Title: About Pancit
Categories: Info Pasta Filipino
Yield: 1 Servings

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Pancit, or noodles, is one of my favourite Filipino foods, and there is quite a variety, and some provinces have their own specialities, e.g., Pancit Molo, Luglog, Palabok, Bijon (Chinese style), Canton, Guisado, etc. Some are soup type dishes, but the Pancit Bijon Guisado, similar to the recipe Jim provided, is my favourite. Although it is a fairly simple dish, (often simpler than the recipe Jim gives), it takes a high degree of skill to get the flavours of everything in balance, and all components cooked just the right amount. Then it is a delight!

It is served on a plate, with several kalamansi (a type of kumquat) on a saucer, cut ready to squeeze over the dish. Additional soy sauce is available if desired. It is eaten, like most Filipino dishes, with a spoon and fork, but if you are Chinese, you can use chopsticks, and noone takes much notice.

Re the fish sauce (patis), in case you don't know how it is made, (too bad if you don't want to know!), you catch a half a tonne or so of tiny shrimps or fish (depending on which type of product you want), shovel them into an open concrete tank, with a lot of salt, and let it rot/ferment for about 6 months. The solids settle as a paste separate from the liquid, which is carefully decanted into bottles as patis, while the paste is put into jars as bagoong. It is closely related to the Indonesian/Malaysian terasi/blachan, and is used in cooking and as a sauce added to some dishes when eating. Bagoong is also used as a dipping sauce for green mango slices, where the salt balances the sourness of the mango. Normally bagoong jars do not have a useby date on them, 'cos it's done everything it's going to do! From: Glen Jamieson Date: 19 Feb 97 National Cooking Echo Ä

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