Tinapa refers to smoked fish; generally made of fish prepared/cooked through smoking, one of the traditional food from the Philippines which is served mosty at breakfast with fried rice called Sinangag, but is also served during lunch and even dinner time together with a sauce (sawsawan ) made of spiced vinegar (vinegar with garlic and chili peppers) or calamansi juice (a Philippine version of lime) or a combination of chopped tomatoes and onions.

Any fish can be smoked, but among the popular ones made into a Tinapa or smoked fish in the Philippines are : Tamban, Bangus, Galunggong. Tinapa is available in wet markets, supermarkets and also sold from house to house usually by women who carries big bamboo containers sitting atop their heads full of different kinds of smoked fish.

in the my mother's hometown, Marinduque, Tinapa is called Tinaphan and is made of smoked big Tuna which are freshly fished and smoked right away.

Tinapa, Glorious Tinapa, you evoke many childhood memories. I remember my mommy buying Tinapa from her favorite seller (Suki ) named Aling Linda who brings to our house every week freshly smoked Tinapa lined in her big bamboo containers. I can almost smell it. When I was young, I thought of Tinapa as a poor-man's meal, the only regular cheap meal my family can buy so we can survive financial hardship. Nowadays, I realized the value of Tinapa in our daily lives. I can no longer taste the lovely Tinapa of Aling Linda since I am far away from home, but the happines it brings me whenever I think of it is enough for me. It makes  me remember our daily family meals, it makes me remember my mom's creativity so we can all survive with just a Tinapa on our table.