Food Trip: Dampa
Filed under food trip
I’m ashamed to admit that I lived in Manila for more than four years and never heard of dampas.
A dampa, I just learned, is a wet market where you can buy fresh seafood. Near it is a string of restaurants. The catch is that, you buy seafood from the market, and then choose from among the restaurants nearby to cook the seafood for you. You decide how the food would be cooked, of course. Much like the Sutukil in Cebu, but dampas are bigger.
My friend’s friend brought us to this dampa near the Mall of Asia the other day. It was past dinnertime and I was starving, but I enjoyed checking out the large array of crabs and fishes. The fishes were so big,and some were alive. I learned that there is a gay crab, and it is supposed to be the best to buy, because it is the meatiest.
The cooking charge is quite expensive, though. Prices range from P300 up. We paid P900 for a meal of Calamares and Sweet and Sour Pork. That excludes the price we paid for buying the fish and the squid outside.
I’m wondering where they got the fresh seafood, considering that Manila is a metropolis and there are no clean water bodies to fish from nearby. They couldn’t have gotten the fishes from as far as Cavite, or am I wrong?
Anyway, pictures! Click the photos to enlarge.
Comments
ay panget. ayhetchu. nagutom tuloy ako… and i want seafood too!
mas panget ka.
i think i’ve been to someplace similar, only once, or twice. Php900 for the cooking only? whew … mahal na pala! i think they do get some of their products from Cavite, or Batangas …
I love dampas! They’re really awesome.
the dampa near MOA is a bit classy na nga eh. the one in paranaque is one of the older/original ones as far as i know (?). medyo improved na rin nga the restos there, but way back most restos were like carenderia (?-dont know how to spell it) type. but they cook really good!
and dampa cooking rates now are expensive na rin unlike before.
@snippets
oo ang mahal nga. pero sulit naman. talaga, galing sa cavite and batangas ang ibang seafood? so di na masyadong fresh?
@ade
i take it you have eaten there several times.
@7thstranger
it’s the oldest daw. and you are right, the restaurants there are classy, nothing like carenderias. kaya siguro ang mahal na.
I’ve only tried two dampa-style places in Manila and it not like how it was done sa Cebu. I should try this one at MOA. Saan ito?
Thank you for sharing!
um, honestly, hindi ko po alam eh.
sumama lang ako sa sasakyan. basta sabi sa akin malapit daw yun sa MOA. 
Uy Dampa!!! I used to live in Paranaque and loved going there. I love the fact that you could choose your own seafood from the market and their cook just the way you like it! Thanks for sharing these pics…..
really? how i would love to live near a dampa. you must have had your fill of seafood, didn’t you?
masarap yan kung may BEER!
oo nga, lalo na ang calamares. pero ang mahal naman ng pulutan mo, mas mahal pa sa beer mo. hehe.
ganun naman yun eh.
ngeee. oist lam mo, may nakita ako ditong homemade beer. a friend i know makes his beer at home! and he’s using an equipment that he himself made!
talaga lang ha. ano naman lasa ng beer na yan?
hindi ko tinikman eh.
pero masarap daw, sabi ng kasama ko.