FRESH Tuna Sa Kalsada

Putangina TUNA! I was shouting with all the cursing words in all languages that I know, as we cruised along the road south of (but still in) San Joaquin, Iloilo! Sh*t ang dami!

The story goes like this...

After visiting the town center of San Joaquin, on my "Southern Iloilo Road Trip", I asked my guide if we can go further south, at least to the end of the province, at its boundary with Antique (pronounced "an-ti-ke"). He said yes. Even informed me that this "day tour" that the Injap folks got for me was for 12 hours - meaning I had until 11PM to be back at Injap since we started at about 11AM this morning! Hah, ganun pala ang "day tour" nila!

So off we went. I did not even know what more there is to see south of the poblacion, since I haven't read anything that might be worth a peep for inquisitive roamers like me. Well, there is the marine sanctuary (Kuliatan?) but it was already way too late. So I knew, wherever else we went, zooming back to Injap won't take me until 11PM hahaha!

Another fact, it was actually kind of a boring trip going further south of the poblacion. Nothing much to see. The only consolation I primed myself with was, at least I have literally been to the southern-most tip of Iloilo province - if that would matter anyway!

As we entered Tiolas - the Barangay of San Joaquin where the road forks to either Anini-y or onwards to Hamtic and San Jose De Buena Vista, I started seeing folks selling things by the roadside. THIS WAS IT that caught my undivided attention! Fresh TUNA!

What do we usually see being sold by the roadside? Well, very common would be "sweet" "yellow" or "Japanese corn" sa Katipunan, right? If you go to Mangatarem there is Tupig; somewhere in Pampanga or Bulacan there is Alimango; in Buray there is Piñato; almost anywhere there would be Manga, Pakwan, Tahong, Walis, even Bahay Kubo, etc., right?

But in Tiolas, San Joaquin, they sell TUNA and other big fish, fresh from the sea! The fish are not even frozen (yet). I saw Lapu-lapu that was still wiggly! And OMG, there was not just one or two stalls. There were many! These are makeshift stalls or tables the way you would see how it is when people sell fruits by the roadside. My golly WOW!

No Talipapa nor Palengke. Just mismo sa gilid ng highway! And this manong was fun!

He was all smiles when our vehicle sort of slowed down to get a closer vantage, so I could take a pic. All of a sudden he said "come buy me, fresh tuna better than Japan". Then they laughed. My driver/guide also burst into laughter and said something to them in a different dialect (karay-a?). The manong still giggly looked at me and said "Ilonggo ka gali to? I thought I will English already. But our tuna very fresh, you can sashimi"!

We had fun here, but I learned new things. Like: those smaller "tuna" are not "baby tuna" as I referred to them. They're called "tulingan" or "Mackerel-Tuna". They are still members of the tuna family but the biggest they can be is usually just about 3 or 4kgs, unlike the "yellowfin tuna" which can be as big as 200kgs each. Its not "Yellow Fin", its "Yellowfin"! Wow ha?!

And then darkness fell, and we headed back to the city...

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