have that for a late lunch later. <3 I'm salivating too at the thought of it. Hahaha! High five, Cherx!
Maan
September 30, 2013 at 5:00 pm (11 years ago)My mom’s Bicolana but I don’t know hingmay. Love pili! I do love the gata dishes, and am wondering if you’ve heard of KINUNOT. Sting ray meat!
Toni
September 30, 2013 at 5:31 pm (11 years ago)I have never heard of kinunot and you have piqued my curiosity with its description! 😀 How is that prepared?!
Maan
October 1, 2013 at 11:15 am (11 years ago)My mom used to buy the skinned sting ray meat in the Marikina public market, but it’s sometimes rare because I don’t exactly think it’s legal for it to be sold :)) It usually comes in chunks of meat (I’d be terrified to see it in its animal form, haha) that we would flake or himay into pieces. Usual ginataang style, with malunggay leaves!
Bigla ko tuloy na-miss while I’m talking about it, haha,
P.S.
My comfort food is chicken inasal at Chicken Bacolod with crispy chicken skin.
Toni
October 1, 2013 at 8:47 pm (11 years ago)Hi Maan! Yikes, no wonder I haven’t seen it. It is most probably illegal 😛 I don’t think I’d be able to eat it either! I’d keep seeing its face. Haha! Then again we never know.
And yum, chicken inasal is so delicious. Especially with extra chicken oil. Gah!!!