Kinilaw is a fresh dish. Therefore, in making and consuming such delicacy it needs a bit of extra care.

That is why we prepared the 10 Kinilaw Commandments that you must always keep in mind.

1. Plan your Kinilaw day. Decide first about when you are really going to eat kinilaw.

2. Buy fresh meat only on the date you plan to eat and serve the Kinilaw.

3. Plan your ingredients. Before going out to the market, make sure you already know what you need for your kinilaw.

4. Use only a known and proven safe recipe.

5. Check its freshness. Make sure you are using only the newly caught fish or newly slaughtered meat. Do you know that the fresher your meat the yummier it will taste? Yes. This does not only apply to kinilawalone but also to Tinola and Sinugba as well. There is just something sweet when it’s fresh. That you could not find in any other dishes that were only flavored with some sugar.

6. Prepare your equipments before making the kinilaw. To maintain freshness. Make sure you already have your equipments ready by the time you are making the kinilaw to make the preparation in smooth and fast pace. The faster you can capture the freshness of the meat the better.

7. Acquire the necessary skills to know the freshness of any meat. For fishes: all you need to remember is FLiC. Firm meat, Lively Red Gills, Clear eyes. Or you can start from head to tail. Check the eyes, then the Gills then the body/meat. You can even smell it, fresh fishes do not carry such a stench. In a newly catch you can even smell the sea through them. In land meat, they say your nose “knows”. You can smell the meat. If it has any bad stench then it is not fresh. Stick to really red meat and very white fats. Anything far from that is not fresh. Purple is not fresh, much more if it has some kind of greenish on them. If you can find a slaughter house much better if you buy from them. Ask for the freshest meat.

8. There is only one rule in slicing your meat. Keep it small. Usually seafoods for kinilaw are cut into dices. It is because it needs to absorb enough vinegar or acidic mixture to make sure you are safe from indigestion. But some cut it into somehow strips but always in small slices.

9. Assessment of oneself. Note or check if anyone in your family, including you yourself, is allergic to any kind of meat or food. If advised by doctors not to eat raw food then this must be taken seriously. You can still make the kinilaw, but make a separate dish for him/her. We don’t want our kinilaw fun day to be bland.

10. For first timers. They say first timers are the best taster. Choose anyone from your group that hasn’t eaten Kinilaw yet. Let the first timer be the first to taste the Dish. If ever, adjust taste according to his opinion. Though sometimes they love it the first time they taste it. So, it’s also a trick to boost your confidence as Master Chef el Kinilaw. Note: Make sure you choose the one that has a strong stomach. We don’t want our first timer throwing up right? You know how trepid you were when you first heard aboutkinilaw.

And there you have it, the 10 Kinilaw Commandments. Serve. Eat. And Enjoy!