A Survey of Local Culinary Traditions
Lying in the southern central part of Pangasinan province, Bayambang might be called a crossroads town. Being geographically at the tip means it is a natural doorway to the province and to the rest of Region I (Ilocandia) and conversely a busy exit point toward the vast fertile plains of Central Luzon. It is therefore inevitable that, while Bayambang's central location makes it a part of the heartland of Pangasinan culture, it is also most prone to outside influences.
Its current demographic can only
reflect this reality, as the local culture resulted into an amalgam of
influences – from Ilocanos, Tagalogs, Pampangos, and other ethnic groups.
Traditional dishes that are considered to be definitively Bayambangueño are characterized by being organic and healthy without being consciously seen as such (albeit with the exception of the sodium- and sugar-laden items). Apart from that, the resulting flavor profile is quite hard to pin down precisely because the local cuisine is a complex combination of influences, like in all other Philippine towns. But there is no dearth of unique features here and there. Before the ready availability of regional food and the influence of globalization, there was a local culinary tradition that one can easily tell apart from those outside the confines of the town.
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Taway tan Nanam: Local Words for Taste and Texture
Maasngal is the overpowering taste of excessive use of certain ingredients like carrots, bell pepper, malunggay leaves, etc. Maablir is the undesirably earthy taste of milkfish raised in non-ideal conditions. Ampasager is mapakla or the annoying taste of certain unripe fruits, leaving a sticky, gummy sensation in the mouth and tongue. Abaliw means fermented, maali means rancid like cooking oil that turned bad, abulok is rotten, malangsi is fishy, aluto is ripe (as in fruit), aluto-luto is overripe, maanggo is gamey. Tostado is toasted, atektek is toasted beyond desired doneness, and apugit is burnt.
Mananam means delicious in the sense of being full of umami. Masamit is also used to mean delicious, even if the food is not sweet (masamit). Magata means creamy (gata usually means coconut milk).
The terms for nakakasawa (Tagalog) or cloying are also many: makapaumay, makapalunit (used for overly rich food), makapatama (used for fatty food), makapasawa (general term). Makapagew (pagew means breast) means having the taste of arnibal (syrup) or being overly sweet. In general, an excess of any flavor is deemed mataway (taway means taste) or matapang. In contrast, the lack of a desired flavor is described as matabang. This set of terms suggests that, local cuisine (just like Filipino cuisine in general) is all about studied minimalism, simplicity and restraint, when it comes to mixing flavors. In a given dish, just one or a few spices dominate or punctuate the flavor profile instead of having layers of richness like in other Asian cuisines.
A curious term is mataldit, used to describe food that one least likes or not likely to taste again. In contrast, there is the term malamlam, which refers to food so good that one wants to have it again and again.
Masabeng is used to refer to a dish that has too much leafy ingredient. Makapailol (ilol means saliva) is used to describe the mouth-watering quality of food one is craving -- or not even, as in the mere thought of crisp green Indian mangoes.
As for texture or consistency... Anawet means hard, while alemek or anlemek means soft. Ambasa is wet, while amaga is dry. Ambâbasa is slightly wet, while amagamaga is very dry. Manpikat or manpikkat is used to refer to a certain degree of viscous wetness: a bit wet with sticky portions -- though this term is not often used for food. Mabuwer, magara, or magaralagar is sandy, while mabato means has stony impurities, like in rice and monggo beans. Mabago is furry or feathery. Pino means fine, while magasal means rough or unrefined. Makulnet means sticky and gummy at the same time, while makulaney (literally weak in other contexts) means soft or has very little resistance when chewed, as in high-quality rice. Mapeket is sticky. Masalangsang means crunchy, while matalker means tough. Magalasagas and other onomatopoeic terms (makalasakas, magalareger, etc.) may refer to textures between crunchy and spongy. Mapalet is malapot (thick or dense), while malasaw is malabnaw (thin or watery), as in sauces versus broths. Madigo is masabaw or watery or full of broth, and alabaw or labaw-labaw means has excessive broth or sumobra sa sabaw. The onomatopoeic man-gagnet indicates a cartilaginous consistency: crunchy but with pleasant chewy resistance.
The variety of terms for slippery is quite high: andanglel (as in okra and saluyot), anggales (as in bad cassava when cooked), malamuyak (from lamuyak, alga; as in vegetable salad that is no longer crisp), malamuteg (mucilaginous texture as in immature coconut meat). Malamoy is used in particular when the broth is slimy.
When describing fruits, atoyak is used to mean nalamog or squashed. Nankakamolsit is like the plural of atoyak-toyak. Abeyew (hinog sa pilit) is not exactly a textural term but is used to describe a fruit that got prematurely ripe, so it is no longer crunchy as desired but at the same time not at the mellow stage of ripeness as well.
Makanot means fibrous, as in the case of fibrous fruits and root crops. Aluney or alune-luney is a term to describe meat that is so soft its fibers fall apart, like in pulled pork. Malaberler refers to the texture of rice when not yet fully cooked; the state of rice being undercooked is called abelbel or naeta. Other related terms are ginmalor (toasted and stuck at the bottom of the pot or pan), inmaltey (turned liver-like in hardness), etc. Makakilem means nakakangilo or makes the edges of one's teeth feel uncomfortable or mildly painful, like when chewing on crushed ice.
Other terms pertain to how the throat perceives food and other things it comes in contact with: makapaet (can make you thirsty), mapayket (nanlalagkit or annoyingly sticky), makatikel (can choke you), makapaukok or makaparok (can make you cough).
The diversity is consistent with that of the rest of the country. In the Tagalog region, for example, they have the word basa for wet, mamasa-masa for slightly wet, and hilatsa for surface composure. Hinga refers to "the state of labanos (white radish) after a day or two, when the flesh becomes opaque instead of translucent, its crunch moves to a soft, crumbly stage, and its wetness is no longer uniform but spotty." Hipo is surface texture, lambot is softness. Lo-ok means "watery and crumbly, like the inmost core of watermelon," while lo-oy "refers to the degree past crunchiness of cooked kangkong leaves and stems." Lusaw means dissolved, mabuhangin is sandy, madulas is lubricious or slippery on the tongue, magalas is a bit rough, magalasgas is a particular kind of roughness, maganit must be a particular kind of resistance, magaspang means rough or coarse, makunat is tough or tensile, malabnaw means thin due to excessive water content -- the opposite of malapot, or thickly viscous. Malabo means on the cottony side than crunchy, as in an old apple or overcooked squash. Malabsa is too malata or overly (that is unpleasantly) soft, as in rice that's too soft because of extra water mistakenly added. Malagkit is sticky and gummy, malambot is soft. Malambot na buhaghag is "the precious softness of crab meat," i.e., the fibers falling off each other nicely. Maligat is slightly crunchy or has a uniquely delicate resistance to the bite, as in good squash or fresh squid. Malutong is crunchy, matigas is hard, panat is a place between basa and tuyo, pino is fine, tuyo is dry. Lastly, ugat is the texture of the reddish fish flesh "as the teeth bite into the core and the tongue caresses its sweet secrets in slow rhythms."
There are words -- and thus concepts -- that are peculiar to specific cultures, but the Pangasinan language in the culinary arts is no doubt strikingly rich, indicating an equally rich, because diverse and varied, local cuisine.
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Soups and Congee
The use of unripe saba banana is a quaint feature of local cooking. Out of this, kinurkor a ponti is made, a soupy vegetable dish made of spoon-grated near-ripe saba topped with malunggay or ampalaya leaves and, optionally, fried or grilled fish (bangus or tilapia).
Binolbol with fried tokwa and other fried toppings is plain lugaw or congee (bolbol in Pangasinan means boil), but locals are especially fond of it that stalls make brisk sales out of it. It comes with a choice of seasonings and condiments: patis (fish sauce), calamansi, sili, ground paminta (pepper).
Suwam -- corn soup with palya
(ampalaya), marunggay (malunggay), or sili leaves -- is also a distinctive
preference here.
Salads
Utong na kamote salad is camote tops with raw tomatoes and lasuna (shallot) in kalamonding (calamansi) and bagoong agamang (shrimp bagoong) or bagoong monamon (anchovy bagoong).
Inkelnat a katuray with kamatis and agamang is blanched caturay flower salad with fresh tomatoes drizzled with sauteed bagoong alamang.
Sliced raw tomatoes (seasoned with a little salt or bagoong of any kind) with sliced boiled egg is also a most common salad or even as breakfast item.
Putot, or young onion leaves that were weeded out in onion farms to create proper spacing in onion beds, may be used in salads consisting of tomatoes or green mango and shrimp paste, in place of sliced onion bulbs. Putot may also be used as the main salad ingredient itself -- just squish a bunch of it in some salt.
A mixture of diced green mango, tomatoes and onions in patis or toyo (soy sauce) is a salad that doubles as dip for fried or grilled fish or meat.
A local salad makes use of orormot (flowers of the freshwater weed ballaiba), tomatoes, and lasuna in salt or bagoong.
Other traditional salads use a variety of seaweeds, the most popular of which is the ar-arusip (Caulerpa).
Pipino salad is a simple salad of cucumber sliced round and dressed with vinegar, salt, sugar, and ground pepper. Another cucumber salad uses macaroni and cream.
A local version of ambrosia salad mixes pink or red pomelo with lacatan banana, raisins, toasted nuts, condensed milk, and cream.
Chicken-macaroni salad is a regular on the Christmas table spread.
Jumping salad is a side dish of live river shrimps in calamansi juice or cane vinegar.
Noodles and Pasta Dishes
Locals seem to have not invented anything peculiar because the noodles most preferred here are also the regulation noodles in the rest of the country: pancit bihon, pancit miki, pancit miki-bihon, pancit mami, pancit sotanghon, pancit palabok, and miswa soup (often with patola and ground pork or sardines).
The same goes for pasta dishes: Filipino-style sopas (macaroni soup) and spaghetti have acquired traditional status.
Except for miswa and sopas, pancit dishes and spaghetti are typically prepared during birthday celebrations to signify the wish for long life. They are often prepared side by side, sometimes with pancit palabok as well.
Vegetable Dishes
Pakbet or pinakbet (literally meaning shriveled, originally from the word pinakebet) is, of course, a comfort food, but the round light green talon (the balbalosa eggplant variety) and the little roundish and extra-bitter palya (the Bonito ampalaya variety) are the varieties much preferred to be used in these parts.
Bulanglang here is what Tagalogs mistakenly call pinakbet: sauteed kalabasa (squash), okra, ampalaya, eggplant, and agayep (sitaw or string bean) -- sometimes including gabey (also called parlang) or winged bean, lakamas (singkamas) beans, baktaw (bataw or hyacinth beans), or even bungay marunggay (malunggay fruit or moringa pods) -- with little pork slices as sambong (sahog in Tagalog). It is sometimes cooked in gata (coconut milk) with dilis (dried anchovies).
Utong na agayep (stringbean shoots) is topped on vegetable dishes. The shoots have a delicate nutty flavor and a pleasantly rough texture -- a treat one won't find in other vegetable shoots -- it's a wonder why it is not as well-known in the rest of the country. Coming close to local preference is the use of utong na kalabasa or squash shoots. Utong na gabey (winged bean) is also being eaten.
Saluyot tan labong a sinagsagan is saluyot and bamboo shoots that are boiled and seasoned with bagoong and ginger. (Sinagsagan means seasoned with the "funky-smelling" (as outsiders put it) fish bagoong, but with the bones strained.) Saluyot may also be boiled in a peres (local word for souring agent, pronounced as /pə-rəs'/) of calamansi, salomagi (sampaloc), vinegar, kamias, or santol, and this cooking style gets rid of the slime of saluyot.
The use of bunga'y marunggay or malunggay pods in vegetable dishes is another defining element of the local cuisine, a turnoff to outsiders due to its strong pharmaceutical taste. Oftentimes, they are topped on pinakbet and bulanglang. Sometimes, malunggay pods are cooked as the main ingredient itself, usually as buridibud, i.e., with camote then topped with fried bangus or pork.
Ingisan papait is a prized delicacy to those who have grown fond of this often extremely bitter dish. It is sauteed sekan in lots of tomatoes then usually flavored with bagoong alamang. It is also cooked with canned sardines or fatty pork bits.
Ingisan kamatis and ingisan kamatis
with egg attests to the presence of tomato farms among other vegetable farms
here. The cuatro cantos variety of tomatoes is much preferred here.
In our version of ginisan balatong (guinisang munggo), ginger is added -- a turn-off to outsiders, but for some reason, a necessity to locals. White beans and black beans are also regular fare, sauteed in onion and tomatoes then stewed with pork then topped with ampalaya leaves.
Ginisan apayas with utong na kamote tan priton bangus is boiled green
papaya with camote tops that is sinagsagan then topped with fried milkfish. It
may look deceptively bland but is definitely tasty while being healthy. Green
papaya is also cooked in coconut milk but often in combination with kamansi and
dilis or tinapa flakes. Green papaya may also be cooked together with mushroom,
malunggay leaves, and pork or grilled bangus.
The use of other edible flowers
such as burak (squash flowers) and baeg (alukon in Ilokano, himbabao in
Tagalog, or Broussonetia luzonica, a local tree species) is another highlight
of local cuisine. When in season, the sabsabirukong or sabirukong vine flower (bagbagkong
in Ilokano) is often topped on ginisan balatong or other vegetable dishes. (Its
pods, often called bagbagkong, are also reportedly eaten.) Old-timers say even
the kukuwatit (kakawati) flowers used to be eaten here. The flowers of patola
are also considered edible and reportedly have a delightful flavor.
Inpising or pising ya inangel is assorted lowland vegetables boiled in ginger and salt, like the inabraw, dinengdeng, and dinoydoy of Ilocanos or the laswa or law-uy of Ilonggos and Cebuanos. It is often topped with grilled fish such as inkalot a bangus. The use of a short variety of sitaw, called agayep a tandereg (perhaps meaning stiff or standing up; tudo in Ilocano, meaning nakaturo or pointing), cooked this way is another interesting dish, as the sitaw variety gives a subtle difference in flavor. The simple and soupy vegetable dish may be sinagsagan.
Ginataan ya kamansi or langka or ginisa tan sinabawan ya kamansi or langka also makes a significant frequency of appearance in turo-turos and dining tables. Kamansi may be paired with green papaya.
Being an onion-producing town, a
quaint dish is adobon sibuyas, or sliced or whole onions cooked adobo style. Shallots are also often made in pickles, and putot is added into scrambled eggs.
There used to be two varieties of patola being used: a smooth-skinned fragrant variety and the biliran or ridged variety (bilidan in Ilocano).
Kangkong is commonly used as adobo or part of sinigang. Patani (lima beans) is often added in pakbet, making it pointedly fragrant. Talinum (talilong) and kilitis (kulitis, amaranth) are also traditional leafy vegetables; talinum shoots are topped in monggo guisado and sinigang, while kilitis is used in bulanglang and dinengdeng and as salad together with tomatoes and onions in bagoong.
Meat Dishes
Locals cook all of the meat dishes that are popular with the rest of Filipinos, from the traditional Sunday fare (chicken or pork adobo, tinolang manok, sinigang na baboy, etc.) to fiesta fare (menudo, higado, caldereta, afritada, mechado, embotido, morcon, pinaupong manok, spare ribs, patatim, crispy pata, etc.). But certain dishes have slight differences. The most ubiquitous are the following:
The local dinuguan is called bagisen (or baguisen), as in the rest of Pangasinan. Here, it uses kamias as souring agent. The intestines are washed with detergent then boiled in guava leaves to get rid of the fetid smell of intestines. Other preferred cleaning agents include vinegar, salt, banana leaves, and arina (wheat flour). According to Jocelyn Santos Espejo, in their barangay, Inirangan, they include upo slices in their baguisen.
Lauya (nilagang baka or nilagang pata ng baboy) has a thin broth, unlike the rich broth of pochero. It is eaten with rice, of course, but the secret to enjoying this dish fully is this indispensable seasoning on the side: patis with kalamansi.
Beef may be boiled with tender monggo pods (agor), young monggo sprouts (impabasik), and kaldis (kadyos, pigeonpeas), then flavored with bagoong.
During fiestas, the fatty part of pork (taba-taba) is cooked adobo-style in pineapple and is simply referred to as taba-taba. Also ever present is lechon kawali, huge chunks of fatty pork made crisp in its own rendered fat.
A special version of igado (higado) looks pale because, apart from soy sauce, pineapple juice, vinegar, liver spread and other seasonings (Sprite or sugar, oyster sauce, ground pepper), it contains evaporated milk and a little cheese. Another version is on the sweet side because it includes chopped pickles.
Other favorites are pork binagoongan and goat meat dishes: caldereta, pinapaitan a kanding, sinigang sa sampalok, kinilaw (kilawin), and kappukan (raw meat salad). Certain folk love to eat dog meat by cooking azucena or dog meat adobo, which has a distinct taste.
Before 'broiler' chicken became commercially available, the norm was to consume free-range or native chicken, which has a more pronounced chicken flavor. Locals also prize the black chicken variety called ulikba, which is "mas mananam" (has a superior umami taste).
Fish, Shellfish, and Seafood Dishes
Malangsi or freshwater fish produce is king in Bayambang cuisine, thanks to the late lamented legacy of Mangabul Lake at the southern part of town. That is why the town has an official festival named after it, the annual "Malangsi Fish-tival," one of the highlights of the town fiesta. (Malangsi has another, negative meaning: fishy or funky. Interestingly, the local word for ulam or the day's viand is sira, which literally means fish, even though the day's viand is meat.
To outsiders, especially in
Pangasinan, the town is synonymous to the fish buro. It is salt-cured tilapia,
dalag (mudfish), or gourami with steamed rice and bamboo shoots. Buro is typically sauteed
with a generous amount of garlic, onions, and tomatoes in a liberal amount of cooking oil until the edges turn crunchy. The
more daring ones like to have ginataang buro with sili, or buro cooked in
coconut milk and bird chilis up until the curdling point.
Inselar a karpa or karpeta is carp or little carp sinigang, while inselar a pantat is catfish sinigang. The fish slime is removed by thoroughly rubbing salt or wood ash on the skin of the fish.
These freshwater fishes are
cooked in novel ways, as in potseron dalag, or mudfish cooked pochero style and
whatever style to suit the individual's taste: curry, kare-kare, patatim, sweet
and sour, lumpiang shanghai, and so on.
Inselar a sira (like tilapia) may be cooked using sliced unripe pontin seba (saba) and pias (kamias), and the result is interestingly acrid. Other souring agents frequently used include guava and santol fruits, tamarind shoots, and unripe mango. And not to be forgotten is the use of balangbang (culibangbang, alibangbang) shoots as well, the tree from which the town derived its very name, or so according to local lore.
Other species traditionally consumed here are alalo, ayungin, and bunor -- all cooked in different ways: paksiw, selar (pangat), inkalot, etc. Inkabitse (local term for escabeche) is a common style of cooking any of these fish, resembling Chinese sweet-and-sour: cooking the pre-fried fish in lots of sauteed tomatoes, onions, ginger, and garlic, often with leeks, with soy sauce added, so it is on the sour-and-salty side.
Bayambang is, of course, the home of the world's longest barbecue. The people are so fond of ingkalot a sira or grilled fish. It is typically done in the simplest style: hito, tilapia, or Bonuan bangus is grilled with chopped tomatoes, onions and spices stuffed in the fish belly. It is best dipped in kabelew with inasin (anchovy bagoong) or padas.
Ginataan a alireg is a local
species of small snail cooked in coconut milk. When the larger bisukol (kuhol) arrived, cooking it in a broth with sauteed onion, garlic, and ginger and/or
coconut milk also quickly became popular. These snails are also simply boiled in ginger and salt (inagatan).
A slipper-sized freshwater clam called beldat is often cooked as adobo.
Another traditional favorite is ginataan a larangan, though the black cone snails are most likely sourced from neighboring towns with unpolluted rivulets.
Sauteed dakumo (talangka) from ricefields is also a native delicacy.
The use of kuros (sun-dried tiny marine shrimp) and bukto (sun-dried small river shrimps), apart from the unshelled and sundried hibe, is another feature of local cuisine.
Townsfolk also traditionally eat a great variety of saltwater produce or seafoods, Bayambang being near seafood-producing towns. The favorite, unsurprisingly, is bangus or milkfish, but not just any milkfish but the famed Bonuan variety raised in Dagupan City, and it is cooked in dazzlingly different ways, from adobo to daing to prito to kinilaw and relleno. The public market used to be filled with a dazzling variety of seafood on a given day, from galunggong, matambaka, tamban, pingka (espada), malaga, asohos, basasong, dorado, tanigue, dalagang bukid, to seaweeds like ar-arusip, from squid and crabs to snails and clams of different kinds.
Tuyo, particularly of the prime quality we call lapad, dilis (dried anchovies in small or large varieties), and tinapa (smoked galunggong) are common breakfast fare.
Rice Cakes, Sweets, Desserts, and Snacks (Kanen/Kakanen, Palamis, Mirindal)
Kanen or kakanen (kakanin) in Pangasinan literally means rice cake, but it actually refers to other cakes made of base ingredients other than rice. Kakanen makers in Bayambang comprise an industry that makes brisk sales in the public market and in those of other towns, meeting a steady demand for sticky sweet treats all year round.
The bulk of kanen makers are concentrated in Brgys. Ligue, Tococ West,
Amanperez, etc. and have been at their craft for generations, their knowledge
of making an impressive variety of treats passed on from generation to
generation, and ever-ready to innovate as the market dictates.
Native residents are discriminating with their kanen. These should be
cooked with the best quality of raw materials and cooked perfectly or they
would be met with severe criticism.
Rice-based
Biko type
The rice-based ones include a type of sugarless biko called inangit and
the sweetened inkiwal.
Inangit vs Inkiwal
Inangit, also called pigar-pigar, is whole (not ground) sticky rice
cooked in coconut milk with a little salt -- no sugar added. It is toasted on
both sides by manually flipping it from the wok. The wok is lined with banana
leaves to prevent the rice cake from burning and to make the flipping easy.
Banana leaves are also placed on top of the rice cake. The steaming hot,
crunchy, and fragrant galor (tutong in Tagalog; toasted outer layer) is a much
coveted part of this simple dish. Brown sugar may be sprinkled on inangit right
before eating it.
Inkiwal, on the other hand, is whole glutinous rice cooked in coconut
milk, a little salt, and white or brown sugar. It is stirred and stirred (thus
the root word kiwal) in the wok until the perfect consistency is reached.
Unlike the inangit, inkiwal is not necessarily toasted. Anise seeds may also be
added
Inangit and inkiwal are often used as ritual food, offered at the family
altar as "atang" (ritual offering) for the dead. Eating the atang is
forbidden, or one falls ill of dementia or gets one’s mouth piwis or twisted on
one side, or so it is believed.
Patupat or inkaldit is another biko-type of rice cake. It is wrapped in
a pyramidal pouch made of a woven coconut leaves. It is cooked in sugarcane
juice. The use of coconut leaves and the cooking process both give a different
flavor and texture to this rice cake.
Latik generally means coconut-milk-and-mollases reduction, but in
Bayambang and other parts of Pangasinan, it means biko topped generously with
caramelized sugarcane and coconut milk reduction. This is often called bibingka
in other parts of the country, but never referred to like that here, for
bibingka means something else.
Latik is a town favorite to this day because of its smoky and toasted
banana leaf-tinged flavor. Cooking it with the perfect kulnet (that pleasing
chewy quality of rice cakes) requires the best ingredients and a mastery of the
process. Locals who make latik make the best latik ever, but they are now quite
hard to find.
Pinipig or inuguban is toasted young rice grains then pounded and formed
as candy or used as topping for halo-halo.
Binuburan is an unadorned sweet fermented rice treat. It should be eaten
first thing in the morning, it is said, to ward off stomachache. Dr. Clarita
Jimenez claims that binuburan was first made in Bayambang.
Champorado is rice chocolate porridge topped with a dash of evaporated
milk.
Lilot balatong is sweet rice porridge with cracked and toasted mongo
beans, preferably served hot.
Ginataan ya mais (ginataang mais) is glutinous rice porridge with
coconut milk and some sweet corn, typically served hot. It may contain little
jackfruit strips and tapioca pearls. It often comes off as a cross between rice
cake and porridge.
Rice cakes or treats made from deremen -- toasted immature sticky rice
that are pounded in some wood charcoal -- are traditionally produced only in
October in time for All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November
2). Deremen is typically cooked in at least two ways: inlubi and deremen ya ginataan.
Inlubi is rice cake made of deremen traditionally prepared to mark
Pista'y Inatey (Undas), reportedly as an offering to one's dearly departed.
Today, inlubi is often for sale even when it's not yet November. It is aptly
described as having a "toasty" taste and "smelling like fresh
morning air."
Ginataan ya deremen is a sweet, cold, soupy dessert made of raw deremen
steeped in boiling water, fresh coconut milk, strips of young coconut meat, and
sugar until the rice grains become soft and get cooked. It is served cold.
Latik a deremen is inlubi topped with latik or panutsa-sweetened coconut
milk reduction.
Gipang is essentially candied puffed pinipig or toasted rice crispies.
It is said to be a local specialty that originated in Brgy. Amanperez. It is a
hybrid between puff/pop rice, pinipig, and deremen, the result a wonderful
combination of flavors and consistency: chewy and crunchy at the same time, and
smoky and sweet too.
Gipang is made from deremen, fried in oil and molten sinakob (sugar
molasses discs), and then shaped into blocks. Like pinipig but not flattened
into flakes, this greenish-gray crunchy sweet treat is often used as topping in
halo-halo or eaten as is.
Use of tapong or ground rice
Rice cakes using tapong or ground rice come in many varieties. There is
the unday-unday (palitaw), bicho-bicho or bitso-bitso (carioca), buchi or
butsi, tikoy, and the kulambo.
Unday-unday is the local term for palitaw, white tongues of boiled
galapong topped with grated coconut and white sugar sprinkled with toasted
sesame seeds.
Bicho-bicho or bitso-bitso (carioca in Tagalog) is sticky rice balls
with young coconut strips and rolled in white or brown sugar then fried and
pierced in a small bamboo stick.
Butsi or buchi is deep-fried sweet rice cake made into brown flattened
balls filled with a sweet monggo paste then rolled in sesame seeds.
Tikoy is known as sticky Chinese rice cake often given away as gift for
the Chinese New Year and often comes in various flavors, but in this town, it
comes in a brown version (using brown sugar) with the top part made tough
through frying. (In neighboring San Carlos City, tikoy is also called pininat.)
Kulambo is white glutinous rice dessert with a lot more gooey
consistency compared to tikoy.
Puto is a popular steamed ground rice cake delicacy that is commonly
made in the different parts of the Philippines, so it comes in a host of
varieties. Malays are also known to make this delicacy, which they call putu.
There is the typical cupcake-shaped puto with a bit of cheese on top
that is commonly served in birthday parties and other feasts.
Puton belas or puto lanson is fluffy white puto sold the size of a bilao
(bamboo winnowing tray) and then sliced into pieces in rhomboidal shape. It may
or may not contain anise seeds or may or may not be slathered with a little
margarine and drizzled with freshly grated coconut. (Lasong refers to the large
pan-type earthenware it is cooked in.)
Another puton belas version is bibingkan tapong or simply tapong, which
is made of ground non-glutinous rice that is toasted on the top, making it a
cross between puto and bibingka but without using much of a riser. Essentially
a rice bread, its smoky bland taste is its own appeal.
Puto Calasiao is small white puto variety made in Calasiao which is
particularly sought-after for its petite size and chewiness. Since Calasiao is
near Bayambang, this type of bite-size puto is everyday fare in town, a sweet and
delicious snack eaten as is or as accompaniment to savory dishes such as
dinuguan or pancit and other common Filipino dishes. Often referred to as
"white gold" with a sliver of cheese on top, it is sticky, soft, and
moist in consistency at the same time. The secret to achieving this particular
consistency lies in the use of the Maharlika or Corazon rice variety.
Today, puto Calasiao comes in plain, ube, pandan, strawberry, and mango
flavors.
Kutsinta, cuchinta, or puto kutsinta is round reddish-brown "unleavened
cake textured like a stiff and chewy pudding, and is prepared from wet-milled
rice flour with sugar and lye, the lye giving a stiff, chewy texture." It
is topped with fresh grated coconut and comes in bite size like Calasiao puto.
A purple, red, and brown unleavened version of rice cake is also called
puto. Both are often sold by ambulant vendors together with the usual puto and
kutsinta. Food color is apparently used in these varieties, and these are
topped with freshly grated coconut.
Bibingka is grilled rice pancake that may or may not contain coconut
strips inside. It is cooked in a clay stove using a pan that is topped with a
tin plate containing hot embers. The cake is covered with banana leaf, which
imparts aroma to the toasted cake. Often topped with butter and freshly grated
coconut, it is traditionally sold only during the Christmas season,
particularly after the ‘Simbang Gabi’ or dawn masses.
Suman is glutinous rice, either whole grains or as flour, cooked in
coconut milk and wrapped in banana or coconut leaves. It mostly comes as suman
sa lihiya (Tagalog term) wrapped either conically in young banana leaf wrap in the
conical balisongsong style or in coiled young coconut leaves. Suman sa lihiya
is dipped in granulated sugar and often eaten while sipping coffee.
Tupig is a kind of suman in which wet sticky rice flour with strips of
young coconut meat and sugar is steamed as a small flat strip, rolled in banana
leaf, then grilled over embers, giving off an addictive smoky-banana leafy
aroma.
We have three terms for bilo-bilo -- ginataan, tambo-tambong, or kineler -- is a soupy dessert of diced taro (yam) or
camote (sweet potato) and saba, globules of galapong (rice dough), and sago
and/or tapioca pearls cooked in coconut milk and sugar. Jackfruit strips are
sometimes added. The use of diced ube gives it a purple color. A simple version of tambo-tambong is all white: galapong, sago, and sometimes strips of soft coconut meat.
Masikoy is a version of palitaw swimming in sweet coconut sauce with a
generous amount of pulverized toasted sesame seeds.
It may not be traditional fare, but sapin-sapin has been sold for years
in bulk order by Lydia Calicdan of Brgy. Amanperez.
Corn-based
The corn-based ones include the jiggly tibok-tibok (made of cornstarch
and carabao's milk then topped with coconut milk curds) and corn polvoron.
Tibok-tibok is a thin, silky version of maja blanca which resembles the
consistency of jello. Also known as carabao's milk pudding, its name comes from
the Kapampangan word for heartbeat, referring to how the pudding starts to
bubble and heave as a signal of doneness.
Corn polvoron is a local shortbread that uses toasted coarse corn flour
in place of fine wheat flour, together with butter, powdered milk, and sugar.
Mais con hielo is sweet corn bits in shredded ice and sweetened milk.
Traditional non-sweet corn treats include binatog, boiled corn kernels
drizzled with salt and grated coconut; corn puffs; cornick; inkalot a mais or
grilled white corn (Silangan variety, glutinous and non-glutinous, with a
unique flavor); etc.
Cassava-based
Cassava is called kamoten kahoy or kahoy for short, and it is prepared
in different ways.
Inlambong a kahoy is blocks of cassava simply boiled in water or in
coconut milk with a little salt and then dipped in sugar or katiba. It may also
be eaten hot with margarine or butter, then sprinkled white or brown sugar and
grated coconut.
Cassava fritters are made from grated cassava that are formed into
patties then deep-fried.
Kundandit (also called dinekdek) is boiled then pounded kamoteng kahoy
(cassava) mixed with toasted finely ground corn and brown sugar.
Nilupak is cassava that is boiled and then pounded with shredded coconut
and white sugar. Boiled unripe (gubal or manibalang in Tagalog) saba may be
added in, pounded together into the mix.
According to Iluminada J. Mabanglo, topping both cakes with a dab of
margarine is a recent modification.
Notably, Manaoag's version of kundandit described elsewhere appears to
be different. Today, Bayambang's versions of commercial kundandit and nilupak
are also dusted with white sugar and toasted and crushed sesame seeds.
At home, people made cassava cake that is a lot finer in quality
compared to its commercial version.
Ambulant peddlers used to sell cassava pudding, which is a fat stick of
pudding wrapped in transparent plastic wrapper.
Suman a kahoy or pinais is suman made of steamed finely ground cassava
wrapped in banana leaf. A variant is called kutitem, which is described online
as "rice cake made with cassava or sticky rice flour wrapped in banana
leaves, perhaps with sugar but without salt."
Kinuskos a kahoy is cassava that is grated instead of pounded and mixed
with young coconut strips and sugar, then steamed, so it has a rough, stringy
consistency.
Versions of pichi-pichi (translucent cassava balls rolled in grated
coconut) are sold in the public market. There are bite-size pieces that are
less translucent than the usual pichi-pichi. There is a version formed into a
floral shape.
Latik ya kahoy (or latik a kahoy) is cassava cake in sugarcane
syrup-and-coconut reduction. It is cooked like a bibingka, i.e., grilled with
glowing charcoals placed on top of a tin pan, thus explaining the epidermal
caramelization, so it may be called bibingkang (kamoteng) kahoy as well. It is
delicious and soft, almost like cassava pudding, which is presumably
oven-baked, but a tad harder than cassava cake, which is steamed.
Sugarcane-based
The sugarcane-based ones included sinakob (with or without peanuts) and
the ultra-sweet and super-viscous pulitipot. But there used to be a tradition
here of panagpangos or panag-us-os or biting off sugarcane bits per se from a
foot-long cane and chewing it to extract the raw juice and spitting out what
remains of the pulp.
Sinakob (panocha or panutsa in Tagalog) is solidified (and thus
brown-colored) sugarcane molasses.
Pulitipot is a very sweet and viscous form of unrefined sugar that
easily solidifies into glass-like consistency when heated.
Coconut-based
Katiba is the local name for coco jam, coconut extract cooked in
molasses.
Coconut candy is candied coconut extract, a solidified version of
katiba. When sold in stores, it is wrapped in rolled white bond paper.
Ginuyor, according to professor Perfecto Beltran, was “a variety of
coconut candy in the olden days. It was yellowish in color because it had
butter, was much longer and bigger than the ordinary coconut candy, also
wrapped in paper but twisted like a rope and the outer part was flaky. One had
to pull one end from the other to get a piece -- thus 'ginuyor' or
pulled."
When oil is extracted from coconut, all that is left is the reduction
called ganusal, and this is used as topping or garnishing for the different
kakanen.
Bocayo or bukayo is candied coconut meat strips, which comes in two varieties, one using brown sugar and another using white sugar, and shaped into a bit moist and oily balls or blocks with a chewy consistency. Bocarillo is its flat, drier, harder candy version that also comes in both varieties, with crunchy but gummy consistency.
Others
Pakasyat is like the panutsa or muscovado from the silag or buri palm
tree but quite different. It could easily be mistaken for a smallish tablea.
Its sweetness is blunted by a bitter edge. Pakasyat is even made more
interesting by its delicate melt-in-your-mouth quality.
The sweet sap of silag is drunk as sinamit.
Halo-halo is the ever-present summer treat of mixed sweets in shredded
ice, evaporated milk and white sugar -- the more ingredients, the better: sago
pearls or tapioca pearls, nata de coco, red, white, and green kaong, cubes of
camote and saba preserve, sweet red monggo beans or red and white kidney beans, garbanzos, langka strips, macapuno (coconut
variety with thicker, softer meat) strips, with pinipig or gipang, leche flan,
and ube jam as toppings. Other options include melon strips and avocado.
Guinomis is a sweet, cold, and refreshing drink that’s made of gulaman
cubes (agar jelly), sago pearls, and pinipig in coconut milk, syrup, evaporated
milk, and crushed ice. There are many variations of guinomis – vanilla, pandan
leaves for flavor, and melon strips may also be used. A current reincarnation
of this treat is the omnipresent buko pandan, pandan-flavored gleatin cubes and
buko strips in sweetened heavy cream.
Gulaman from red agar is a most common jelly dessert. This is also made
into iced drinks with plain gulaman or as sago’t gulaman (gulaman with sago
pearls).
Halaya is, of course, ube haleya or ube jam.
Leche flan is Filipino-style egg custard, a favorite during fiesta and
other special occasions.
Simple boiled snacks (inlambong,
with only a dash of salt) are much preferred among local households as daily
fare: apuler, tuge, sago, mani, mais, saba, kahoy or kamoteng kahoy, bukel na
langka (jackfruit seeds). Sago and apuler have become particularly missing from
the scene for decades.
Among stands in the market, the
most indispensable items are fried or adobo peanuts, banana cue, balut, itlog
pugo, and chicharong baboy. Sold in a typical garita (sari-sari store) are kulangot (belekoy in Tagalog).
Lakamas (singkamas, turnip) take up the runners-up spot in the hearts of local snackers.
Today, a purple-speckled corn is
currently the preferred variety when it comes to boiled corn on the cob. It
used to be an unheard variety.
Certain fruits other than coconut
are favored as sweets or preserves. Langka preserves and kundol candy
are two of the most well-known. Overripe salomagi (tamarind), locally kalangakang, is shaped into sugary balls called tamarindo.
Pastillas are also often consumed, in plain, macapuno, ube, and langka flavors. So are macapuno balls.
Some folk ate ice cream in halved monay bread as early as the late 1970s.
Fairly new arrivals on the scene (from 1980s onward) include potato-onion twist, a soft, crunchy, and addicting onion-infused potato crackers, and rice crackers, which look like fish crackers, but actually contain only rice, cassava starch, and seasonings, invented by former fish cracker factory workers who hailed from Brgy. Sancagulis. Somebody around town also sells a maruya made of buko strips.
Juices and Coolers
Fresh buri sap is traditionally drunk as 'juice' called sinamit.
Cold buko 'juice' (coco 'water') with buko strips, melon juice with melon strips, and drinks with gulaman (agar jellos) are the most common coolers collectively referred to as palamig.
Ice scramble or iskrambol also used to be a mainstay of sidewalk stalls, and it was made of various fruit flavors.
Green mango juice and mango juice and shake are, of course, popular as well, as well as calamonding (calamansi) juice.
Other native juices used salomagi (tamarind) and piyas (kamias). Papaya ‘shake’ and avocado ‘shake,’ both with whole fruit slices, are also a local favorite.
Fruits
A preferred item to round out a typical meal is a slice of sweet ripe mango, typically the kalabaw or pico variety. Green to yellowish Indian mango and apple mango come second, but as snacks, not dessert. Green Indian mango is often slathered with sauteed agamang (bagoong alamang).
The next favorite would be
lacatan and latundan bananas. Alternative banana varieties include the very
common though seasonal ebeb (green, sourish one), seba (saba or Cardaba), and
morado (purple banana). A little wild green banana is called balayang. It is
filled with seeds but the flesh is considered tastier than the common tundal.
A great variety of fruits is consumed besides the above. When they are in season, particularly in the month of May, sarguelas (siniguelas) and lomboy (duhat) are snapped up, the lomboy shaken in salt. Papaya, melon (before the invasion of the cantaloupe varieties, there was the oblong variety), langka, avocado, caimito, camachile, chico, guyabano, atis, lukban (white and red pomelos), and chesa appear regularly in the market. Among the lesser-known ones (and maybe vanishing) are the indigenous species of makopa, kasuy, rattan, caramay, granada (pomegranate), anonas, and mabolo.
In the old days, American imports such as apple (fragrant Washington apples, Chinese red apple, and sour green apple), mandarin orange, navel orange, purple grapes, and pear strictly appear only during the Christmas season. There was no Fuji apple yet.
Condiments, Relishes, Appetizers
If not the main dish, buro may be also used as side dish or a relish. It goes well with fried fish and pork chop, steamed vegetables, and even pakbet, but one has to acquire the taste in the first place.
Mulantong is a variant of buro using smaller freshwater fish: a young gourami variety called siringan, called as such because it has a siring, literally "facial mark."
Buro made of fermented bangus intestines, shrimp, and pork are also traditionally consumed.
Green mango and kamias are also salt-cured as buron mangga and buron pias.
We are very particular with our bagoong. It has to be inasin a monamon or anchovy bagoong from a certain place in Lingayen called Manibo. It is used as a dip with calamansi or, better yet, kabelew as peres (souring agent).
Agamang with kalamansi and patis with calamansi are also very much preferred dips for fried fish.
The use of grated green mango mixed with mackerel sardines is popular because the pairing is perfectly contrapuntal to anyone who acquires the taste.
Spread
Traditionally used as bread filling is coco jam or katiba.
Hot Beverage
Rice 'coffee' with red sugar or with red sugar and milk is a logical result of being a rice-producing town.
Christmas and New Year’s Day Dishes
It is during the Yuletide holiday season that the local dining table is laden with all the random high cuisine items from the local repertoire. Among the more affluent, one can find, aside from imported fruits, a number of the special-occasion dishes in various categories coming together, defining local haute cuisine. Among the most definitive are hamon, queso de bola, tasty bread, sopas, macaroni salad, and the family recipe of seldom-cooked meat dishes, ranging from mechado to callos and other special putahes (main dishes).
The daring ones among us cook and eat the following items that are most likely Ilokano or Kapampangan influences: patang (frogs), ararawan or dalukdok (mole cricket) and kuryat (cricket) sauteed in their own oil and sliced kamias after removing the wings, heads and innards. The even more daring ones reportedly eat sisimot (winged termites), duron (locust), itnol na asubok (weaver ant eggs), ampingilan embryos (wasp embryos), etc., often by frying.
Frogs (the edible species that thrive in farms) are fried, cooked as adobo, or stewed.
Wild tilay (monitor lizard), uleg (sawa or python), and farm rat may also be cooked as adobo or ginataan.
On a final note, it is interesting how certain indigenous herbs are being mostly shunned by locals, thinking these are inedible weeds, or eaten only as last-resort choices in times of famine: pansit-pansitan (Peperomia pellucida), ngalub (Portulaca oleraceae), sabitan or sabsabitan (Amaranthus spinosus), salsalapi or salapi (tabokol in Ilocano), etc.
Thoroughly unapologetic despite its oftentimes extreme 'fear factor' -- with puzzling lack of desire to impress or convert the outsider -- a 'take it or leave it' attitude, in other words: that's Bayambangueño and Pangasinan-Ilocano cuisine.
Informants:
Municipal Consultant on Museum, Culture and Arts Gloria de Vera-Valenzuela: ginisan crunchy buro, putseron dalag and other such inventions, ginisan kamatis, ginisan kamatis with egg
Office of the Special Economic Enterprise Gernalyn Santos: present market offerings
Municipal Tourism Officer Rafael Saygo
Mayor's Action Center head Jocelyn Espejo: baguisen
Municipal Media Affairs Officer Dr. Leticia B. Ursua: inkaldit, kundandit
Mildred S. Odon: pising ya inangel
Joseph Anthony Quinto
Melchor Orpilla
Mariza Flor Mata
Clarita F. Tagab
Joey Ferrer
Venus Junio
Raul Ramos
Waldy Ferrer Canalita
Prof. Perfecto Beltran
Iluminada J. Mabanglo
Resty S. Odon
John Quinto
Joseph Anthony F. Quinto
Luz B. Cayabyab
Benjoe R. Agbuya
Ellen B. Solomon
April Grace Paca Estrada Apostol
Dennis Flores
John Marc Flores
Bayambang National High School culture mappers
Other members of the Bayambang Culture Mapping Facebook page
