20250627 AROUNDTHEPH OKOY FORDELIVERY

- Okoy around the Philippines!

- Okoy.

Love it, hate it.

Who loves it?

- I love it.
- I love it.

- Specifically the crispy ones.
I feel like it just scratches

the itch of like wanting
something crispy.

- Okoy, I feel like, is something
we all grow up eating

regardless of where you grew up.

But I don't know
if I'm the one being ignorant here

but I never realized
that there were different types

of okoy.

- Me too.

- I didn't know that
there were different types

of okoy around the Philippines.

- I thought it was just, like,
whatever randomly

is in your house—

squash, and what are the...

And sweet potatoes.

- Carrots.
- Yeah.

- Yeah. Carrot, sweet potatoes.
Like, those are the mainstays,

and then you can add
whatever else you want in there.

So what are some of the recipes
that we're doing today

that kind of shocked you
the most?

- For me, it's okoy maranay,
it's more of like...

Since it is like small fish,
like dulong,

it's more patty-like
but you still also get that crisp.

- Okoy of Marikina.

It's actually not
the usual fritter that you see.

- Marikina has its own okoy?

- Yeah.
- I don't believe you.

(laughs)

Double check this [ _ ].

Be like, "Hey, San Juan,
Quezon City,

you guys have
your own okoy variety?"

- Actually, all of the people
I contacted gave me

like one thing
and it's like wrapped

in lumpia wrapper.

So it's not like a fritter.

And then, when you go
to gotohan,

you'd also see it paired
with goto and okoy.

- Where is yours from?

- Maranay.

- Where is that?

- Oh, maranay is the...

(laughs)

In Ozamis.

- Where's Ozamis?

- This is the dog, the head.

- The dog?!

- I always envision
the Philippines like a dog.

- You're embarrassing.

- Am I the only one?

- Why are you using
a stupid analogy?

(laughs)

- What is up, guys?

If you haven't already known,
my name is Seth

and today, I'm making okoy maranay.

Okoy maranay uses dulong or,
you know, silverfish in English.

- So maranay is a very fine
and tiny fish.

***- Growing up, ito ay madalas lutuin ng aking mother because we have an abundance of maranay dito sa aming province. It's a very simple dish with only 4-6 ingredients na di mahirap hanapin at mostly readily available na sa inyong mga households.

- You really want to highlight
the ingredient with this.

So I'm only using
the maranay, or dulong.

I have my garlic,
just going to take off the nuggs,

and then do my technique.

I don't know
what y'all are talking about.

The big boss technique.

I did this first!

No, I'm just kidding.

And from there,
we're just going to do

a nice and rough mince.

Here, I have a large bowl.

I'm just going to add my dulong.

- And then, in a medium bowl,
you're going to mix

maranay with flour.

- You don't want
to use anything too heavy

'cause you don't want
to break up the fish.

I'm going to add some egg.

If you like a more cakey okoy,
you can add more flour.

If you want more crispy,
you can just add

a little more liquid
to make sure

that you invite that crunch
into your fritter.

- Salt and vetsin, or MSG,

finely chopped garlic.

So we're going to mix it properly.

- And there. I think that is
my okoy maranay batter.

- And then, you get
a shallow ladle, like this one,

and fill it with your prepared
maranay to fry.

You can choose
to make it crispy or not,

but make sure that the oil
in the skillet

is really hot before frying.

So you would know
if it's cooked based on the colors.

So don't fry too long
because it will make

your maranay too crispy and dry.

- What's inside it?

- Okay. So inside
is maranay or dulong.

Are you familiar with dulong?

- Small fish?
- Yeah.

Very, very small fish.

And for me, I use vinegar.

I don't know if you like vinegar.

- It's like a fish omelet.

(laughs)

- Yes, almost.

I mean, sometimes people
don't know

what's the difference of okoy,
what's the difference of torta.

Torta is more like an omelet,

and okoy is more like a fritter,
so it's really more crispy.

I think it's a win for me.

Please let us know
what you guys think.

Maybe what we can do better.

And keep watching.

- Hi! I'm Ynna, and I will be
showing you how Ilocanos

do their okoy.

And to show us
more about the dish,

I have my friend Jhay M Biding
from Ilocos Norte.

- Making okoy is just simple.

When making okoy,

one of the things we need
to consider is to separate

the batter mixture
from the components.

We need all-purpose flour,

cornstarch,

atsuete or annato powder,

water,

an egg,

fish sauce,

salt and pepper to taste.

- So this is how thick
our batter came into.

- For the components,
we need hipon,

small shrimps,

longganisa without the casing,

carrots, squash,,

ginger,

shallots (or onions),

bean sprouts,

and malunggay leaves.

- I almost forgot to add
banana flowers.

So you can also use
the banana heart

but you have to use
the most inner part

because that's the edible part.

My friend suggested
to use the flowers.

You pick out a flower like this
and you take out

this hard stem.

This is what makes
the okoy bitter.

And directly straight
into our bowl.

- The reason why
we don't mix everything

is for us to prevent the batter

to get thin since the components
has a water content.

- Now, let's fry these up.

To taste test this okoy Ilocano
with me, we have

our all-time favorite boss.

Yoo-hoo!

- That sounds like
the yoo-hoo from...

You know, that big guy
in Frozen?

He goes like this
and he goes...

- Is that from Elsa something?

Elsa... Frozen!

- Okay. What did you make?

Okoy Ilocano.

Ooh. I love banana flowers.

- Me too. I haven't had
this before so I'm so excited.

- That's crispy.

- That's delicious. Good job.

- Thank you.

(giggles)

- Exterior's nice and crispy.

Interior kind of has
that doughy texture

which is quite nice.

Very good.
Thank you very much.

- I love it, too.
- You did well.

I'm back.

We started doing this show
with the idea of trying

to talk to kind
of different provincial chefs.

We also thought
it would be really cool

to kind of go in
to some cookbooks

that have references
to this recipe

or this kind of category.

And I'm actually looking,

I'm not being rude,
I'm looking for the recipe.

One book that I have
is all the recipes,

I think it's 700+
recipe contributions

from Maria Orosa

who is, as you know,
a Filipino national war hero

that also developed ways
to feed people in troops

during war, during occupation,

'cause obviously had
to be stretched.

So one of those was
her corn okoy.

So I've never made this recipe.

So we're going
to make it together.

So there was a whole section
about corn

and the utilization of corn.

So a lot of what Maria Orosa
stood for was kind

of looking at what
our natural resources were

and what we were growing
on a "industrial scale"

and how do we use it
in different local recipes

so that we're not just using
one ingredient for one recipe.

We're using one ingredient
for multiple recipes

and just making sure people
don't go hungry.

First thing we want to do
is we're going to mix

the shrimp stock.

The 1/3 of a cup.

It calls for one cup of flour
but I do think...

I prefer doing a mix of flour
and cornstarch

just to get it nice and airy.

And then, she says to add salt here
and mix everything.

Okay.

This looks more correct.

It's just atsuete coloring.

So 1/4 cup of that.

And then, she says
we mix the drained tofu, corn.

So this recipe makes use
of things like soy, tofu—

which we know can be grown
at scale quite quickly—

and corn.

So her recipe also calls
for boiled eggs.

It also calls, obviously,
for some shrimp,

but the shrimp is boiled
shell on.

I prefer when it's shell off
so that you don't cut yourself,

unless they're really,
really tiny shrimp.

We're just going to do
something like this,

and then we're just going
to press our shrimp in.

As well as our egg.

Hopefully, this slides into it.

Here's my unwilling taste tester
who's actually allergic

to shrimp.

But, full disclosure...

- I love shrimp.

- We have insurance.

And disclosure no. 2,
she said she wants to do this.

- Yes.

- So this is Maria Orosa's
corn okoy,

and then she said just serve it
with distilled

white cane vinegar.

- Wow. That's crunchy.

I love how it has a crunch outside,

and then when you bite into it,
it's nice and chewy inside.

I love the sweetness
the corn gives also.

- It's not a complicated recipe,
it's a very simple recipe.

- Pretty straightforward.

- But I can understand
why this is kind of like—

what do you call it—
lutong mahirap.

Something you cook in times
when you don't have

a lot of ingredients at home
'cause the corn

is from a canned good.

But I like it.

- It's good.

- Approved.

- I finished the whole thing.

- Maria.

- If you ever find yourself
in Marikina and asked

or looked for okoy,
don't be surprised

if it's not the usual vegetable
or shrimp fritter

that your'e actually familiar with.