Rhapsodizing over this bopis-like dish from a farm in Tiaong, Quezon Made of minced pig’s lungs, heart, and liver, it is very similar to bopis, sautéed as well with chopped pig innards, onion, tomato, garlic, and pepper and stirfried until crispy. I am writing this in the small hours of the Philippines’ 126th Independence Day. That’s because I am reminded of a dish that made such a mark on me when, in July 2022, I found myself in Tiaong, Quezon at the very heart of the southern Tagalog mainland, where we first declared ourselves independent of Spain on June 12, 1898.
The dish is called tinunis, apparently Spanish in origin that we, like many other things from our colonial past, have made completely our own. Made of minced pig’s lungs, heart, and liver, it is very similar to bopis, sautéed as well with chopped pig innards, onion, tomato, garlic, and pepper and stir-fried until crispy. Unlike bopis, as it is presented in other regions around the country, the Tiaong tinunis, or the tinunis served to me in Tiaong, is dry.
It doesn’t come with radish or carrots, and it’s just the way I want it, best eaten with steamed white rice or leftover rice or no more rice, once you realize eating it is also rice overload. It’s also bar chow or pulutan, as we call it in Tagalog, the perfect accompaniment to beer or whisky or gin or vodka or whatever poison you choose on a drinking spree with friends. When I posted about it in July 2022, it was shared generously on other food.
