A 10 Second Guide To Doing It ‘Dampa Style’ In The Philipines
Written by Jaillan Yehia
Boracay Island – where I learned to do it Dampa Styleee
Welcome to the best thing I discovered during my time in The Philippines – doing it ‘dampa style’.
Do it once and you’ll just want to do it all over again the next night. And the next.
Be warned the pictures are just blurry iphone images because when you’re doing it dampa style you don’t normally bring a camera.
I’m not sure what you were thinking but ‘Dampa Style’ is the Filipino term for a way of eating – quite simply it involves the following 10 easy steps:
1. Head to the local wet market – that’s a fish market to you and me.
The wet market on Boracay Island
2.Find a cooking station you like the look of – these are stalls with kitchens set around the outside of the market.
My fave cooking station
3. Ask if they have space – if the station is any good they probably won’t have a table for you and will ask you to come back in 20 minutes (or you can wait around eyeing up lingering diners suspiciously but hey, that’s all part of the fun).
4. Walk around the market and choose your fish – I opted for gigantic king prawns, but you can go for pretty much anything that takes your fancy without having to worry about how to prepare it.
Fish. But you already knew that.
5. Buy some vegetables to go with your fish if you’re that way inclined and cannot live on fish alone.
Vegetables. But you probably knew that too.
6. Take your goodies to the cooking station and hand them over.
7. Choose a cooking style from the options; they’ll cook it for you simply, cheaply and tastily.
Cooking station charges
8. Wait, probably quite hungry by now, possibly grasping your cutlery in your hand and banging it on the table like a 5 year old. Soon enough your food will be brought out.
9. Tuck in. Can’t talk: eating.
These are the people I did it dampa style with.
10. Marvel at the minimal cost of the bill especially in relation to the deliciousness of the meal.
The End.
I hope you too get to do it dampa style soon.
Tags: dampa style, Filipino food, food, Seafood, The Philippines
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