Barrio Fiesta Dried Herring, Tunsoy Eviscerated

Ingredients: Herring and salt

Breakfast in the Philippines is a whole wonderful affair unto itself. It is much larger and more filling than breakfasts elsewhere, consisting many times of a meat/fish dish plus rice, and eggs even. The term Pinoy Breakfast brings happy memories and tummy rumblings to many Filipinos all around the globe. Each Filipino will have his/her own favorite although there are some “classics” that stand out in everyone’s mind. This is one of them.

Tuyo is a dried salted fish (tuyo actually meaning dried). The process of salting and drying preserves the fish and you can actually safely store this for some time. This is done to a number of kinds of fish so you can have different variants of tuyo. Tuyo has been touted as a poor man’s kind of dish as can be procured quite cheaply (and as it is “preserved” can be stored cheaply too!). Poor man or no, tuyo has legions of fans from all walks of life, so I like to instead think of it as an everyman’s kind of dish. And as far as tuyo lovers go, I am right there heading the pack!