Daing nga bagsang – Daing na Sapsap is one of a typical breakfast for a typical Filipino paired with freshly sliced tomatoes. For me, one of the best! It’s yummy and nutritious!

I love this kind of dried fish because it’s tasty and crispy when deep fried properly that you can practically eat the whole small fish! 🙂 I tried to search the internet the Tagalog or Filipino and English of bagsang (bagsang is Iloko/Ilocano) and I have learned that the Filipino is sapsap and pony fish in English. I have learned something new again! Aside from making this fish into “daing”, I also love to cook it in small amount of water with generous amount of tomatoes, onion, ginger and siling haba, I call it “pinangat sa kamatis”. Sometimes, I cook it as sinigang, especially the bigger ones. I add tamarind young fruits, talbos ng kamote (kamote tops), ginger, siling haba (chili fingers) and onion. The soup is so tasty! I don’t why but pony fish has a unique taste…unlike to other types of fish that its fishy smell are evident. 🙂

Ingredients:

1 kilogram small pony fish (bagsang/sapsap)
2 cups vinegar (sukang iloko)
1/2 cup rock salt
2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cloves garlic – crushed and minced
4 medium sized tomatoes

Procedure:
1) Marinate the fresh, small pony fishes into desired amount of vinegar, salt, garlic, and black pepper to enhance the natural and tasty flavor.
2) Dry them under the heat of the sun for 1-2 days.
3) Ready to cook: deep-fry for 2-3 minutes.
4) Serve it with freshly sliced tomatoes. This is best paired with fried rice and over-easy eggs. Enjoy! 🙂