Mommy cooks : Fishballs with home made sauce ala Manong's

Fishballs are one of the most popular street foods here in Manila.  I remember back in my highschool, there was a Fishball vendor that was always swarmed with people - from students to Yayas to drivers.  Everyone simply enjoyed it, seemingly taken away by what is known as  Manong's secret sauce.  When I was in collge, we would sometimes troop to UP (University of the Philippines) for our fishball fix.  That was some years ago when the internet was still not that accessible and only those street vendors knew about that sweet sauce.

A couple of months back, there were several posts in FB on Manong's secret sauce.  Obviously, it has gone viral and that secret is not a secret anymore!  I did not immediately try out the recipe since I am trying to veer away from too much oily food.  But my dear husband, who is a sucker for Filipino street food (Isaw, kwek-kwek, BBQ, etc) has been bugging me to cook Fishballs.  And so, I finally gave in today and scoured the net for that magical sauce.  The net has a lot of entries on this and most of the recent ones have the same recipe.  Honestly, I do not know who I should credit for this recipe, but whoever you are, thank you for spreading the love. 

It was a sure hit and my husband loved it so much.  I think he went on a fishball binge! 

Without further adieu, here is the recipe to Manong's fishball sauce which I kind of tweaked to suit my taste.  

1 small white onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced (original recipe calls for 2)

3 T cornstarch (original recipe just calls for 2)

2 T flour (I actually used oat flour, but it still tasted good)

3/4 c brown sugar

4 c water

4T soy sauce

1 silli labuyo, chopped (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Dissolve the cornstarch, flour, soy sauce and sugar in the water.  (Make sure that the water is not hot).

2. Once dissolved, bring the ingredients to a boil, stirring occasionally.

3. Lower heat and put the onions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Let the sauce simmer until you get your desired consistency. 

5. Serve with fired Fishballs, squid balls or even kikiam.