The lowly balatong

The Lowly Balatong

Balatong or mung bean (munggo, monggo, mongo in Tagalog) is said to be the only indigenous bean species in the Philippines. It is cheap, and cooking a little cup of it goes a long way in feeding a family of five, so it is considered everyday food by the masses. It is, in fact, a favorite Friday fare of Catholic devotees who refrain from meat on such a day of abstinence.

Both the Pangasinan and Ilocano languages use the word balatong to refer to mung bean, but the pronunciation is different in terms of where the stress is placed: /ba-la-tong'/ in Pangasinan vs /ba-la'-tong/ in Ilocano.

Balatong is often cooked as ingisan balatong (ginisang munggo, monggo guisado, or sauteed mung bean sauteed in the trifecta of garlic, onion, and tomatoes) or sinagsagan (stewed in strained bagoong monamon sauce), which is a hearty soup-stew topped with ampalaya or malunggay leaves and with fatty pork strips or chicharron as sahog or protein add-on. The Pangasinan style of cooking ingisan balatong is made different with the use of agat or luya as seasoning.

Balatong may also be eaten as snack by adding sugar to the just-cooked munggo stew (without the other ingredients).

In the Tagalog region, people make a distinction between the usual munggo and the preferred variety called antigo or kasube: "heirloom variety of mongo characterized by a white fuzzy covering which makes for a far thicker stew when cooked compared to other varieties." Pangasinenses have equivalent terms: masileng for the shiny variety, and labo for the variety with a whitish sheath. When cooked, one is on the creamy side, while the other gives a soupy consistency. But what is equally interesting is the use of terms to describe the various stages in the mung bean plant development.

Agor (/a'-gor/) is a general Pangasinan term for "the young balatong pods (still retaining the green color) and fresh beans cooked sinagsagan style." Dadag is the equivalent word for agor in Ilocano.

Impabasik is the Pangasinan term for the younger growth stage of togue. The seeds have barely sprouted but they have already shed off their green covering. This is most often cooked sinagsagan style.

Togue is the Tagalog word for the full-grown bean sprout and has been adopted locally. The word is actually Chinese in origin: taw means bean, while geh means sprout.

The balatong is also an essential ingredient of at least five common snacks. Red mongo, the variety called azuki brought by the Japanese into the country, is used as sweetened topping for popsicles and as halo-halo ingredient.

Lilot balatong is a snack of hot glutinous rice porridge with sugar and coconut cream (from the first pressing called kakang gata in Tagalog) made pungent by bits of toasted halved monggo beans.

Hopiang monggo is dice-shaped hopia made of a filling of boiled, sometimes 'unhusked', finely mashed, and sweetened monggo. A Japanese variety comes in a round shape and styled to represent, reportedly, the Japanese rising sun.

Butse is the crude and oily Filipino version of the Chinese buchi which contains whole beans, green covering and all.

Monggo flour is often used to make sotanghon noodles.

According to Mrs. Lolita Fernandez of Brgy. Tanolong, to keep monggo beans for one year, the beans are washed first and soaked in water to set apart the fresh seeds from the withered ones. The cleaned beans are next placed on a clean fish net and let dry under the sun for over three days. The best drying place is over hot sand or on top of a bamboo pallet. The sun-dried monggo beans can then be kept in a glass container and will come in handy in case of 'emergency.'

Apart from food, monggo grains are used as bullets for pugso or sulpit (sumpit or blowgun) in the absence of bugayong (Jacob's tears) seeds. In the past, they were also used as punishing tool for wayward kids, who were told to kneel on the seeds for a longish time until they were reduced to tears.

Balatong is the root word of Binalatongan, the former name of the mother town (now San Carlos City), which Malungguey -- now Bayambang -- was once a part of.

Reference:
"Balatong, Agor, Impabasik." This blog post contains a wonderful set of info on the lowly munggo: https://bucaio.blogspot.com/2012/04/balatong-agor-impabasik.html?fbclid=IwAR1SkYRjN4_Y0-DwJgH1CtvtSG8sGx1XzifZn4p8M1BJlfXAk6Pxdh433VI