Sawsawan ng bayan(Dip)

Wherever in the world they find themselves in, the first thing Filipinos do after sitting down for a meal is prepare the sawsawan. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner would not be complete without it, one for every dish.


The sawsawan is a ubiquitous Pinoy food accompaniment which translates loosely, very loosely, to the English dip. That’s what we do: we dip our viands into the sawsawan, a word which is rooted in the Tagalog verb sawsaw, which means to dip.



It is therefore not unusual for Filipino dinner tables to have ten or more little bowls of liquids and chopped vegetables squeezed skillfully between plates of main courses or viands.


The basics


The three most basic sawsawans are soy sauce, patis (fermented fish sauce), and vinegar. Depending on a family’s regional origins, there could also be bagoong Balayan (boneless fermented salted anchovies in recycled UFC ketchup bottles), bagoong alamang (fermented salted baby shrimps), fresh hot chili, balo-balo (fermented cooked rice with shrimp or freshwater fish), or ginamos (fermented salted mixed fish).


Perfect pairs


Grilled and fried fish or meats go well with calamansi squeezed into a saucer or patis, although many swear by chili vinegar. Ilocanos, of course, prefer bagoong Balayan with calamansi. I myself always prepare a mixture of vinegar and patis, with chili peppers on the side.


Suka’t toyo (vinegar and soy sauce) with crushed garlic is specifically for fried tofu, with or without cubed boiled pig head. The dish is called Tokwa’t Baboy, with the sauce presumed to be the standard nationwide. A few beerhouse habitués add chili and black pepper for more zing.


Chili vinegar is a must for Okoy (vegetable fritters) and fried lumpia (spring rolls).

Ginamos is eaten all over the Visayas and some parts of Bicol with boiled camote, cassava, or green saba bananas. I love it with boiled Gaw-ay, a purple tuber popular in Leyte.

When tomatoes are in season, they are crushed and mashed by hand with either salt, patis, or fish bagoong and eaten with any viand that has no gravy, like fried or grilled fish and meats, longganisa, tocino, adobo, tuyo, daing, and tinapa.