Once every so often, my daughters crave for street food like isaw. I find isaw, disgusting to eat. It’s funny but I don’t mind eating diniguan (Black “chocolate” dish or chocolate meat). Anyway, I gave in to the girl’s monthly binge. Their favorite road side stand is in front of Ilang-Ilang Residence Hall at the UP Diliman Campus in Quezon City. The vendors barbecue late in the afternoon and you can see the queue as they wait for their isaw to be grilled. I don’t know what’s so great about isaw. “It’s cheap and it tastes good!“. the girls chorus. Sure, it’s cheap and tasty but is it clean? Can chicken intestines get thorougly cleaned inside and out?
When I reach home, I google for “isaw” . I get horrifed at this article, Pinoy favorites lechon, isaw, spaghetti are ‘most dangerous’ treats. Prof. Ma. Patricia V. Avanza, Ph.D. of the Food Science and Nutrition Department of the UP College of Home Economics in Diliman, Quezon City reveal that ” they are the most “dangerous” Filipino dishes, largely because of the insufficient cooking methods involved.”
the “bitter” taste which greets your mouth when you bite into the fried chicken intestines can be identified.
“That bitter taste is fecal matter,” she announced, raising gasps and yelps of disgust from her listeners.
“Normally, yung internal temperature, pag nag-co-cook ka ng isaw, hindi adequate eh,” she explained, pointing out that
not only is isaw usually improperly cooked, it is improperly cleaned.
*Yelp* Ugh. Now I know. I informed my daughters promptly. “So if it’s bitter, you know what to do!”
The grilling is not adequate to kill the bacteria or parasites.
Yes it looks cooked but are the bacteria killed by the cooking?
You dunk the isaw sticks into vinegar
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