Craving for Fishballs

Craving for Fishballs
By Jonathan Ian F. Bade

Friday afternoon, I was in the basketball court watching kids play in the street. A yellow cart approaches them slowly. I asked my self, what is that cart? What’s the thing its selling? I was very curious. I even pretended to go home just to take a look at this cart. It was a fishball cart. My mother used to tell me not to eat these things because it so called “dirty”. If it’s dirty, why do almost all Filipinos eat fishballs? What is really the component of a fishball that drags people to eat it? You, why do you eat fishballs? From what we know fishballs are Southeast Asian street food which is circle in shape and sold all over the Philippines.

Fishballs are street food sold in the streets of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. It is made of fish and mostly flour. If uncooked its radius is about 1.00 centimeter, if cooked its radius will be a little bit larger for about 1.50 centimeters. Fishballs are deep fried in oil for about 2-3 minutes. If it’s you eat it only once a week, it would be delicious but if you always eat it you will be fed up and look for other types of food. Nowadays you would rarely see fishball carts. Fishballs are often sold in a stall.

Unlike other Filipino foods like Pakbet, Paksiw and Kaldereta, fishballs are found only in streets. You would find it in neither in a five-star hotel nor first class restaurants. To eat fishballs you don’t use a spoon. Instead pierced it on a stick and dip it in different kinds of sauces. There are different kinds of sauce, not catsup or salad dressing but in a soy sauce-flour-ginisa mix-water mixture which comes in different flavors like sweet, chili and sweet-chili. Fishballs are delicious after dipping it to these sauces. It is cheaper than other street foods more over than a first class foods served in restaurants. It is the cheapest food I’ve ever eaten, cheaper than a candy and a chewing gum.

Street foods are somehow dirty. They can take in smoke from vehicles and cigarettes that make it dirty. Also it’s how they cook it. Some people cook it very well. But some people saving up gas cook it partially. Half-cook fishballs are very dangerous because of its content, fish and flour. Would you eat a raw fish that has been stepped by its makers? Another thing that made it dirty is the people dipping in the sauce. This may sound grouse but it’s in fact true. People dip their fishballs in the sauce, then they lick the fishballs and dip it again in the sauce. This is how we get sickness from street foods. Amoebas are small animals that are able to enter the body by dirty water or food. If people do this activity amoebas will spread in the sauce. Kikiam although half-cooked is still clean because it is made from vegetables and flour. However if the sauce scandal continues, it would be very dirty.

Fishballs are cheap and delicious especially if dipped in sauce. It is made out of fish but mostly flour. It is how people cook and eat the fishball for it to be dirty. Fishballs are Southeast Asian street food that a Filipinos really love to eat.