English: Black salt / Deutsch: Schwarzes Salz / Español: Sal negro / Português: Sal negro / Français: Sel noir / Italiano: Sale nero /
Kalkag refers to an Ilonggo delicacy of tiny shrimps, lightly salted and dried.
Kalkag is one of the ingredients used by some Ilonggo families when cooking fried rice. Kalkag is Alamang in Tagalog dialect, but a dried version. Some Ilonggo families who are familiar with Kalkag, just often heat them in the pan with no oil since they easily get "burned".
But Kalkag is best when cooked with rice to make fried rice (Kalo-Kalo) with Kalkag. Sometimes, Kalkag is used as a garnish over sauteed assorted vegetable dishes (with Sitaw and Kalabasa, yummy) or even end up as Torta (Omelette). Tortang Kalkag is something which I have not tried, Kalkag in my ex-in-laws house is only used to make fried rice whenever we received a packs from the Iloilo where my ex mother-in-law comes from.
Ilonggo refers to the people living in Iloilo, a province in the Visayas island, Philippines and also refers to the dialect spoken in the said province.
Aling Lita, an old cook in the house of my ex mother-in-law always cooked tasty fried rice with Kalkag, she is a true-blooded Ilongga through and through. She can cook a lot of delicious Ilonggo dishes, may favorite being the KBL and the Pancit Molo. By the time I wrote this article, she is already 80 years old and back to her home province. I miss this wonderful woman. My ony regret is that I did not spend time in the kitchen during those times with Aling Lita at the helm as I was too busy completing my masteral studies in Psychology and I had a growing child who needed my attention
