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,
this was often cooked

by my mother because we have
an abundance of maranay here

in our province.

It's a very simple dish
with only 4–6 ingredients

that are not hard to find
and are mostly readily available

in your 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 an "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 you're actually familiar with.

- The okoy from Marikina
is different from the okoy

that’s commonly cooked today.

Marikina's okoy is the kind
that's wrapped

in lumpia wrapper.

So the ingredients of the okoy,
first of all,

include mung bean sprouts.

First, let’s fry
the sweet potato.

Once it turns
a bit golden brown,

next is the tofu.

Slice it into small pieces
then fry it.

Once it turns golden brown,
let’s set it aside.

- In medium heat,
we're going to add our oil.

Then, we're going to sauté
our aromatics first.

Garlic,

onion.

- After we sauté, that’s when
we add the ground pork.

When it starts turning
golden brown,

let’s add the shrimp.

- For the shrimp,
once it turns pink,

that's the time that it's ready.

- Add the Ginisa Mix,
ground black pepper,

and also add oyster sauce.

- And then, we'll add back
our tofu and sweet potato.

- Then it’s very simple,
just add the mung bean sprouts.

Mix it all together.
That will release a bit of water.

- My aunt said that once you add
the mung bean sprouts,

you only cook it briefly
because you want to retain

that nice crunch
in the vegetables.

Okay, so this is the color
we’re looking for.

We'll just drain
the excess liquid from it,

and then it’s time to wrap.

- When wrapping the vegetables
in the lumpia wrapper,

make sure you can
wrap it properly,

roll it neatly.

At the edge, put some water
and rub it so it can seal well.

I remember when my mom used
to cook goto,

there would always be okoy.

She told me to learn this
since it’s your favorite anyway.

That’s why I’m happy
because now I have something

I can cook for my family.

- Let's call on my fellow Bisaya—
Samuelle Bawasanta.

- This is the...
- Lumpia.

- No. It's an okoy.

- Okay, okay.

- So let's see if you'll like the okoy of...
- Lumpia?

(laughs)

- The okoy of Marikina.

- Shout-out Tita Susan.

- It's delicious.

- It's delicious, right?

- But how is this okoy?

(laughs)

- Technically, the elements
of an okoy are here,

but they just wrap it.

- But, well, technically,
this came from a batter.

Maybe that's why...
- It can be.

- Maybe that's why.

It tastes great,
it looks great,

and it's served hot.

I mean...

- It's very okoy (okay).

(laughs)

- Very okay!

- All righty. It's Sam again,
and today, guess what,

we are going to make
an okoy that's from Dumaguete

or Negros Oriental.

In Negros Oriental,
what’s often used is bolinao.

Bolinao is a type
of small fish.

Under bolinao,
we have sinarapan, tawilis,

anchovies, and others.

Basically, any type
of very small fish

is considered bolinao.

So it depends
from region to region.

Whatever is more abundant
in that region,

that’s what they use for okoy.

- So this is how I used
to prepare tortang bolinao

or coated bolinao fish.

- So start that off
with cornstarch,

half a cup of flour,

a pinch of salt,

black pepper, lots of it,

then we add in the vegetables.

So this recipe
is from Torie Lintag.

She's a good friend of mine;
she's an aspiring chef.

Next are spring onions.

Calls about one cup of water.

I'll just use this water
on the spring onions.

One egg.

And fish sauce.

- So often, back
when I was a kid, yes,

we would eat this,
but we called it torta.

Now, based on my research
yesterday,

it turns out torta
is more egg-forward,

while okoy leans more
toward the batter.

The star of the dish—
the bolinao.

In Metro Manila, the bolinao
that’s abundant here is dilis.

So the okoy I grew up
with should have more fish

than batter.

All right. When you get
to that stage,

we are done, mate.

All right. Let's call in Trish.
Please.

- Okay.

- So this is how we do it
in Negros Oriental,

or particularly in Visayas.
So we use bolinao.

- And are the bones edible?

- Yes.

Hopefully, we won’t get
any fishbones.

(laughs)

You're not sure.

- And you pair it with ketchup?
- Yeah!

- Not vinegar?

- Not vinegar.

- Fish with ketchup?

- It's weird, right?

- That's a first for me.

- Get the ones on the side,

those are the most crispy.

- Yeah, I did.

And I can really taste
the onions, I like that.

- Right?

- And there’s no fishy taste at all.

Is this a main dish
or like a street food?

- It is a main dish.

A main dish with a side of soup,
then rice.

- It's good.
- All right.

Are you cooking next?

- Yes.

My turn.

Hi! I'm Trish. And today,
I'm making okoy alamang.

This recipe comes
from Ate Betty

who's actually
from Southern Cebu,

but she's been in Manila
for how many years now.

And the moment we tried
her okoy alamang,

we just knew we had to feature it
for today's video.

- This is my mom’s recipe.

We cook this as a main dish
every day.

Because, you know,
here in the province,

we’re far from the market,
so this is the easiest thing

we can prepare for meals.

- It's actually my first time
to make okoy

and it's also my first time
to work with alamang.

The first time I saw it,
I was really surprised

by how small it was.

And in case you're wondering
why it looks like this,

I already washed it
before I cooked it

to remove all the fishy taste
or any odor from the market.

It’s all clean and ready to go.

- Sauté it with onions,
tomatoes, and ginger.

- So we're just going
to cook this until it's fragrant.

- Then add the alamang.

You really have to choose
the freshest ones.

Wait for it to dry a bit,
then add vinegar and seasoning.

Lastly, taste it to see
if it's ready.

- Once this is cooked,
we're going to set it aside.

It's time to work
on our batter.

We are going to add in
cornstarch, our flour.

And then to that,
we're going to add in two eggs.

Let's just mix it.

- Add the alamang, mix it well,
season it before frying.

Wait for it to turn
golden brown,

use low heat so it doesn’t cook
too fast.

You’ll know it’s done
when it turns crispy.

- So to taste my okoy alamang,
let me call on

my friend Seth.

- Hi!

(chuckles)

- It's basically the same
as yours, but instead,

I used baby shrimp.

- What is that rock?

Why is there a rock in mine?

Guys, look at this.

- I already washed it.

- There's a rock.

- I don't know...

- Did you hear that?

- I don't know
where that came from.

- She's going to turn me
into Darna.

- What?

(chuckles)

- It's very aromatic.

- It is, right?

- But then, at the same time,
you would think that,

you know, ginger,
onions, garlic is overpowering

but for this...
- I think it adds balance to it,

so there’s no fishy aftertaste.

- Exactly.

- So we've made
six different types of okoys

from around the Philippines.

Now, you guys tell me
which one was your favorite?

- I got to go with the classic.

I think this one is like,
you know, filling.

When you think of okoy,
this one comes to mind.

- That's true.

- Same also 'cause it has
everything already,

vegetables, protein.

- You're just biased.

- And carbs.

(laughs)

- But I think the most
intriguing one is this.

- Actually, that's my favorite.

- Hey. I think the shape
gives it character.

- Like this one? Like Trish's.

- Those are nuggets.

- It's Trish's first time.

- This is also delicious, guys.

- I love sweet corn so I agree.

I think this one
is also very interesting.

- It's a good diverse pick
for all of us.

I think we learned a lot,
like, just from different regions,

different styles.

Whether it'd be vegetables,
whether it'd be proteins,

it just goes to show
how different okoy can be for...

- Every region.

- Exactly.

- And every household, too.

- Yeah. Exactly.

- See you in the next episode of...

- Around the Philippines!