Buro - Kapampangan’s specialty

I’ve always known that in my blood lies the blood of a cook! Hehe.. dramatic, ain’t I? Seriously though, Kapampangans, people from Pampanga where I belong, have been known as excellent cook. I never know why until I found this article that drives us to Pampanga cuisine. Well, aside from the historical aspect of that article which is not the focus of this post, it also lists some of the best foods (and exotic too) that we always offer to strangers. My mood todays tells mo to tell you something about the famous and not too famous buro which my family and relatives, except me, loves! Buro is a fermented rice with fish or small shrimps (a.k.a. balo-balo, tag-ilo). Buro is a Tagalog word which also means preserved in salt, picled or salted. It is always served as an accompaniment for fried or grilled fish and some vegetables.

A detailed howto create a buro was written in this blog. Just scroll down a bit and check the pictures to see a glimpse of how they do it.

Below is the buro - the whitish one besides the fishes.

Buro and Fish

Picture from Flickr

I always ask my mom what is so good about it and always answer me with, ‘Try it to find out’. Maybe I will when I get a cold so I can’t smell it! Here is some info for you but I couldn’t agree nor disagree

How does it taste? It is slightly sour, delicately salty and unmistakably garlic-flavoured with an underlying taste of shrimp. How is it supposed to be eaten? Definitely not like how May-May eats it although some of my obsessed cousins have used it as sandwich filling. The proper way of eating it is with fresh mustard leaves, steamed vegetables and broiled fish. And how do the first-time eaters like it? The proof of the paste is in the taste…

Nowadays, they only not use the shrimp/fish to make a buro. I heard that the meat of pigs are also being used but they are called etak in Bagiou City. The counterpart of this food in Korea is the Kimchi and in Japan is the Sushi..

This is just one of those exotic food to look for if you come here. I’ll post another one, the Kamaro, which is I guess the least food I will ever eat ever! But it never really ceases to amaze me that my brother and others can really chew that thing.. more info in the future ;)