It’s Sunday — Daddy’s turn to cook day. We had been planning on grilling hito and tilapia for lunch but was not so sure if the weather would cooperate. It’s been raining on and off for the past so many weeks. Fortunately, it was alternately sunny and cloudy all morning. The laundry got done and we were able to grill the fish as planned.
My hubby did the grilling; I did the washing and I cooked the rice. The hito (catfish) went on the grill first and while the tilapia was cooking, I prepared the dipping sauces.
You can serve your grilled fish with the usual soy sauce, kalamansi juice and chili peppers, or you can try a mixture of lemon juice, olive oil, salt, finely minced garlic and onion leaves.
The best way to make this dipping sauce is to shake everything in a jar with a screw-type cap. Pour in about 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil in a small jar, add 2 tablespoonfuls of lemon juice, 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar, a pinch of salt and half a teaspoonful of finely minced garlic. Cover the jar tightly and shake until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Pour the mixture into a small bowl and top with finely sliced onion leaves. Serve with the grilled fish. Actually, we ended up spooning the sauce over the fish. That was how I discovered that if you get a few pieces of onion leaves with every bite of fish, they make all the difference. 
Hi Connie,the fish and your dipping sauce looks so good
ang sarap!Thanks again.
I really never liked hito but I love tilapia. I always have the soysauce, kalamansi and chili for dipping but your lemon juice, olive oil and minced garlic version looks good. Ma-try nga yan. Thanks for sharing.
Luz, if it means anything, we overate hahahaha
Brenda, my younger daughter said that the “yellow sauce” was better than the black sauce. I love hearing it from the kids — they never lie about food.
I think I’ll go with the “yellow sauce” too with my tilapia. Yummy!
yummy! I would probably grill my tilapia, too just like that, in the oven hehehe.
okay ang “yellow” sauce, yun na ba ang official name niyang sauce na yan? try ko din next time i fry some tilapia. by the way, to get the grilled taste of tilapia, i usually fry it covered with foil ( tomatoes, onions, kamias, salt and pepper inside the cavity). I am the only one doing the cooking here and grilling with live coals is just too much work for me.
chunky, re “yellow” sauce. naku, that’s just what my daughter calls it.
maybe we should call it lemon-garlic sauce…
ohh hito… I miss that… Nanay’s dipping sauce for grilled fish is made from boiled sampaloc. We either mix it with toyo, patis or bagoong plus sili.
one of my fave fish in this worl is tilapia, whether fried or ihaw, but because we use gas bbq, we don’t get the same taste when we ihaw fish or pork. i have to either buy a charcoal bbq or bug my husband to make an improvised bbq! hehehe it looks so good!