IT IS VERY CALM THERE, YOU LIKE IT!

Sago and tapioca are not the same. Sago is used as the staple starch in the Eastern islands of Indonesia, in the form of breads, sago congee (bubog sago, papeda), and sometimes pancake-like things. Its is easily digested, not particularly nutritious, and boring. A habitual rice or bread eater will soon become tired of it and find it dreary, sometimes downright repulsive.

To make such a meal more interesting, birds eye chili peppers, shallots, dried fish, turmeric, and limes (limo kasturi) are used. Sometimes the side dishes are quite exciting and zesty. The same pattern, more or less, exists in the Sulu archipelago, where cassava (kamote) is commonly eaten.

Because papeda is so dull, both texturally and flavour-wise, chopped ingredients and distinct chunks are prefered in condiments.

The "national" sambal of the Moluccas, tjolo-tjolo (katjule) is similar to Mexican salsas, being usually coarsely chopped shallots, birdseye chilies, green tomato, citrus juice, sweet soy sauce, and herbs (basil). Plus one ingredient commonly known as "grease-shit" ('tae minyak'). Which is left-over cooking oil from lots of frying, similar in concept to bacon grease in English working class cooking, or pepper oil for Cantonese food.

For charcoal grilled fish, the sambal is glopped on while cooking, and for most everything else served alongside.

[For most of my life I have avoided sago. Not so tjolo-tjolo.]



ZAMBOANGA TO JOLO

The Tausug and Samal on shipboard were accustomed to the motions, but the Tagalogs and Ilocanos got motion sick while the boat was still moored. Many of them did not make it to the railing in time. We were still waiting to leave nearly six hours after our "scheduled departure", and continued taking on passengers far beyond the alleged limit. Standard practice.
By the time we left, the "bathrooms" resembled a slice of hell.
The trip took five hours, a calm sea.
Lots of sick Northerners.

I was told not to leave the city beyond the port area (China Pier, Fishing Market), because the countryside was "unsettling". "Surely you mean 'unsettled'?" "Unsettling, present tense. There are many guns there." Filipinos are, in many parts of the country, more attached to their weapons than pudgy American macho men or Japanese tourists at the range.
Not all of them are freelancers, some are privately employed for that.

Necessarily I spent most of my time there walking around the neighborhood within a few blocks of the hotel, looking for food, and smoking my pipes.

The pipe above was one I had bought in Berkeley several years before.

In retrospect, it was not a journey I would make again. And I've forgotten most of the Tausug language in any case, because one seldom runs into anyone who speaks it here in San Francisco. Other than a few dishes, what I ate was unexcitingly popular (and very good) northern stuff such as could be found in Manila or General Santos City, very decent Hokkien Chinese food, or local snacks of improbable derivation. Plus pastries. Ensemada. Puto. Pan de sal, and pan de leche. Pan de koko. Sausage empanadas. And too much cassava.

I did make it to Bud Dahu (Bud Dato), Maimbung, and Talipao, but those were quick visits, and we heard gunfire a few times. It's green there, but the climate is not suitable for growing rice. You go to the Chinese shop for that.


Several weeks afterward, I made it to Port Holland on Basilan.
You can probably understand why I had to go there.
No, it doesn't resemble Amsterdam.



Tobacco is grown extensively (in Batangas, Ilocos, and Pangasinan), but finding good pipe mixtures (or any pipe mixtures) is hard. It became necessary to arrange for a friend with the airlines to bring it in for me.

By the way, I'm rather fond of Mafran Banana Ketchup.
But I've heard Jufran is actually better.
We'll disagree on that.



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IT SMELLS LIKE BURNT COCONUT OUTSIDE NOW

Located at the far side of Basilan Island, where the Samal used to harvest trepang, is an area named Port Holland, in the coastal town of Maluso. The Dutch were eventually kicked out by the Tausug, who were at that time in history expanding in all directions from their base in Jolo. For the next century Tausug Kimerajas (stadholders, noblemen) on the coast and Yakan chieftains in the interior contested each other's control, competed for influence, and made unstable alliances with both with the sultanates of Maguinindanao and the Spanish.

The Yakan kingdom of Kumalarangan then fades from sight, the Tausug sultans established total suzerainty, and the Spanish then spent several generations acting huffy about all of that. By the beginning of the eighteenth century Tausug raids and slaving expeditions had pulled such a number on the Visayas, Mindanao, and Sabah, that various powers (Dutch, English, Spanish, even the French) increased their presence in order to cut the uppity Sultanate down to size. By the midle of the nineteenth century, the sultanate had been severely limited. By the late eighteen hundreds, steam power, better armaments, and resolve spelled the end of Sulu effrontry.

From the American period up to the seventies and eighties, the region was more or less "peaceful". Oh sure, there was Moro rebellion, Ilocano death squads, casual Visayan settler violence against the locals, and occasional Philippine Constabulary brutality against anyone opposed to the Christian mission to civilize and exploit the area, but as long as you kept in regular contact with the embassy and illustrados from powerful warlord clans -- and their helpful and polite private guards -- or stuck to major towns, retiring to the luxury hotels after dark, you would be utterly safe. No problems.

And people would let you know if something was coming down.

Albeit obliquely. "The guidebook", you would say, "states that I can catch the three day ferry to Bongao from here". And they would inform you sadly that that was completely incorrect. Nobody ever went there in any case, it was a rather boring outpost. Later you would hear that there had been an armed dispute over a smuggling boat, and the entire stilt water village on the north side of town had gone up in flames.

Since the early two thousands the Americans have been helping the government in Manila bring peace and prosperity to the area. It is considered unwise to go there. Not recommended for tourists.

When I was there the Samal still harvested agal agal, but sold it directly to the Chinese. Dutch merchants had not visited in aeons, trepang was now taken elsewhere, and they weren't sure such people really existed.

Maybe I was a fictional construct. Did all Dutch people smoke pipes? Were we Muslim? Was I related to the old white dude who lived on an Island just off Tawi Tawi? He was a Haji, and married to royalty.

Actually, he wasn't Dutch, but a Californian from near Sacramento.
But in that area, he was the closest thing to a Dutchman.
Bit of a tough old blister.

He also spoke Tausug.


I would have gone back in the early nineties, but I was in a relationship at the time, and taking a nice American raised girl to a rather iffy part of the world, where she doesn't speak a word of the language, is a queer proposition. So we traveled to Europe instead.

TOBACCO INDEX


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TIYULA ITUM -- BLACK SOUP WITH BURNT COCONUT

A few days ago a friend reminded me of a dish we had eaten several years ago during Eid, asking "eh, you wouldn't happen to have a recipe for tiyula itum, would you?"
Well, it's not truly a genuine recipe, but I can fake it.
I've watched it being made, and helped a bit.

Tiyula itum is a beef or goat soup-stew of Tausug origin from Sulu (Jolo) in the Southern Philippines which is always served at weddings, often also at any other celebration, and not uncommonly after Ramadan. It's most salient characteristic is that it is black - greenish - dark grey in colour, and may seem singularly unappetizing to the novio. The blackness is due to the inclusion of burnt coconut as a flavouring, that being an ingredient unique to the Tausug culinary environment.

[Tiyula: soup, wet stew. Itum: black. Tausug: the dominant ethnicity in the Sulu Archipelago between Zamboanga and Sabah. They are Muslims, their language is distantly of Visayan origin. Jolo: the main Tausug island, and the common name of the main port on that island, which is also called Tiyanggi.]

Many celebrated ethnic dishes tend toward an excess of one or other ingredient, which is how they developed. One naturally thinks of British-style vindaloo, which by the standards of the average Goan is nearly inedible. And rendang from Sumatra or Den Haag is far, far hotter than anything a Malay or Javan might touch.

[Rendang: equal amounts chunked water buffalo and mashed chili, simmered in a vat of coconut milk well-flavoured with lemon grass, turmeric, lengkuas, and ginger, till the moisture is all gone and the meat frazzles in the rendered oil. Once it is a dark brown and waxy in texture under its crust it is done. A little bit goes a long way.]

Tiyula itum is like that. One imagines someone centuries ago saying "I want it toastier", whereupon his friend said "oh boy can I do that!" And within a few iterations, the toasted coconut had become entirely charred, the amount used was upped considerably, and extra chilies had been thrown into the pot for a bit more oomph.
Then they sat down and watched whatever passed for football.
Which in that age may have been more entertaining.
All in all they were very manly.

It has been gentled and improved somewhat since then.
Their wives probably told them to act normal.


To make tiyula itum, meat chunks are rubbed with pamapa, then braised with fried onion and garlic. Turmeric, ginger, and galangal (langkuwas) are added, and after a little bit more simmering, liquid is poured in. It is cooked for ten more minutes and served with rice or ketupat.

[Pamapa: pounded spice; in this case, two cups of charred coconut meat, two to four stalks lemon grass (sae; sereh in Indonesian), and half a dozen cloves garlic, all pounded very fine and mixed with a little oil. Galangal: dwarf ginger, called Lengkuas in Indonesian and Malay, also known as langkuwas and lengkang. Lemon grass and galangal are signature ingredients in a lot of Indonesian and South-East Asian cooking. Ketupat, Katupat: compressed rice; rice cooked in leaf packets, which causes the grains to loose their individuality and become dense.]

Properly made, it will be blue-black, with a faint hint of a greenish hue due to the turmeric.


TIYULA ITUM RECIPE

Two pounds of goat or beef, chunked on the bone.
Two cups of grated coconut.
One onion, chopped.
Three stalks of lemon grass.
Six cloves garlic.
Three inches of ginger.
Three Tsp. turmeric.
One Tsp. galangal powder.
Half Tsp. dried ginger powder (non-standard!).
Half Tsp. ground pepper.
Two to four TBS sambal ulek or Sriracha sauce.
Generous pinch sugar.
Small pinch salt.
Liquid: coconut milk, broth, and water.


Cut the lemon grass into two or three inch long segments.
Bruise them by whacking, which helps release the flavour.

Roast the coconut shreds in an iron skillet till they are a disturbingly dark hue, black even. Then grind this fine, and add two or three tablespoons of cooking oil. Rub this all over the meat, which you have washed very well to remove all traces of blood.

Fry the onion golden, add the garlic and ginger, fry a bit more. Add the meat and lemon grass, cook till very fragrant, four or five minutes. Add the powdered spices and sugar, plus the sambal or Sriracha sauce, stir to distribute over heat. Let it gently seethe on low for a few minutes, stir to prevent it scorching.

Add the liquid -- about two cups each of water, broth, and coconut milk -- and raise to a boil. Turn low, and simmer for about ten minutes.
Some whole red chilies can be thrown on top.
It can eaten as soup, or served alongside rice.


Coconut milk is not necessary, and often left out. The amount of liquid is variable, and depends on your own preference. If you are making it soupy, increase the quantity of charred coconut, spices, and chili.
If more stewy, decrease.

In the traditional recipe, chunks of fresh coconut meat are charred over flames till they are easy to pound. That is rather hard to manage here, so instead I utilize shredded coconut, precisely like what is commonly made into serundeng.

Note that turmeric and galangal are used fresh in South-East Asia, but are hard to find in anything other than powdered form in the West. They will consequently taste a little different when added. Fresh chili pepper leaves (daon lara) are sometimes thrown in; these will have a slightly bitter taste. Chopped tomato can also be included for flavour, but is not, strictly speaking, traditional. Regarding the dried ginger, I tend to employ that with galangal for a slightly broader gingery influence.
You could also add a little temo kuntji.


Other dishes you might wish to serve if you have a lot of people coming over are kulma (korma), piyanggang manok, satti (saté), and sambal.
Plus suwan suwan: fried fish in a coconut sauce with vegetables.
Djuwalan (pisang goreng) as a sweet.

Also serve plenty of cooked vegetables (sayul-sayul).

Not really festive, but good for the digestion.

It isn't a proper feast without paliya.

That may be my own peculiarity.




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MINOR BIO-DATA - SULU

Pursuant a comment I left on his blog, e-kvetcher writes:


If I don't see some auto-biographical posts on this blog that talk about all the stuff that happened to you in your life and depriving your readers of some quality reading material, I am going to drag your Dutch ass to Den Haag to stand trial for Crimes against Humanity!

Inquiring minds want to know!

[The comment was this: "Oh, and by the way - I used to be able to speak Tausug. I was in Sulu back in the mid-eighties, when I was younger and stupider."]

This post is for e-kvetcher. In partial response to his kvetch, and the kvittel therein.



ABOUT TAUSUG AND PHILIPPINOS

Tausug is a fairly standard variation on the Visayan language pattern, albeit with a vocabulary that in its deviation from Visayan roots shares words of a more Malay and Indonesian derivation. And like many of the dialects spoken by Muslims, it also borrows from Arabic.

During the eighties I knew a fair number of Manilenyos and Cebuanos, due to a "family connection", as well as a number of other Philippinos. So when I went to the Philippines it wasn't exactly as a stranger. In that I had been reading up on the place for ages before I arrived, and spoke Tagalog (errrm, Taglish - more English than anything taggish), Indonesian (tolerably well) and Tamarao (quite lyrically and eloquently), I was perhaps somewhat better prepared than most visitors.

[Indonesian is a relative of the Philippino languages, Tamarao is a language from Eastern Borneo which shares a number of cognates with Yakan, Samal, and Tausug (southern Philippino languages). Yakan and Samal rather resemble Indonesian dialects. Do not get me started on Nabaloi - it is northern (and upland-tribal), and hence not at all relevant to this post.]



MABAKTI IN TAO MUSLIM HA BANGSA NIYA
[Devoted is the Muslim to his nation]

Jolo, at that time, was newly open to travelers after the unrest during the seventies when the irredentists and the Philippine Constabulary (PC) had their difference of opinion. And it was mercifully free of NPA (New Peoples Army - the Philippine Communist Guerillas), so it was one of the places in the south where one could travel without fear of being whacked as a CIA agent. The Moros where rather appreciative of our efforts in Afghanistan.

[In February of 1974 the Philippine Army had retaken Jolo in house-to-house fighting that destroyed the larger part of the city. Many of those who did not leave their houses before the fighting started were not alive when the fighting ended.]

JOLO

The centre of Jolo city still showed the scars of the reconquest by Marcos' troops. There were "vacant lots". The central mosque had been burned but was still standing, many of the buildings were bullet-marked, and there was a strong police presence at China Pier. The entire city was occupied by the troops of the South West Command division (SoWeCom), headquartered in Zamboanga.

Can't remember the name of the place where I stayed, but it was Chinese owned. And noisy. The walls ended about one foot from the ceiling, where wooden rods took over - for ventilation. Which meant that every snore, borborigmus, cough, hiccup, and gut-ventilation in the entire building contributed to a general sense of murmuring, babbling, gasping life.

The centre of the Island (from Buwalo and Adjid all the way to Talipao) was not precisely off-limits, but not advisable to visit either. Some of the settlements apparently were quite flat, and being kept so by periodic visits from the army. Because of separatist activity.

There was a firefight outside of Silangkan (west-coast of the island, about six miles or so from Jolo city) while I was in Jolo. There was another incident either on Pangutaran or Teomabal (both islands to the north of Jolo city), and some very minor violence in Talipao involving a man on a scooter with a gunman sitting behind him, and some PeeCees.
Kabukaan and Bubuan (islands visible from the harbour) were considered risky.

Maimbung (south-southwest coast) had been burnt by government troops in the seventies - it had not recovered.


I tried to get to Siasi while I was in the area. And I was told it was possible to get there. But no boat was going there, and no one knew anyone who planned to go, nor would anyone admit to ever having been there. A few days later I heard that there had been a fierce battle on the island, and half the town had been destroyed.

Didn't bother trying to get to Tankil, where the Samal had fought so desperately against the Spaniards more than a century ago - a scene of that much sadness (most of the Tankil Samal had been killed, the survivors had been taken into exile) is perhaps not good to visit.


TAWI TAWI & BONGAO

Bongao City, on an island just off the tip of Tawi Tawi, further towards Borneo, had once been described as a charming stilt-village, with a smaller permanent settlement on the shore. When I saw it, it no longer matched that description in the slightest, having been destroyed during the war, then over-run by Tagalogs and Visayans. In the mid-eighties it was occupied by Philippine military with their families and hangers-on. Probably about fifty thousand non-natives, whose waste and garbage polluted the waters and choked the streets. A very smelly place, the residents of which, native and non-native alike, were stressed, tense, and fearful.
This was a city of nastiness and paranoia.

[In Tamarao the name Tawi-Tawi means 'choral song'. A very poetic appellation. I suspect that in Samal and Badjao it must mean something very similar.]


Directly south of Tawi Tawi and Bongao were several small islands on the Tii-Tii (tee-hee tee-hee) reefs. All had been thoroughly brutalized by the PC, who since then used them as bases for smuggling, casual violence against whatever locals were within easy reach, and similar gifts of civilization.

Out in the smaller Islands there was an old American whose family had been there since before the war. He was half Moro, and had adopted Islam. Which allowed him to have four wives (in addition to having several non-wives in various places). A rich man by local standards, and well-connected among the natives, his principal wife being the daughter of an important dato (chiefly) lineage, and another wife being dumato (chiefly class from the Pulangi area on Mindanao). He was visiting one of his wives in California while I was there, with much of his household. But I would have liked to have met him.


BADJAO STILT DWELLINGS IN THE SEA

Its about thirty miles south-west from Bongao to Sibuto and Tumindao, where there are picturesque stilt-villages built on the reefs, from Sitangkai at the tip of Tumindao to Tong Tong out in the water, even as far as Bulo Bulo. The Badjao who live there harvest trepang, agar-agar, kelp, and reef-fish. The water is very flat, and on cloudy days one can see lightening along the edges of the horizon.
It is best to travel these waters in swift Tausug craft, as Badjao and Samal sikayangs are easily captured. But do not go out too far, as the Philippine military regard all native boats here as legitimate targets - they will shoot everyone on board and take the smuggled goods to sell in Zamboanga, Cebu, and Manila. Most of the time this area is off-limits, because of the proximity to Borneo, where everyone has relatives.



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