MANILA, Philippines – During the season of Lent, practicing Catholics usually fast and abstain from meat (except fish). With Holy Week happening during the enhanced community quarantine, many families may still be looking for pescatarian-friendly dishes to whip up, order in, and enjoy at home.

Here are some meat-free, fishy food ideas to consider – from simple recipes, food tray services, and restaurants that have recently reopened for delivery and take-out.

Restaurant deliveries

The Moment Group’s Japanese restaurant Ooma reopened select branches, serving fusion salmon aburi rolls, tuna maki, agedashi tofu, veggie tempura, and more.

Dimsum chain Din Tai Fung is also open for your veggie pot stickers, shrimp dumplings, and squash and shrimp xiaolongbao orders. (READ: Select Manam, Ooma, Din Tai Fung, 8Cuts branches offer delivery, ready-to-cook food)

Various pizza places are also back in business, like Shakey’s, Angel’s, Papa John’s, and Italian restos Mama Lou’s and California Pizza Kitchen. You can order pizza pies sans any meat; just with cheese, vegetables, and/or seafood. (READ: LIST: Pizza places still open for delivery)

Local Italian restaurant Cibo also reopened with a limited delivery menu of vegetarian and seafood pizzas, pastas, salads, and entrees. (READ: Cibo reopens two branches, now delivers around Metro Manila)

Filipino resto chain Gerry’s Grill is also open for delivery and takeout orders. Their sizzling bangus ala pobre, inihaw na bangus, and sinigang na boneless bangus are still on the menu.

If you’re cooking at home, Soy Yummy also delivers tofu sisig and tofu cubes that you can use for your own tofu-based dishes. (READ: Soy Yummy now delivers taho, soy milk, tofu sisig)

And if you’re going completely meat-free, Poblacion vegan/vegetarian resto Cosmic has also reopened for delivery orders around Makati City. 

Food delivery services

A few home-based, cloud kitchens have also reopened to serve food trays around Metro Manila via delivery services. Comfort food brand Mama V is available for orders, serving various meat-free dishes like bangus, calamansi butter salmon belly strips, garlic sotanghon with mushrooms, and others.

Food tray service Deli In The City specializes in different cuisines – some of their seafood dishes include tteokbokki and fish cake, pad thai, truffle pasta scampi, sinigang na hipon, baked clams, seafood paella, thin-crust pizzas (margherita, truffle), and rice meals like pakbet guisado, seared salmon strips, and herbed salmon fritters.

Suzzie’s Kitchen is also open for orders – just watch out for their deboned smoked bangus belly, which easily gets sold-out. They also have kare-kareng gulay, sinigang na salmon belly sa miso, and fish florentine.

For uncooked seafood (sashimi, sea urchin, tuna belly, salmon fillet, shrimps), JAAM Seafoods Trading, a seafood stall in Farmers Market, Cubao, is still open for online orders and deliveries (except for Good Friday).

Home recipes

Sticking to home-cooked meals? You can either make use of the pantry basics you have left (eggs, canned tuna, Spanish sardines, noodles) or find new, creative ways to cook up canned sardines.

You can also make use of the frozen, fresh fish you have stocked in your freezer – say, maybe pan-fried tanigue with tomato and corn salsa or a simple ginataang hipon at gulay dish (shrimp with vegetables). 

You can also experiment with different ways to cook your market veggies orr go all out with a nutritious squash and malunggay soup and a meat-free, tofu and green bean stir-fry. – Rappler.com