Sinamak - vinegar and spices

I love sauces and dips as well as certain salad dressing like vinaigrette. This post features one of our favorite dips or sawsawan as we term it in Filipino. Sinamak is a popular dip in the country and you can use it for a variety of foods including seafood/fish, pork, beef or poultry. It is basically vinegar loaded with spices such as chili pepper and garlic. People from different regions tend to favor certain vinegar (my father, an Ilonggo, favors coconut vinegar) and certain amounts of spices. The concoction and spiciness depends on the tastes and preferences of those who would be using it for their meals. The sinamak is not necessarily a quick mix as it may also be aged. I must do some research on the aging but letting the mix stand for a couple of weeks to a month is apparently enough for this acidic dip.

Sinamak by our family driver Larry 'formulated' using a recycled bottle of botrytis

I like sinamak as a dip for my dried fish (danggit, dulong, dilis, pusit, lapad, etc.). These usually are part of my breakfast and goes well with eggs and fried or garlic rice. Tatay used to bring a bottle or two from Iloilo whenever he traveled for homecomings. My aunts and uncles there have these prepared at our home and theirs and Tatay just picks a bottle or two he could bring back. He also mixed his own sinamak at home but the ones from Iloilo used vinegar an uncle himself used to make from the coconuts there (home-made). I thought that was what it made those sinamak so special.

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Purple chilli peppers

I got a couple pots of an unusual chili pepper plant that I spotted at a gardening store at the market I go to for our needs. I say unusual because of the purple-colored chilies as shown in the photo below. I shared the photo with friends and all of them said it was the first time they say this type of chili.

Purple-colored chili peppers

I got 2 pots of the chili and planted one in our garden while transferring another to a larger pot. The one I planted was quickly wasted by some of our dogs. Well, not really 'wasted' as they ate the chilis as well as the leaves. Of course, the plant died quickly afterwards despite hopes that watering it might resurrect it somehow. The chilis were hot as attested to by my father-in-law who was not averse in tasting it. He says it wasn't as hot as the labuyo variety that grows around our garden. I have yet to taste the chili but will probably try soon. Recently, we noticed that the purple chili eventually becomes red. So maybe that's when its hottest?

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