A Kinunot Story

The Story is told that Donsolanons are "kinunot" connoisseurs. Go to the marketplace in late afternoons and find an array of kinunot dishes from shark meat to manta/sting rays laid out ready for a sampling fest for prospective customers, bystanders, kibitzers taking advantage of free 'tastings'. This ritual is done as soon as dusk falls. 'Tasters' troop to the gallery of kinunot and other ginataan dishes like "linatik na pasa-pasa", "adobong lumod", "laing", etcetera to choose the most "kasiram na" dish. Note this: only one fork is used for sampling the kinunot dish passing from mouth to mouth, unmindful of the so-called health hazards. There was no finding anyway (at that time) that using one fork for a multitude of mouths killed anyone of contagious disease, promise!

Do you believe that the fiercest man eating predator of the deep, the shark, scampers away in terror upon seeing a diver with a bunch of malunggay leaves in his hand? Donsolanons have a delightful way of crafting jokes about everyday life especially so when it comes to kinunot and other gata dishes. Do you know why sharks are scared crazy and allergic at the sight of malunggay? Because malunggay, even before it gained prominence as a super-nutritious food, was already an indispensable ingredient in cooking kinunot dishes. Kinunot is obtained from shark meat or manta/sting ray. Decades ago, the Catondolan deep was swarming with sharks (the whale sharks were then rather camera shy), dolphins, manta/sting rays, whales, and the whales which spout fountains out of their backs (now can only be seen in Discovery Channel), and other wilds from the deep. And, do you know that Catondolan was like the famed Tubbathaha Reef with all the works of a beautiful world down under. When I returned from the city decades ago, I wept at the desolate state of Catondolan. The new generation of Donsolanons has been robbed of such a beautiful treasure and heritage; but thanks to the Butandings which made their presence known only now after half a century of being elusive from prying eyes, the tourism carried the mystical world of Donsol on. They carry with them the lesson that abuse of the environment is critical to contributing to Global Warming. With their coming, the Donsolanons were made aware that what we love to eat as kinunot meat are now listed as endangered species. But, how can you resist naman this mouth watering exotic ginataan dish mixed with the nutritious leaves of malunggay and the unbeatable siling labuyo swimming in thick coconut milk? Sige nga!

A Kinunot Recipe:

1-kilo shredded shark meat
2 regular size coconut
2 cups malunggay leaves
8 pcs. chopped green siling labuyo
5 pcs. chopped red siling labuyo (optional)
1/2 tsp. crushed black pepper (paminta)
3 cloves of crushed garlic
5 large size lemoncito or kalamansi juice
2 tsp. of salt for taste

Procedure:
1. Blanch or grill over charcoal the baby shark, then skin it and shred the meat finely. Put into bowl.
2. Press the grated coconut to produce about three cups of thick cream (maliputok). Put into bowl.
3. Put into bowl malunggay leaves, the chopped green sili, crushed red siling labuyo, and crushed black pepper and lemoncito juice and two tsp. of salt.
4. Finally, pour the coconut milk into the kawali and throw in the other ingredients.
5. Stir the gata continuously until coco milk boils to a frothy cream.
6. Then, put the shark meat mixing it thoroughly with the rest of the ingredients. Let the white meat absorb the hot, hot stuff with it and slowly dip the precious malunggay leaves into the whole caboodle. Follow this in a minute with lemoncito juice to enhance taste.

In about three minutes, the super kinunot dish is ready to be served. Happy sampling!