FILIPINO SEAFOOD COOKING / Cooking At Home With Pea

Pea takes viewers on a full cook-along from the Dumaguete public market to her dinner table, preparing five seafood dishes entirely from scratch with local ingredients. The video doubles as a practical cooking tutorial with specific techniques and a window into everyday Filipino food culture — from squeezing fresh coconut milk by hand to the Filipino ethos of wasting absolutely nothing, including shrimp heads and leftover coconut pulp.

Shopping at Dumaguete Public Market ​

• Everything is fresh and alive — mud crabs still moving, massive squid, king prawns
• Prices: mud crabs at 300 pesos/kilo (~$6 USD), squid at 400 pesos/kilo (~$8 USD)
• Buys two types of seaweed: guso (crunchy, jelly-like) and luk-hot (slimy strands that look like tiny worms — she likes the salty, tangy taste despite the texture), at 40 pesos (~$0.80) per bundle
• Gets a fresh coconut shredded at the market because she doesn't have a shredder at home; vendor removes the coconut water first, then shreds the meat

The menu: five dishes ​

• Seaweed salad (two kinds: guso and luk-hot)
• Baked scallops with butter, garlic, and pepper jack cheese
• Beer-battered fried calamari
• Garlic butter shrimp on a sizzling plate
• Mud crabs in coconut milk

Seaweed salads (both kinds prepared the same way) ​

• Diced tomatoes (she was lucky to find large ones that day), diced red onions (notes red onions are oddly more expensive than white in Dumaguete), chopped scallions for garnish
• Seasoned with salt, pepper, and generous spiced vinegar
• Chilled in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving
• Luk-hot version looks like "green spaghetti"

Squid prep and calamari ​

• Detailed breakdown: pull the head off, remove the spine, peel off all the skin (critical — leaving skin on makes calamari chewy instead of crispy), remove the flaps, slice into thin rings
• Notes the ink stained her nails black "like an emo"
• Beer batter recipe: approximately one cup all-purpose flour, half cup cornstarch, cumin seed, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, and curry powder (she likes the yellow color and taste); mix with any light beer to cement-like consistency
• She likes it spicy and yellowish, adds extra curry powder for color
• Fries in canola oil (her preferred frying oil), one piece at a time
• Uses paper towel to absorb excess oil

Garlic butter shrimp ​

• Deshells and deveins the king prawns completely — rants about Filipino restaurants leaving shells on and smothering with sauce that never reaches the meat, plus cooking with the "poop" still in because they don't deshell
• Keeps the shrimp heads for broth and later eating — "we like to suck the head out, the brains... we don't waste anything and it's actually yummy"
• Uses two full bulbs of garlic, pressed with a mortar (no press available)
• Cuts shrimp into bite-sized pieces, seasons lightly with salt and cayenne
• Cooks in olive oil and butter on high heat; adds garlic first to infuse the oil
• Key tip: don't overcook shrimp or it gets tough and chewy, same as beef — just cook until it turns reddish-pink
• Finishes with scallions, a spoonful of cornstarch water for sticky consistency, then fresh garlic and more butter at the end — "everything with butter is better"

Baked scallops ​

• Dips scallops briefly in boiling water just until they open (not fully cooked)
• Tops each with melted garlic butter, pepper jack cheese, and parsley
• Bakes at 250°C for 10-15 minutes — notes "we don't use Fahrenheit"

Crabs in coconut milk ​

• Hand-squeezes fresh coconut meat to extract milk — shows the traditional technique of massaging and squeezing the shredded meat
• Notes this is also what they use as a hair mask in the provinces for healthy, shiny hair
• Strains out coconut bits; leftover pulp goes to the neighbor's chickens — "we don't throw it away in the provinces"
• Feels bad about cooking the live crabs — apologizes to "Mr. Crab" repeatedly, references watching Deadliest Catch and notes Alaskan crabs are "ginormous" compared to Filipino mud crabs
• Sautés garlic, onions, ginger, and chili flakes in olive oil and butter, adds crabs, then pours coconut milk over everything
• The sauce comes out rich, creamy, and is meant to be eaten over rice

The feast and taste test ​

• Lucy (Pea's friend, roommate, and camerawoman) serves as the judge
• Pea notes Filipinos eat crabs "cowboy style" — bare hands, no utensils
• Lucy rates the crabs her favorite (she always requests crabs), gives a perfect score
• Full spread: garlic shrimp on sizzling plate, calamari ("looks like onion rings but still crispy"), crabs in coconut milk, two seaweed salads, baked scallops, and a plate of shrimp heads
• Rice is mandatory — "rice is life in the Philippines"
• Both Pea and Lucy openly enjoy sucking the brains from shrimp heads — presented as completely normal Filipino eating, not performative
• Total prep and cook time: about one hour

Filipino food culture moments throughout ​

• Nothing gets wasted: shrimp heads become broth then a snack, coconut pulp feeds the neighbor's chickens
• Everything is done by hand and from scratch — no canned coconut milk, no pre-cleaned seafood
• Pea estimates and eyeballs all measurements rather than using precise amounts
• Spicy is a constant preference — cayenne and chili flakes go in almost everything

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