Late Night Sardine Supper

Sardines in tomato sauce, hot with chilli peppers or plain, are a staple of a lazy-Filipino snack. When we were children, sardines, corned beef, and Spam were our favorite fare when a typhoon raged outside and the cook could not go to market for fresh produce. Corned beef like Hormel and Spam were obviously American, from my mother's childhood days, I assume, when the country was introduced to American convenience foods i.e. canned foods and we inherited the love for "americano" style foods, including "pan americano," great to sop up the sardine sauce! The most famous brand of sardine was Ligo, introduced in 1945 in collaboration with the Chinese-Filipino businessman, Gregory Tung, and Liberty Gold Fruit Co. of California.

The original impetus for the Filipinos' love for "sardinas" must have originated from the Spanish. Iberians have been fishing for sardines for centuries. Even today some of the best canned fish come from Portugal, Spain or, across the Gibraltar Strait, Morocco. Spanish anchovies are a special treat when one could get them. They are still harvested and prepared the centuries-old way. While Americans think of anchovies on pizzas and Caesar salad, they have a more profound role to play in Spanish cuisine, similar to the role played by "guinamos" in the Philippines and fish sauce in Vietnam and Thailand.

As children, my sister and I harbored a special fondness for sardines, especially the Tomé brand in a hot, oil sauce with thin slices of carrots. Food was not always enough. Merma had a secret source of pin money. She would send the girl helper to the sari-sari store in front of our uncle's house on Burgos Street for Tome that we would consume in the bedroom after an insufficient supper. Thus was born for me the status of sardines as comfort food.

They are excellent with pan de sal, native Spanish-style rolls with a thick floury crust, or with white rice. They are, of course, wonderful as hors d'ouvres, served on salt-free crackers with sliced manzanilla olives stuffed with pimento and/or whole garlic cloves. Here I've paired them with rice, caponata and ripe strawberries. I would have wanted to crown the plate with a long, arching stalk of chive, another produce in season in early spring, or braised asparagus but late at night I get lazy: I want my comfort sardines!