I am a proud Filipino and am also lucky to be blessed with good foreigner friends who are residing or visiting Dumaguete and I am thankful for them and their friendship. The one thing that excites me is learning firsthand their culture, technology and even their cuisine... recently a Canadian angler friend Kenny Keepence came over and along with Englishman Dave Cobley introduced me to smoking fish. I am a newbie to this metod but after tasting a smoked grouper during our recent fishing trip, I'm hooked. Luckily, I also had the chance to know an American Bob Chi Town who I acquainted to recently and him knowing this is a new thing me and my friend Ja is into, he gave us a pack of applewood, mesquite and hickory woodchips. Soon we will run out of this chips so we will be experimenting on available Philippine wood that can be good for smoking fish or steaks. Dave and I are planning to make a Brooks Portable Smoker...and we are currently on the drawing board From Bob My first attempt, Applewood smoked swordfish belly marinated with Montreal seasoning It could be a fluke, but man was it goood! Just had several san mig lights with it and hope to do some more soon. SSMMMOKKKIINNN' Thanks amigos, i'm burpin' and I feel smoke hehehe.
This could end up being a smoking HOT thread! :D I have done a fair amount of experience smoking fish in So Cal., and when done "correctly" it is fantastic and addicting! Please keep us informed of any locally available woods that you find that add a good taste to the items you smoke. Mahogany?? Coconut charcoal?? Brining the meat before you smoke it is also a very important step in the smoking process. There are as many different brining recipes as there are ways to smoke meat! Brining recipes, how long the meat was brined, the type of wood used, temperature of the smoke, and how long the meat was smoked are all information that would help people smoke successfully! I would do your smoking at night though, as otherwise we will eventually find you! :D
Hahaha!!! Yes indeed it can be complicated and I found it out when I was doing my research... and then there is also cold smoking and other alien stuff... I won't go that far I guess. Yes Ja and I are already asking around about good available wood here... we haven't tried it but the intel we got so far are GUAVA WOOD and the IPIL-IPIL Wood These trees are abundant in the area and are everywhere. Hope one day to learn more from the masters in Dumaguete :D.
You might wanna get in touch with Marcel teacher at DACA (Dumaguete Academy for Culinary Arts). He does some smoking once in a while in professional sales quality. I am almost sure he can tell you which local wood to use and which not.
For sure Guava, if available, a swiftly vanishing tree in Oriental, compared to 20+ years ago. You'll probably need to go up the hills abit to find it.
