When Fishballs Were Called Bola-Bola And How It Relates to Life

It was summer vacation of 1974 and I just graduated from grade 7 when I had my first encounter with it. I spent a week's vacation in La Loma, Quezon City with my cousins in Malaya Street for our scheduled circumcision with Kap, the old guy who lived inside the Manila North Cemetery where he also held his makeshift or make-do herbal circumcision. He just cut the foreskin with his crude blade while he made you chew on fresh guava leaves which he made you spit on the wound after the circumcision. That was it.

Photo by hitesh choudhary: pexels.com

I Couldn't Believe It

Anyway, one afternoon while on vacation there, I spotted this small wooden streetfood cart pushed by a vendor passing in front of my cousin's house. It had a mini gas stove (pump type) and a large, bowl-like frying pan on top with a stainless cover. The sight tickled my imagination and gave me images of some delicious streetfood being cooked but I didn't know what exactly it was since the term "streetfood" was not yet in use then. More so "fishballs." Banana and camote cues, peanuts, balot and cheap local ice cream sold in the streets then were called "dirty foods."

The wooden streetfood cart made rounds each afternoon on the street and stopped some 50 yards away (in front of the fire station), and people in the neighborhood would excitedly come out and crowd around it, each holding a stick. They were piercing something with it. "What's that?" I asked my cousin that afternoon. "Fishballs,"he said. "Want to try some?" We made our way there and joined the crowd. There I saw small white, puffy delicious-looking shiny balls floating on cooking oil in the bowl deep fryer. 

Bruce Lee Dim Sum

My appetite started getting active. I was sure it tasted something like Chinese dim sum. The stuff looked just like what Bruce Lee ate in the movie, "Way of the Dragon," prepared for him by Nora Miao. So I figured it must be rich in protein because Bruce was lean and muscular. The neighborhood folks punctured 4 to 5 balls with one stick and dipped them in three sauce selections--one was a mix of vinegar and soy with spices, another with thick sweet sour, and the last was sweet and sour. Some of them chose one sauce but several dipped their fishballs in all sauces. That looked more inviting.

Back then, everybody dipped their fishballs in common sauce containers. It was unhealthy, especially when some folks re-dipped their sticks in them more than once, later the concoction becoming a mix of saliva in addition to the original sauces. But it didn't seem to bother anybody then because we just enjoyed dipping our fishballs. Thank God cases of hepatitis were unheard of at the time until the 80s. But it was not until around year 2000 when street vendors decided to strictly enforce a plastic-cup policy where each customer was given a plastic cup for his own sauce to dip in.

It was a healthy idea but it spoiled the fun in using common sauce jars.

My First Bite

When my cousin noted my wide-eyed excitement in fishballs, he asked: "You mean you haven't eaten fishballs before? It's a common afternoon snack here. You want more?" So he bought me more--costing P0.25 a piece then---and he taught me where to dip them. To enhance the experience he told me to dip them first in hot and spicy vinegar and then in sweet and sour sauce. It tasted great! You could actually eat them with rice and have it as a meal, I thought. So I bought some more and tried them with rice. I was right.

Fishballs, or bola-bola in the vernacular (literally "ball-like"), is dried fish finely shredded until in powder form and mixed with spiced up flour and some water. They're mashed and formed into balls and deep-fried in boiling oil. So in a way it has protein and carbohydrates. The only downside is its oiliness. It's cooked either well done for a crispy, crunchy option tasting like fish skin fried brown, or medium rare for a soft, puffy, chewy and marshmallow-like option tasting like fish fillet. I love both.

The flavor was doubly enhanced if the sauces were made perfectly right.

First Time in Town

So how come we didn't have it in Project 8? I asked myself. When I went back home from vacation, I told about it to my neighbor-friend, Arturo, and he liked the idea--especially the possibility of looking like Bruce Lee. "Yeah, I can imagine how delicious it is!" he said. And then one day, that same vacation, one vendor (miraculously) ventured on selling it in Project 8. I was delighted to see it available in our area! He was an angel sent from heaven! I was elated to see a bola-bola cart in the vicinity of our community plaza and basketball court and I dragged Arturo to it immediately. "That's what I've been talking about!" His eyes shone.

We had a fine bola-bola snack then, and the vendor couldn't be happier.

Each afternoon we waited for the bola-bola cart to pass by. And then one time, I tried it with rice again. I bought some and took them home to eat later. But I was disappointed. I found that you had to eat bola-bola as soon as you bought them fresh from the pan. If you have to walk home and eat them later, the fun and flavor would have evaporated and the bola-bola shrunk to a pressed, smaller size like used cotton balls.

Well, you can still eat them and enjoy some of the flavor somewhat, but it wouldn't be as fun as when you eat them right at the bola-bola cart. You'd also get some of the undesirable fishy taste if you'd eat them later. Bola-bola is delicious as long as it's eaten fresh from deep-frying. Dipping it in sauce reduces the heat from cooking and saves your tongue from searing. So the mobile cart is a big factor in enjoying fishballs.

How It relates to Life

I pondered and saw how opportunity was like streetfood---once it knocks you better grab it while it's "hot." If you dilly-dally and act on it later, you may still get something from the opportunity but it would get a "fishy" taste---not as fun as when it was fresh and hot.

And when it was yet called "bola-bola," there was a touch of native appeal, a local flavor that reminds you of how Filipino ancient food dish culture is mixed with some shades of Chinese culinary influence and sometimes that takes me back to yesteryear when life was simple and people were kind and the air was fresh and sweet and a large bowl of taho (soy gelatin) with fresh cow's milk cost less than 1 cent, according to my grandma. Today, the term "fishballs" gives you nothing but a mental picture of junky streetfood.

Anyway, back to how eating fishballs hot and fresh is like rare life opportunities. So, the next time you plan on having a bola-bola meal, bring rice with you and eat the thing right at the cart. That is, if you really like streetfood that much.