Puffer fish - How did the deadly poisonous fish become a specialty of the Philippines?

Insider travel reporter Marielle Descalsota decided to fly to Pasil, Cebu, spend time at the traditional fish market and go to local restaurants to enjoy the local specialties.

Every night, hundreds of people flock to the Pasil fish market to buy and sell a myriad of seafood. Buckets of grey, spiny fish are known collectively as pufferfish.

The Pasil Fish Market is Cebu’s largest seafood market, opened over 100 years ago and located just outside Cebu’s largest informal settlement. Unlike the Fulton Fish Market in New York or Tsukiji in Tokyo, the Pasil Fish Market is not a typical tourist attraction.

Hundreds of kilograms of fish are sold at the market every night, and historically even sharks and stingrays were sold here. But today, pufferfish is one of the most popular species.

Puffer fish caught by fishermen off the coast of Cebu are cleaned and sold at the market. The demand for puffer fish meat is high here, but the price is relatively low. The fish costs only 160 Philippine pesos, or about $1.80 per kilogram. In Cebu, puffer fish is known by two names: "tagutongan" and "butete".

Butete, or bubble fish, is the more widely known pufferfish and comes in a variety of sizes. The smallest are just 3cm long and the largest can grow to over half a metre when threatened. A handful of people died in the Philippines last year from eating pufferfish dishes, so locals are wary of both cooking and eating them.

In Japan, butete - locally known as "takifugu" - must be cooked by specially certified chefs.

Meanwhile, tagutongan, or porcupine fish, is known for its long spines and is popular with locals. While both contain deadly toxins, tagutongan contains 10 times less of the toxin than butete, so there are fewer cases of poisoning from eating porcupine fish, said Janice Leriorato, a marine biologist at the University of San Carlos in Cebu.

Just outside the market, several small eateries are selling a popular Cebuano dish called "nilarang", made from porcupine fish. Linarang na tagutongan is one of the most popular dishes in Pasil.

Taking a sip of the broth, adding a spoonful of porcupine meat and corn rice, Marielle Descalsota found it had a very familiar taste that reminded her of the traditional sour meat stew from the Philippine island of Luzon.

The stew is aromatic, sour and slightly salty. The puffer fish tastes like a cross between chicken and white fish. Its texture is slightly chewier and softer than chicken.

According to Insider

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