Legazpi City's Espada

I was about to translate espada into dried eel and wax nostalgic about growing up eating fried fresh eel, when a little online research yielded the fact that what i'm featuring today is actually dried cutlassfishes. Cutlassfishes are found in seas worldwide, are silver and scaleless, with large angry teeth, and since they are long and slender, with no pelvic or caudal fins, they resemble eel. But enough of this.

This is what I had for breakfast. It wasn't too salty, tasted like danggit (dried rabbitfish), and perfect with tomatoes. Because it was crunchy, I ate everything, including the head, which looks harder than it really is.

I first saw espada (from the Spanish "sword") at the breakfast buffet when I was assigned for work in Legazpi City. I thought they would make an alternative takeaway to the usual.

After a few inquiries from the waiters and other locals, we set out the next day for the dried goods section of the public market. Bingo! At the second floor were stalls of dried fish, including espada. Between the ordinary and boneless espada, we opted for the latter, setting us back at P60 for a fourth of a kilo.

Here's another look at fried espada.

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