The lamayo: Sea, salt, sun, sinamak

THE LAMAYO is fish, usually freshly-caught, slit lengthwise/butterfly-ed, salted and sun dried for half a day.  Sun drying is done partially to retain the juiciness of the flesh.  Before the advent of refrigeration, the lamayo was meant to be eaten within the day, otherwise, the fish would stink if stored the same way one keeps uga (fully-dried and thoroughly salted fish).

For over 30 years, since they were young and single, Inday and Helen Diarota whose husbands are brothers have been in the lamayo-making and selling industry.  The women live in Brgy. 12 where they are only two of the 15 lamayo makers.  No two recipes are alike, so, a buyer could consider being a suki of a particular lamayo seller if the wares are to the buyer’s taste.

Inday and Helen’s timpla goes like this:

For one baniera of fish, add three lipids of soy sauce, one lipid of genuine tuba vinegar, sourced from Brgy. Granada, seven heads of garlic, one kilogram of calamansi, and three fourths kilogram of coarse sea salt.  Oh, I almost forgot the P3 sachet of MSG they sprinkle in the add flavor.  Gulp.  But everyone knows that the main ingredient is sea, salt and sun.  So, now, would you like to know how they make lamayo?

Usually, a dealer of fish supplies them with different kinds of fish from Cadiz or Tabao (Valladolid), the most usual are bangrus (milkfish), carajo and buli-buli.  The fish are delivered early enough for the women to butterfly the fish, wash these, and marinate for five to 10 minutes in the ingredients above-mentioned. They have to be done in time to catch the strong morning sun.  The fish are now ready to be neatly laid out on the rectangular bamboo slat dryer.  Then, drying starts just around nine until 11 in the morning. 

By early afternoon, hawkers can be seen milling around the downtown area or at the public market with their makeshift wooden trays on which lamayo are displayed by the atado.  Each atado for any kind of fish is either at P50 or P100 depending on the size and quantity.  The most popular is the carajo lamayo – its flesh soft, white and flaky.

So, how’s business?  Same-same.  So-so.  It is especially hard now that vendors are no longer allowed to sell by the sidewalks of the Bacolod Public Market.  They have lost a substantial number of their customers.  So, what happens to unsold goods?  Whatever left is stored in a cooler with lots of ice (the ladies do not own a freezer, unfortunately).  The next day, the fish are washed and marinated in newly-mixed marinade to refresh the flavor.  Then, they are sun-dried in the bright morning sun.  This is the final ingredient of lamayo that finds its way to the tables of Negrense households – fried and dipped in the indispensable sinamak – eaten regardless of social class./PN