How is bagoong balayan made?

What's Filipino food without our sarsa and sawsawan?

Balayan, Batangas' Bagoong Balayan has long been a favorite among foodies, what with its sharp, salty zing that cuts perfectly through green mangoes, pork fat, and other heavy dishes that require its brilliance.   

Balayan Bay in Batangas is where it all started.

Residents would await the return of fishermen from out on sea, to turn their catch into the famous dipping sauce.

According to an episode of "Good News," only about 10 makers of Bagoong Balayan are left — and not all of them subscribe to the traditional way of making the fermented sauce.

They interviewed Tatay Herme, one of the oldest makers of Bagoong Balayan. Unlike other Bagoong Balayan makers, Tatay Herme continues to make the fermented sauce the traditional way. And where his competitors have scaled up and turned to plastic jars, he remains small-scale, using old tapayan jars he's inherited from his parents.

Bagoong Balayan can be made using different types of fish including dilis, galunggong, or malansi, which Tatay Herme uses for his craft. 

He starts by washing the fish with sea water and removing their blood. Then he takes a batya, coats it with salt — "para hindi magtalsikan ang mga isda," he says — and then mixes them together by hand, breaking the bigger fish apart if need be.

If the fish are large, he pounds them further into smaller pieces. But always, Tatay Herme goes back to mixing the fish and the salt by hand, saying the mixture has got to feel rough.

Bagoong Balayan takes some six months to ferment, five when the weather is hot.

Here's why he prefers his traditional tapayan: Fermentation is two months faster in the tapayan compared to plastic drums, which on the flip side can produce more.

In any case, here's the interesting part: Tatay Herme is also able to produce fish sauce from waste materials of his bagoong. Cool, right? — LA, GMA News