By Kim Atienza
How would you like to eat a worm? Specifically, a woodworm?
We did so, during a recent visit to Palawan for our Sunday morning TV show, Matanglawin, where one of the native delicacies is tamilok, a kind of edible mollusk found in mangrove trees. Tamilok feeds on decaying wood. Before you say ‘Kadiri,’ read on.
It is an exotic food found in different places in the Philippines. It debunks the myth that all worms are disgusting and must be avoided.
In Palawan, we discovered
the high nutritional value of tamilok. How does it taste?
Creamy siya. But, I guess you have to try it for yourself to know how it actually tastes. We were told to simply pour vinegar into the raw mollusk, and there we went.
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TRIVIA PA MORE: Here are more excerpts from the very useful book Living With Folk Wisdom by Abercio V. Rotor, Ph.D.
The janitor fish, loved for its ability to clean aquariums, for which it got its name, is now a pest in Laguna Bay, Marikina River, and other bodies of freshwater, competing with the edible fish species, such as tilapia and carp.
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Golden kuhol or golden snail, imported in the seventies to support the government’s food production program, has turned into a maverick, now the number one pest of rice. More than half of our totalriceland (3.5 million hectares) is attacked by this mollusk every planting season
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The deadly African bees continue to invade and hybridize with domestic bees in the US as well as in other places, transmitting in their genes their aggressiveness and venom.
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Toad (Bufomarinus), imported for its predatory habit that is useful in the biological control of insects has become a pest itself. Because of its poison secreted from a pair of glands behind the ears, animals, such as snakes and eagles that feed on them die. Toads directly compete with other predatory animals.
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Send your questions on anything and everything to Kuya Kim through my Twitter account @kuyakim_atienza using #AlaminKayKuyaKim.
Ating tuklasin ang mgabagay-bagay na di niyo pa alam. Walang ’di susuungin, lahat aalamin. Ito po si Kuya Kim, Matanglawin, only here in Tempo.
