Bayambang’s Culinary Landscape

 Bayambang’s Culinary Landscape

 by Resty S. Odon and Bayambang Culture Mapping Project writers

 

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.

It is thus only logical that, viewed from the perspective of the vastly diverse nature of Philippine cuisine, Bayambangueño cuisine would be mostly a combination of Pangasinan and Ilocano dishes together with the rest of the major foreign influences in Filipino cuisine (Spanish, Chinese, American, etc.).


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.

Soups/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 just the usual lugaw or congee (bolbol in Pangasinan means boil), but locals are especially fond of it that stalls make brisk sales out of it.

Corn soup with ampalaya leaves is also a distinctive preference here.

Salads

Utong na kamote salad is camote tops with raw tomatoes and onions 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.

Vegetable dishes

Pakbet or pinakbet (literally meaning shriveled), of course, is a comfort food, but the round talon (eggplants) and little palya (ampalaya) varieties are the variants 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 or winged abean -- with little pork slices as sambong (sahog in Tagalog). It is sometimes cooked in gata (coconut milk) with dilis (dried anchovies).

Utong na sitaw (stringbean shoots) is topped on vegetable dishes. The shoots have a delicate nutty flavor and a pleasantly rough consistency -- a treat one won't find in other vegetable shoots -- it's a wonder why it is not popular in the rest of the country. Coming close to preference is the use of utong na kalabasa or squash shoots.

Saluyot tan labong a sinagsagan is saluyot and bamboo shoots stewed and seasoned with bagoong. Saluyot may also be stewed in a peres (local word for souring agent, pronounced as /pə-rəs'/) of calamansi or salomagi (sampaloc).

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. Sometimes, malunggay pods are cooked as the main ingredient, usually as buridibud, i.e., with camote then topped with fried bangus or pork.

Ginisan papait is sauteed sekan in lots of tomatoes then usually flavored with bagoong alamang.

Ginisan 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 green papaya sauteed with camote tops and then stewed with fried milkfish. It may look deceptively bland but is definitely tasty while being healthy. Green papaya is also cooked with coconut milk but often in combination with kamansi and dilis or tinapa flakes.

The use of other edible flowers such as burak (squash flowers) and baeg or himbabao (a local amaranth species) flowers is another highlight of local cuisine. When in season, the sabsabirukong vine flower is often topped on ginisan balatong or other vegetable dishes. Old-timers say even the kukuwatit (kakawati) flowers used to be eaten here.

Pising ya inangel is assorted lowland vegetables stewed 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, 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 or seasoned with the "funky-smelling" (as outsiders put it) fish bagoong, but with the bones strained.

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.

Meat dishes

Locals cook all of the meat dishes popular with the rest of Filipinos, from the traditional Sunday fare (chicken or pork adobo, tinolang manok, sinigang na baboy, etc.) to fiesta fare (mechado, embotido, morcon, pinaupong manok, spare ribs, etc.). But certain dishes have slight differences. The most popular 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. According to Mayor's Action Center head 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.

During fiestas, the fatty part of pork is cooked adobo-style in pineapple.

Other favorites are goat meat caldereta, pinapaitan a kanding, and igado. Certain folk love to eat dog meat by cooking azucena.

Fish 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, or gourami with steamed rice and bamboo shoots. It is typically sauteed with lots of garlic, onions, and tomatoes 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 catfish 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 and tamarind shoots.

Other species traditionally consumed here are alalo, ayungin, and bunor.

Bayambang is, of course, the home of the world's longest barbecue. The people are simply crazy about ingkalot a sira or grilled fish. It is typically hito, tilapia, or Bonuan bangus 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 snail cooked in coconut milk. When the kuhol arrived, cooking it in coconut milk also quickly became popular.

Another traditional favorite is ginataan a larangan, though the black cone snails are most likely sourced from the neighboring town of Mangatarem with its unpolluted rivulets.

The use of kuros (bukto?) or sun-dried small river? shrimps (not shelled like hibe) is another feature of the local cuisine.

Townsfolk also traditionally eat a great variety of saltwater produce or seafoods, the town 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, and tinapa (smoked galunggong) are, of course, common breakfast fare.

Kakanin

The local kakanin are collectively called kanen, with the 'e' pronounced with the notorious Pangasinic schwa sound /ə/. In Brgy. Ligue, entire neighborhoods have relied on kanen-making as their livelihood for generations.

Inlubi is rice cake made of blackened young rice, sugar and coconut milk. It is traditionally prepared to mark All Souls' Day and aptly described as having a "toasty" taste and "smelling like fresh morning air." A soupy variant with young coconut slivers is called ginataan ya deremen, and one topped with latik is called latik ya deremen.

 

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Kundandit is a pounded corn cake version that is different from the one being made in Manaoag: it has a lot more cassava and thus has a different taste and consistency.

Manufactured in Brgy. Amanperez is gipang, crunchy yet chewy blocks of blackened rice, a cross between pinipig and pop/puffed rice. When crushed, the resulting rice crispies are often sprinkled on halo-halo.

Latik generally means caramelized sugarcane with coconut milk 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. Locals who make latik make the best latik ever, but they are quite hard to find.

 

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Latik ya kahoy or latik a kahoy is cassava cake that is reportedly cooked like 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 kahoy as well. It is surprisingly delicious and soft, almost like oven-baked cassava pudding, but a tad harder than cassava cake, which is steamed.

Inkaldit used to be common. It is what patupat is called in Pangasinan, particularly in our town.

Inkiwal is a simpler version of biko -- just white glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk and white or brown sugar made fragrant with anise. It may have no topping or may be topped with ganusal or coconut milk reduction. If its bottom is toasted and only salt is used as flavoring, it is called inangit,  Inkiwal comes from the Pangasinan root verb kiwal, meaning constant stirring. These are popular atang or ritual food offering to ancestral spirits or other unseen spirits.

Tapong is a rice cake with a browned top and looks more like a compact kind of puto or bibingka made of ground non-glutinous rice. "Tapong" originally means "powder" in Pangasinan, so the name must refer to the powdered rice as main ingredient. (In neighboring San Carlos City, the term is used to refer to tikoy which is also called pininat.)

 

Puton belas  (or puton lasong, with lasong referring to the giant clay pan it is steamed in) is a bilao-sized steamed puto that is sliced rhomboidally in pieces and topped with margarine or butter and a dash of grated coconut. It is best eaten steaming hot. Another puto made of ground non-glutinous rice is toasted on the top, making it a cross between puto and bibingka.

Other favorites are bibingka, which is traditionally made and sold only after Simbang Gabi or Christmas dawn mass, tambo-tambong (bilo-bilo or guinatan), unda-unday (palitaw), and bitso-bitso (carioca with young coconut strips inside). These should be done perfectly or they will be met with severe criticism.

One thing that is noticeably missing is kulambo, a cross between tikoy and the thick sauce of tambo-tambong.

Other snacks

Alcohol-tinged sweet binuburan (rice with sugar fermented with bubor or yeast) is typically made at home or sold in the public wet market, and it is meant to be eaten first thing in the morning, reputedly as protection against stomachache.

Simplicity is the name of the game, as boiled snacks (inlambong, with only a dash of salt) are much preferred among local households: apuler, tuge, sago, mani, mais, saba, and kahoy or kamoteng kahoy. Inlambong a kahoy is eaten hot with margarine or butter, sprinkled white/brown sugar, and grated coconut.

Ingkalot a mais (grilled corn) and lakamas (singkamas, turnip) take up the runners-up spot in the hearts of local snackers. Inkalot a mais is grilled corn on the cob, often buttered, but using the white glutinous 'native' variety called Silangan, which has gone missing of late, which is sad, because it has a distinct aroma and taste.

 

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Today, a purple-speckled corn variety is the preference when it comes to boiled corn on the cob.

New arrivals on the scene include potato onion twist, a soft, crunchy, and addicting onion-infused potato crackers, and rice crackers, which look like fish cracker, but actually contain only rice and seasonings, invented in Brgy. Sancagulis. Somebody also sells a maruya made of buko strips.

Juices

Fresh buri sap traditionally drunk as 'juice' is called sinamit.

Green mango juice and buko 'juice' (coco 'water') are, of course, popular.

Fruits

A favorite item to round out a typical meal is a slice of sweet ripe mango, preferably 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 ebeb (green, sourish one), seba (saba or Cardaba), and San Juan (saba with seeds).

A great variety of fruits is consumed besides the above.

In the old days, American influences such as apple (fragrant Washington apples, China 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

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."


Green mango and kamias were 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, used as dip with calamansi or, better yet, kabelew as peres.

Agamang with kalamansi and patis with calamansi are also very popular dips for fried fish.

Appetizer

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

Used as bread filling is coco jam or katiba.

Beverage

Rice 'coffee' with red sugar or with red sugar and milk is a logical result of being a rice-producing town.

Exotic dishes

The daring ones among us cook and eat the following items that are most likely Ilocano 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) and duron (locust) as well.

On a final note, it is interesting how certain indigenous herbs are being mostly shunned by locals, thinking these are inedible weeds: pansit-pansitan, ngalub (pigweed, a portulaca species), etc.

Latest developments: The availability of regional food and influence of globalization

The advent of mall culture, fastfood franchises, and the convenience store in this town has brought in an avalanche of new food ingredients and items that is sure to change the local foodways. The shopper still can't readily find a lot of items, but there are often random surprises in the town’s groceries and malls if one is in the right place at the right time.

Outside the mall and supermarkets, there are the recent bakeries, cafés and restaurants which offer novel stuff. At a market stall, one can find Vigan empanada, shredded green papaya and all. A neighbor once gave a sourish but creamy banana variety mistakenly called señorita but is actually something else and another variety like saba but with an interesting appendage at the tip and has an ampasager or mapakla (acrid) edge: a plantain variety. 'Imports' from nearby places like the piga-pigar and kaleskes of Dagupan City have become popular of late as well.

These are proofs of changing and expanding local tastes and the presence of consumers exposed to regional and global cuisines, not to mention the pervasive influence of mass media, especially social media. Most likely these consumers are returning OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), migrants, and families out of intermarriages. This is a far cry from the time when locals did not even know what alugbati is, how to eat itlog na maalat (salted egg) with onion and tomatoes, let alone century egg, and so on.

Finally, another significant development is the presence of Muslim vendors, mosques, and the sound of imams singing incantations at the break of dawn. Who knows how this is poised to influence the local food culture in the future?

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.

Meanwhile, the following are some of the most distinctive items of local cuisine:

 

Gipang

 

 

 

Gipang is a dark, crunchy, and sweet treat that reportedly originated in Brgy. Amanperez, this town. Part-pinipig and part-pop rice, it comes in a brick shape and sold in separate plastic bags in the market.

 

According to the residents there, they have been making gipang since they were young, and that the tradition of making gipang goes back to their ancestors. According to their own estimate, commercial production started in the 1950s-1960s, when all households in the barrio produced or cooked gipang.

 

In Rosita Manlongat de Vera's makeshift production area, it can be seen that gipang is essentially made of deremen, the glutinous rice that is toasted at immature stage and blackened with charcoal, giving it a smoky flavor, and traditionally used on All Saints' Day to make a rice cake called inlubi, which is cooked in honor of the dearly departed.

 

To make gipang, she said, the deremen is made into binotang deremen, deremen that is puffed a bit by frying it in oil with molten molasses on an arms-length flatbed steel fryer and, once done, the whole thing is quickly partitioned into blocks and hauled off. Timing is reportedly important, so as to achieve the desired degree of doneness. The result is an interesting combination of flavors and consistency: chewy, crunchy, smoky and sweet at the same time. Like pinipig, though not flattened into flakes, this greenish-gray treat is often used as topping in halo-halo or eaten as is.

 

It is also being sold outside of the town.

 

 

Local Version of Pakbet

 

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Pakbet or pinakbet (pi/nak/’bət) is, without a doubt, the Pangasinense's comfort food. It has that peculiar blend of flavors that Ilocanos and Pangasinenses love, even though it comes off as a strange melange to the uninitiated: salty, sour, bitter, slightly sweet, grassy/herbal, creamy, and full of umami.

 

This humble dish is easy to make. With it served in the most ordinary days, cravings for the familiar flavors of home are satisfied in every bite without being cloying.

 

The local version uses a recipe with this particular set of preferences: Eggplants are preferably the pale-colored, bulb-shaped variety (balbalosa). The ampalaya (bitter melon/gourd) is the dwarf, a lot more bitter variety. Tomatoes are preferably the pumpkin-looking one called tres cantos. Onion is preferably lasuna (shallot) and garlic preferably the small variety grown in Ilocos.

 

Locals are very particular with the bagoong. It has to be the dark reddish-brown, salt-cured anchovy-based variety from Lingayen (bagoong/inasin a monamon).

 

Ginger, crushed, is also indispensable.

 

The optional ingredients are green pepper (the long green sili/finger chili), topped; bagnet, lechon kawali, roasted or fried fish, or parboiled pork with a generous portion of fat, also topped.

 

Vegetable oil is used if the sautéing step is preferred.

 

The older generation preferred squeezing everything together inside a clay pot (sayap, palayok) -- the harder ingredients first, then the easy-cooking ones at the top -- and then, using firewood, boil everything together with bagoong until it turns into an almost amorphous blob of green, red, and various shades of brown.

 

Some prefer sauteing the pre-boiled meat, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and the other vegetables first, then drowning the whole thing with water, but purists frown upon this step. They prefer plain boiling with just a little water until the broth is brought to near reduction and the vegetables get shrunk in size, for this is where the term pakbet or pinakbet comes from: the original word pinakubet (Pangasinan) means "shrunk" or "shriveled." The sayap is carefully shaken (isintak) to make sure the vegetables are mixed at the desired degree, i.e., without crushing the vegetables. Mixing the dish with a ladle supposedly turns the ampalaya overly bitter.

 

Oftentimes, the tomatoes are added in later after the pot is brought to a boil or the eggplants will not reach the desired stage of wilting.

 

A crucial step in cooking pinakbet is the addition of bagoong. Separately in a deep bowl, about two tablespoons of bagoong monamon are diluted with some of the boiling stock, stirred until the bits of bagoong fish (anchovies) are dissolved, then poured into the pot, with the fish bones strained using the sapitan (strainer). This step is called panag-sagsag (sagsagan, sinagsagan), with sagsag as the root word, referring to the use of bagoong as flavor-enhancing agent.

 

Other optional vegetable ingredients include cubed camote (sweet potato, preferably yellow variety, for use as salt buffer and to lend some sweetness), okra, saluyot, patani seeds (to lend a particular fragrance), segmented malunggay pods, and winged beans or sigarilyas. Cabbage wedges also work nicely.

 

Leftover adobo would be a good substitute for bagnet as sambong or sahog (a term used to refer to the main protein ingredient that enhances the flavor of the dish). If there is none, boiled pork cuts or pre-fried bangus will do, or even chicharron (pork cracklings). Shrimps may also be used as sambong.

 

Served a bit overcooked, pakbet is eaten with a steaming mound of rice. Pinakbet tastes even better with sauteed fish buro as side dish.

 

Kalabasa (squash) and sitaw are often the 'deal-breaker' in this recipe, for once these are added, and the bagoong used is bagoong alamang (shrimp paste), the dish is no longer called pinakbet but bulanglang, which is even more open to additional ingredients (patola, sitaw tops, etc.).

 

 

Ingisan Papait

 

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Papait (Mollugo oppositifolia) is a most bitter herb that grows wild and thus is often considered as weed. Having gained enough market recently, it is now being farmed in places where the soil is silty like Camiling, but it is traditionally uprooted whole in the katakelan (woods) and alog and taew (farms and even untended open grounds), where other edible weeds like baeg (alukon, himbabao, birch flower), kulitis (amaranth), pansit-pansitan (peperomia), ngalub (purslane, pigweed, olasiman), tulango (?), sabsabitan (thorny kind of amaranth), and saluyot (jute) grow wild.

 

To those who have developed the appetite for its shocking bitterness, it is a much sought-after delicacy. Papait is quickly sautéed in tomatoes, agamang (shrimp paste or bagoong alamang), onions, and garlic, and as an optional ingredient, deep-fried pork bits. No water is added after sauteing, because the vapor from all the ingredients will be enough to wilt the leaves for a few additional minutes.

 

Overcooking will bring disaster, as the leaves turn mushy and even taste overly bitter, depending on whether the cook is makaluto (can cook bitter ingredients without coming up with an overly bitter dish) or not.

 

Sauteed papait is best paired off with other dishes that contrast with the stark bitterness like fried fish or fried pork.

 

Locally, the only rival of papait in bitterness are a badly cooked ampalaya (whether leaves or fruit) and a tea made from the so-called pait grass or serpentina (king of bitters herb).

 

Papait is called sekan and maligoso in Tagalog, but it is not as popular as vegetable outside Pangasinan and Ilocos, just like other locally common fare but largely uncommon elsewhere like katuray flowers, baeg flowers, white beans, utong na agayep (sitaw shoots), burak (squash flower), the seasonal sabsabirukong, malunggay pods, balangabang flowers (local Bauhinia species with little white blooms, not the pink, orchid-like species) and shoots (as souring agent and salad ingredient), and unripe saba.

 

 

Latik

 

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The rice cake recipe called latik is widely known in the entire Pangasinan province, and the version described here is the one preferred in Bayambang.

 

Latik is a kind of rice cake that is made from ansakket (malagkit or glutinous rice), gata (coconut milk), and sinakob (coconut sugar), with the last ingredient being used for its characteristic red-black sweet-smoky topping (called latik, thus the name). This extremely sweet topping with a smoky, bitter note is what characterizes it from other rice cake varieties that are popularly called biko in the rest of the country.

 

It must be noted that, outside Pangasinan, the term latik is restricted to the topping (coconut sugar reduction), whereas in Pangasinan, the term refers to the entire rice cake. Other places outside Pangsinan call this delicacy bibingka. Moreover -- in Luzon, at least -- the word latik is also used to refer to the golden brown curds (coconut milk reduction) that result from slow-cooking coconut milk over medium fire and used as toppings in Filipino desserts such as biko and tibok-tibok. In Pangasinan, latik used in this sense is called ganusal.

 

Latik rice cake is one of the most popular delicacies in Pangasinan, specifically in Bayambang, because of its distinct aroma and delicious taste, particularly its thick, indescribably chewy, and glistening consistency when done right. Latik is often served during occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and New Year. It is also sold in the market and given away as pasalubong (take-home gift).

 

Traditionally, this delicacy is cooked using an earthenware called latikan. The top of the latik is cooked with coals first before the bottom part is cooked. It is never the other way around, or else the katiba (thick coconut syrup) will seep into the glutinous rice (malagkit) instead of curdling or caramelizing on top.

 

Making latik is not easy, for the process, as detailed below, is quite lengthy.

 

Ingredients

 

• 2 kilos of glutinous rice (malagkit)

• 1 sinakob (coconut sugar disc) or 1 ¼ kilo brown sugar

• 12 cups of coconut milk (gata)

• salt

• biscuit

 

Equipment

 

• Earthenware latikan or bibingkaan (or 9 x 13 baking tray if unavailable)

• Talyasi (large cast-iron pan)

• Banana leaves (saba or San Juan variety; other banana varieties will impart an undesirably bitter flavor)

• Bilao (bamboo winnowing tray)

• 3 used cans

• Flat stainless steel cover or yero

 

Preparation of the Main Ingredients

 

• In a casserole, cook the coconut sugar (sinakob) and the coconut milk over medium heat and mix it until the sugar caramelizes. The molten finished product is called katiba. Crushed biscuit may be added as an optional thickening agent and to lessen the sweetness of the topping.

• In the meantime, place the glutinous rice (malagkit) and enough warm water in a container and soak it for about 1 hour and rinse it well after.

• Using a big pan (talyasi), cook the soaked glutinous rice (malagkit) and the coconut milk for 10 minutes. Add sugar and salt and stir the mixture regularly until the rice is cooked and becomes sticky.

 

Procedure

 

• On a flat surface on the ground, form a triangle using 3 tin cans, then place the latikan on the top of it.

• Make sure that the latikan is in the middle.

• Arrange the heated banana leaves so as to cover the entire latikan and make sure that there are no holes.

• Place the cooked glutinous rice (malagkit) on the latikan, then flatten it (palastaen).

• Put the caramelized sugar (katiba) on top of the glutinous rice (malagkit). Cover the latikan using the flat stainless steel cover.

• On top of the stainless, place dry firewood and start to make a fire. Make sure that the fire is evenly scattered and it is in medium heat so that the top of the rice cake will not be burned.

• After a few hours of firing, check the top of the latik if there are bubbles popping. That is the sign that the top is already done.

• Remove the coals on the top and place them under the latikan to recook the bottom part.

• Place the finished product on a bilao, then serve.

Alternate Procedure (for the topping)

• Prepare the topping by mixing all topping ingredients together in a pan, bring it to a boil and simmer on medium heat uncovered until heavily reduced but still runny.

• Pour topping over the rice cake on the baking pan then bake in a 180-deg C preheated oven for 1 hour or until topping becomes really thick and dark (not burnt).

• Remove from oven and set it aside to cool down for 1 hour.

 

Mrs. Lolita Junio of Brgy. Manambong Norte learned to make latik from her mother Dominga Junio. She learned it just by watching her mother cook until she mastered the recipe. She now uses this recipe to sell latik to her neighbors and even beyond her place, as she also accepts orders during certain occasions from outsiders.

 

Mrs. Junio says she teaches her family how to cook latik and advises them to teach it also to their future families, so the tradition will not vanish.

 

Mrs. Maria Cabatbat, 68 years old, is also one of the known producers of latik in Pangasinan. She said she has been cooking latik since first year college at the age of 17, so she has been producing latik for 51 years.

 

She learned the recipe from her mother, Mrs. Marcelina Magalong. Mrs. Cabatbat has taught the recipe to her employees, so that they can help her in the production of this popular dessert.

 

The rising price of ingredients is one real threat to the tradition of latik-making.

 

Buro

 

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Shelflex's Odorless Buro

 

“Panagburo" (or buro-making) is a traditional culinary craft in Bayambang, Pangasinan, especially in Brgy. Manambong Parte in District II.

 

Because of their proximity to Mangabul Lake, which used to teem with various species of freshwater fishes, the main ingredient of buro, the residents there learned to prepare to this product to preserve the abundant catch, not just for their personal use but also as a means of livelihood. Other barangays in the district where there is a sizable number of buro-makers are Langiran, Bongato East, Bongato West, and San Gabriel 2nd.

 

Bayambang's buro is considered the best in quality in the whole of Pangasinan. Freshly caught gourami, tilapia or dalag (mudfish) is drenched in salt and stuffed with ba-aw (Pangasinan for cooked rice) and fermented in a banga (earthen jar) for two to three weeks. Buro's smell is considered detestable by many, especially outsiders, but for locals who have acquired the taste for it, it is most tasty and delicious. What is unique about the buro made in Bayambang is that, compared to those made in other towns, bubor (fermenting agent) is not used to ferment the fish and rice. Instead, salt is used as the curing agent.

 

There is a variety of buro using smaller gourami and an even smaller variety (reportedly introduced by the Japanese?) called siringan, and this particular buro is called mulantong by locals.

 

Nowadays, because of modernization, people make use of plastic containers as storage for fermenting buro instead of banga, which may or may not affect the quality.

 

Making buro is not easy. One must clean the fish thoroughly, ensuring blood and all internal organs are removed. Then the fish stuffed with rice must be arranged properly inside the banga, making sure the whole thing is not contaminated by flies or other insects.

 

Lola Francisca Medrano, one of the oldest practitioners of panagburo in Manambong Parte, learned the process by observing her elders in San Gabriel 2nd when she was 23 years old. Lola Francisca has passed on her knowledge in making buro to her relatives, including her sons and daughters, and her neighbors.

 

The following is the basic process of buro-making:

 

Ingredients:

 

• tilapia or dalag (mudfish)

• cooked rice

• salt

• sliced bamboo shoots

 

Procedure:

 

• Clean the tilapia/dalag very well.

• Marinate the fish with salt overnight.

• The next day, prepare the banga, making sure it is clean and dry.

• Steam rice until cooked.

• Mix the salt and the rice well.

• Put some rice with salt at the bottom of the banga to serve as the bedding.

• Put some amount of rice in the fish belly. Sliced bamboo shoots may be added as an option.

• Arrange the fish and rice inside the banga one by one: After placing a piece of whole fish inside, put some salted rice on the top of it, and so on until all the fish have been placed inside.

• Put the remaining rice on top.

• Cover the banga with clean cloth then tie it around the rim.

• Place the banga in a place away from insects like ants and flies.

 

As relish, buro is typically sauteed in a lot of garlic, onion, and tomatoes.

 

Historical records show that the practice of making buro or panagburo dates back to the Spanish times. It is said that during Semana Santa (Holy Week), people abstained from eating meat as part of their religious devotion. Instead, they ate fish and vegetables, and buro was one of the dishes served on their table.

 

Today, the extent of buro-making in Manambong Parte is not what it used to be, after the supply of fish drastically dwindled when Mt. Pinatubo buried much of Mangabul Lake under lahar in 1990.

 

Inlubi

 

Inlubi is a black rice cake made from cooking deremen in gata or coconut cream. Deremen is the term for burnt immature glutinous rice grains originally toasted till they turn black right at the ricefield. It is a delicacy originally associated with Undas or All Saints' Day as deremen is harvested and available only towards the end of October and during the month of November. Making authentic inlubi is thus seasonal.

 

Outsiders often say that it is only in Pangasinan where black rice cake is a preferred delicacy. It may seem that eating black rice is not good or it may be associated with darkness, death and even the devil, but the truth is black rice cake is just like the regular rice cake called biko.

 

As a note to outsiders, it is not actually made of black rice per se, as the term indicates, but blackened rice. It is basically glutinous white rice boiled in freshly pressed coconut milk and sugar (sometimes with a sprinkling of anise) -- except that the rice used is made by harvesting malanguer a pagey (young palay of the sticky rice variety) specifically planted for deremen, and placed in narrow bamboo tubes of the bolô variety, for which Pangasinan was formerly named (Cabolòan, meaning a place of bamboos). The bamboo is burned from one end, letting the palay fall as the bamboo burns and consumes itself. The now burned palay is then pounded by a heavy wooden bayò (pestle) in a large stone lasong (mortar) until the husks are removed. The resulting belas (rice) is soft and chewy, almost flat and blackened, giving a toasted, smoky flavor. After the deremen goes over the fire and is stirred to taste, the resulting rice cake is now called inlubi.

 

This tradition is distinctly Pangasinense, unknown and non-existent outside the province, except probably in other areas of the Ilocos region. But nowadays it seems to be available all-year-round in the public, with locals eating it as snack even though it is not Undas, but this commercialized version of inlubi wrapped in little plastic bags may not be as authentic.

 

How to cook inlubi:

 

Ingredients

 

2 cups deremen

2 cups kakang gata*

1 cup 2nd gata*

2 cups washed sugar

coconut strips from 2 buco

a few pandan leaves

young banana leaves

 

Procedure

 

1. Soak the deremen in water (about 1 - 1 1/2 cups) and set aside.

2. Pour the 2nd gata in a thick pan and heat. When boiling, mix in the sugar and, if preferred, buco or young coconut strips. Bring back to a boil, stirring occasionally.

3. Strain the deremen and pour into the boiling gata, turning down the heat to medium. Stir constantly.

4. When the mixture is starting to dry up, pour in the kakang gata. Keep stirring to evenly distribute the kakang gata and to keep the inlubi from burning.

5. Add the pandan leaves.

6. The inlubi is cooked when the gata has been fully absorbed (about 30-45 minutes of muscle-wrenching stirring). It should be consistently sticky. Remove from fire and pick out the pandan leaves.

7. Pass the banana leaves over fire, then brush lightly with cooking oil. Use this to line a flat-bottomed, shallow plate, oiled side up. (Traditionally, the bigao or bamboo winnowing basket is used.)

8. Transfer the inlubi to the leaf-lined plate, distributing evenly to make it an inch thick. Let cool. Good for about 8 people.

The inlubi is best eaten cool. It will keep for about two days, longer if refrigerated. It can be eaten straight from the ref, or if preferred, heat in an oven/toaster on low for about five minutes and let cool prior to serving.

 

*To make gata:

 

Ingredients

 

manually grated (using an igar or manual coconut grater) or machine-ground meat from 2 mature coconuts

4 cups water heated to boiling point

 

Procedure

 

1. Put the coconut meat in a big pan or basin. Pour 2 cups boiling water and mix thoroughly with a ladle. Let stand for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture is cool enough to the touch.

2. Express the gata by getting fistfuls of the coconut meat and squeezing them thoroughly by hand. Repeat until all the gratings have been pressed.

3. Separate the expressed gata from the meat by straining carefully through a fine sieve. The strained liquid is the kakang gata or 1st gata.

4. Put the ground coconut meat back into the basin and pour the remaining boiled water, preferably reheated to boiling point. When the mixture has cooled, repeat steps 2-3. The 2nd strained liquid is the 2nd gata.

 

Lola Masyang is one of the makers of inlubi in our barangay of Buenlag 2nd. Inlubi-making is also done mostly by the lolas of each family in the barangay.

 

Inlubi-making is one of oldest culinary traditions known in the town of Bayambang, probably since the 1930s or even further back. It was learned from the lolas of the locals. As mentioned, deremen is basically pinipig (young glutinous rice) burned in its husk and pounded, so that when cooked into inlubi, it smells and tastes not only of the green ricefields during the rainy season, but of the burning ricefields after harvest as well, making it exotic to outsiders.

 

Locals love to share their own version of inlubi with their neighbors, making it a point of socialization and turning the local celebration of Undas unique and more memorable. Yes, there are different versions -- a soupy one in which the fresh deremen is steeped in just-boiled water and coconut milk is called ginaataan ya deremen, while an inlubi topped with latik (coconut reduction) is called latik ya deremen.

 

The culinary practice of inlubi-making is firmly established and growing until now, because it continues to be conveyed from one generation to another by other living practitioners in many parts of the town. However, the rapid advancement in technology poses a threat to this tradition as nowadays most of the children do not want to learn anymore this tedious practice, including deremen-making, because their time is occupied by their usage of different gadgets.

 

Deremen

 

 

Deremen-making is a unique rice preparation in our country and even outside the country. Made from toasted then pounded immature rice of the glutinous variety, it is one of the main ingredients in making the famous black rice cakes known as "inlubi", the pop rice made from it called "gipang", and even "deremen ya latik " which are in high demand during All Saints' and All Souls' Day, when it is traditionally used as something by which the living remember their dear departed kin.

 

Deremen is one of the oldest and traditional food in Pangasinan during Undas. It was probably developed in the 1900s.

 

It is available after the rice harvesting season every once a year, which falls at the end of October and early November.

The deremen makers of Brgy. Amanperez, Bayambang are known for being the best producers. They are known even as far as La Union, Tarlac City and Baguio City.

 

To make deremen, the immature grains are picked stalk by stalk. The stalks are then held and the grains are put on fire, gathered, and then pounded using a wooden mortar and pestle. The glutinous rice variety, which comes all the way from the towns of Mangaldan, Calasiao, Sta. Barbara, Sual, and Mangatarem, or sourced from Bayambang, is not only made for deremen but also for other native foods that Pangasinan is popularly known for, like tupig, suman, latik (Pangasinan term for latik-topped biko), and many more.

 

Deremen is abundant during the harvest season not just in Bayambang but also in many parts of Pangasinan, as many farmers plant glutinous rice because it costs more than ordinary rice. It is said that Pangasinan’s deremen has already travelled to many places and even overseas, where it has taken different shapes and colors. It is even served to guests in classy hotels, and luckily, it has retained its name.

 

According to the Undas tradition, deremen is usually placed at the altar of every Catholic household as a food offering for the dead. Old folks say that before the deremen could ever get into the mouth of the living, the dead must get it first. This is why, as a tradition, the rice cake is placed at the altar as an 'atang' or offering before the saints, usually before people go to the cemetery to pay their respects to their dead loved ones. Upon their return from the cemetery, the living could then partake of the deremen at the dining table.

 

Aling Josie Baldelomar, 59 years old and one of the practitioners in making deremen ever since she was a child, lives in Amanperez, Bayambang. She said that making deremen is difficult as it goes through a tedious process of production. If you can’t follow the correct process in making deremen, it will just look like and taste like normal malagkit (sticky rice).

 

Procedure:

 

1. First, prepare all the materials needed: talyasi (large iron pan), bigao (winnowing basket made from woven skin of bamboo tubes), lasong (mortar), alo (wooden pestle) and of course the glutinous rice.

2. Soak the burnt glutinous rice grains in water for 13 hours then wash the glutinous rice three times.

3. Put the glutinous rice in the talyasi and place and cook it in the pugon (furnace-type stove). Make sure that the glutinous rice is perfectly cooked.

4. Next, pour at least three tabos or dippers of water for every one sack of glutinous rice and mix it for 5 minutes.

5. After mixing the water and the glutinous rice, leave it for 15 hours.

6. After 15 hours of making the glutinous rice soft, pound the glutinous rice in the mortar or go to the rice mill to separate the glutinous rice from the chaff.

7. Lastly, cook again the glutinous rice within 10 minutes. After that, the glutinous rice can now be called deremen.

 

Aling Josie said she has been making deremen since she was a child. To this day, she continues the business her ancestors taught her. Just like other producers in Amanperez, Aling Josie makes it a point to pass on her knowledge in making deremen to her children, other family members, friends and neighbors.

 

To the people of Amanperez, deremen-making offers brisk business to them, a good source of income to their families, thus the tradition is well alive and even thriving. The most common threat is natural hazard, particularly destructive storms or typhoons.

 

Kundandit (Bayambang Version), Nilupak, Inangit, and Inkiwal

 

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-        Kundandit vs Nilupak

 

Say kundandit (odino dinekdek), dinekdek ya inlambong ya kamoteng kahoy ya laokan na insanglil ya mais ya giniling na pino tan ambalangan masamit.

 

Say nilupak, kamoteng kahoy ya inlambong insan dekdeken ya kaibay inigar ya niyog tan masamit. Sarag to met ya arumay inlambong ya gubal ya pontin seba.

 

Amay panagtapew na margarine ed kundandit tan nilupak, natan labat la itan. Say orihinal ya itatapew da et inigar ya niyog. Nayari met so repinado ya walay insangil ya linga to.

 

(Notes: Manaoag's versions of kundandit described on YouTube by Kara David and a Philippine Daily Inquirer feature by Gabriel Cardinoza appear to be different. Bayambang's versions of commercial kundandit and nilupak are also dusted with white sugar and toasted and crushed sesame seeds.)


Inangit vs Inkiwal


The inangit or pigar-pigar is glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk with both sides scorched to perfection. To scorch  both sides of the inangit, the whole mix is stirred over and over until it is properly cooked, and then each side is burnt a bit until it gives off a nice aroma. Pieces of banana leaves are used to cover both sides to prevent burning and so it is easy to turn over the whole inangit when it is time. A little salt is added to taste -- no sugar is used.

The burnt part is what people scramble to take part of and eat.

Inkiwal is like inangit, but the big difference is that it has sugar. It is likewise repeatedly mixed it until done, and then it is ready to be served. There is no need to scorch both sides. Anise seeds are often added in for a fragrant aroma.

Both the inangit and the inkiwal are a favorite offering on the altar (atang) for the deceased and as part of a set of offerings arranged outside the house to appease unseen spirits. It is believed that one should not make the mistake of eating the atang lest one becomes kabaw (forgetful), or worse, or one's mouth get mysteriously twisted (napiwis).


Contemporary Food Products

 

Okrantz Vacuum-Fried Vegetables and Tomato Salsa

 

 

The Pangasinan State University Bayambang Campus has long been known for its innovative research projects and products that bring recognition not only to the school, but also to the municipality. In 2015, the Department of Science and Technology in the Ilocos Region established a Food Innovation Center (FIC) inside the PSU Bayambang Campus which, up until now, has served as a space where researchers can create and develop food products.

 

Now, the Pangasinan State University-Department of Science and Technology Regional Office No I Food Innovation Center (PSU-DOST I FIC) is home to the technology used to create vacuum-fried okra, red onion, and squash. Vacuum-frying is defined as “a reasonably new technology which uses lower pressure and temperature rather than atmospheric deep-fat frying to improve the quality attributes of food products.” Developed by PSU instructors and lead researchers Dr. Raquel C. Pambid, Dr. Wilma M. de Vera, and Dr. Vicky C. Austria, the vacuum-fried products boast qualities that are appealing to the general public, especially the health-conscious.  Dr. Pambid explained that because of the process used in creating them, the products are natural, healthy, and non-carcinogenic. Through vacuum frying, vegetables that otherwise don’t appeal much to the taste buds, especially to children, are made tempting by giving them a delicate crunch but in a non-greasy way.

 

 

Realizing its potential, One Document Corp., with the help of the Local Government Unit of Bayambang, signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the PSU-DOST I FIC on December 19, 2017 which allows them to adopt the technology used in producing vacuum-fried okra, red onion, and squash. 1Document Corp CEO Jorge M. Yulo discussed with Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao and the researchers the possible strategies in which the products can be marketed outside of Bayambang to help add to the town’s revenue. At present, the products, including PSU-FIC’s very own tomato salsa, are now being sold in and outside the municipality as O-Krantz, packed and remodeled to be ready for export to other countries.

 

Bayambangueño farmers are the ones who shall benefit the most from this agreement as the key ingredients to be used are the ones that they are producing. This development signifies another step for Bayambangueños in our victory in the Revolution against Poverty.

 

Rice Crackers

 

May be an image of 1 person and food

 

An unassuming house in Brgy. Sancagulis has been producing rice crackers since the '80s.

 

According to Romualdo Castillo, President of the Sancagulis Multi-Purpose Cooperative which owns the mini-factory, he and his coworkers found themselves laid off from their job in Bulacan as fish cracker factory workers in the '80s. They went back home to Sancagulis with no idea what to do for gainful employment when it occurred to them to put into good use their knowledge and experience in making fish crackers.

 

During President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's administration, Castillo and company decided to seek the help of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). They learned about its Adjustment Measure Program or AMP, which is "a safety net program that provides package of assistance and other forms of intervention as a means of helping workers and companies cope with economic and social disruptions." To avail of the program, the Sancagulis residents decided to pool their resources and form a workers' organization and have it accredited.

 

Duly registered in 2005 with 124 members, the organization was able to procure P1.1 million in DOLE assistance. On top of this, the Department of Science and Technology also stepped into the picture, providing help in packaging and labeling the product.

 

This is how the Sancagulis rice cracker was born.

 

The product was well-received by the locals. Public market stalls and sari-sari store owners eventually carried the product among the items they sold.

 

The no-fish, no-gluten cracker comes in three varieties: plain (orange color and curly shaped), turmeric (yellow and square-shaped), and spicy.

 

The cracker is indeed made of plain rice but it is fortified with some corn and cassava. The fortified ground rice is first steamed, then run through a food processor to flatten it and remove excess water, and then fried and finally dried out in the sun.

 

As of 2018, the factory employs 20 people working in shifts.

 

Carrying the barangay’s name, it can’t be helped that the Sancagulis rice cracker is now closely associated with the place. But with their clientele reaching as far as places outside town where beer drinkers are looking for some cheap pulutan (bar chow), it comes as no surprise that the

 

Sancagulis rice cracker eventually got associated with the town of Bayambang itself.

 

 

Sorbetes

 

Panaggawa na sorbetes (sorbetes-making) is being practiced in Sitio San Roque, Brgy. Bani. A group of residents currently owns an establishment where the members of the Bani Delicious Ice Cream Association make their product in relatively large batches, but they also produce sorbetes manually in their respective houses.

Sorbetes is a popular treat to beat the heat, especially during summer. In the Philippines, the manufacture of the popular frozen creamy dessert started during the Spanish colonial period.

 

Brgy. Bani in Bayambang specializes in panaggaway sorbetes using natural ingredients, without having to utilize a refrigerator.

 

The procedure of making sorbetes starts at night, and the product is sold the next morning.

 

The first step is to boil two pitchers of water. One of the main ingredients, the cassava flour, is dissolved separately in a half pitcher of cold water. After the water comes to a boil, it is poured into the cassava flour mix.

 

The rest of the steps is conducted the following morning. Both coconut milk and condensed milk are combined and added into the cassava mixture. The mixture is then divided equally into two containers called garapiniera. The two containers are placed inside the tangke or the cooler. Ice and rock salt are placed around the grapeniera to freeze the sorbetes. Then, one and a half kilograms of skimmed milk is added, while whisking the mixture using the bulabol.

 

This process continues until the mix reaches the right amount of volume and thickness. The last step is to pour three kilograms of sugar and different food additives into the mixture. Additional ice and rock salt are placed around the garapeniera up to its top.

 

The sorbetes is stored in the tangke for one hour and, afterwards, the sorbetes is now ready for serving.

 

In 1983, Mr. Rogelio S. Verseles Sr. and other people of Bani were once employees in an ice cream factory in Dagupan City. In 1986, they brought home the knowledge they gained in the sorbetes-making process and how it is marketed. Rogelio S. Verceles, Sr., 51 year old, has 36 years of experience in sorbetes-making, while Fernando S. Verseles, 43 years old, has been making sorbetes for 28 years. Fernando is the current president of the Bani Delicious Ice Cream Association. Up to this day, they are still at it, contributing significantly to the people’s livelihood in the area.

 

Selling the ice cream has become one of their main sources of income, especially during summer seasons, and they accept bulk orders for different occasions. Their sorbetes is affordable and it reaches places outside the town such as Mangaterem.

 

The Bani Delicious Ice Cream Association's sorbetes now comes in many flavors, namely cheese, peanut, chocolate, vanilla, melon, malunggay, carrot, and many more.

 

As a form of support, the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Bayambang, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development's Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), awarded a considerable amount of money to serve as the association’s additional capital, together with new equipment. The Kasama Kita Sa Barangay Foundation (KKSBFI) also constructed a mini-factory of ice cream for the group at the barangay talipapa.

 

 

Chelsea Peanut Butter

 

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Being likened to Skippy, a well-known imported brand of peanut butter, is perhaps the best kind of  endorsement Marjorie Lacap can ever dream to have.  Yet she routinely gets it. And that's through word of mouth, with not a single centavo spent on advertisement.

 

We are talking of her well-regarded Chelsea’s Peanut Butter, a home-made peanut butter that has less sodium and low sugar content and uses premium peanuts. Produced at her family's starkly modern home in Tococ East, it is a product of science and passion for invention.

 

Lacap is "Ma'am Lacap" to batches of Bayambangueño students, for she is a high school physics and chemistry teacher at the Pangasinan State University-Bayambang Campus. And take note, she has a doctorate degree. Because she works in an environment friendly to creative thinking and innovation, peanut butter production took her interest one day until she actually tried manufacturing it at home. With assistance from the Department of Science and Technology and corresponding support from the Food Innovation Center of PSU Bayambang, not to mention her husband, a triathlete who's a dead-ringer for actor Michael de Mesa, she found possibilities with her find, until in 2017, she went full blast on it and actually sold her bottled products out there.

 

The brand name, Lacap says, came from the idea of turning to peanut butter for livelihood when she was carrying her first child, Chelsea.

 

Among Lacap's other revelations is that the peanuts are imported from India and China, because the local supply cannot cope with the demand when production starts. Chelsea Peanut Butter, she adds, is different from the other brands in the market because corn oil is used instead of coconut oil.

 

"Many customers like the product because it’s not salty, yet not so sweet," she observes. "Also, unlike other brands, Chelsea's Peanut Butter do not settle and harden that much at the bottom."

 

"As for the oil, we are working on it, so as to minimize it from gathering on the surface." "By the way, we use lecithin as emulsifier," she volunteers.

 

To date, they have two varieties: regular and chunky. "Some people like their peanut butter chunky," she explains. They also plan to add more variety in their product offerings, like peanut butter cookies and chocolate.

 

Why peanut butter and not other products, especially non-food products? Lacap answers, "Because we have observed that the market is active when it comes to food. There is no dormant month or season for food."

 

"The product was first sold in Tarlac," she continues. "Now we also deliver in Bacnotan, La Union."

 

And how do they promote the product? "We just display them in seminars, coops, etc.," she says. We think that is another way of saying they are letting the quality of the product speak for itself.

 

Packaged with a classy design, customers are often surprised when they find out that Chelsea Peanut Butter is locally made. The implication is, if it is this good, then it must be imported. But Marjorie Lacap and her family have proven that, with hard work, resourcefulness, dedication, and the right knowledge and technology, locals are capable of crafting excellent products, and excellent products that sell.

 

 

Bayambang’s Best Longanisa and Skinless Longanisa

 

 

 

Specially formulated by 1Food Corporation, Bayambang’s Best Longanisa/Skinless Longanisa has chunky, perfectly spiced bits of meat and is on the sweet side. It is manufactured by the residents of ANCOP Ville, a village in Brgy. Sancagulis. The residents are beneficiaries of the housing project of the Couples for Christ-Answering the Cry of the Poor (Canada) in collaboration with Kasama Kita sa Barangay Foundation Inc.

 

 

Organic Lemongrass Concentrate

 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8KIF-BK92-zeCDwkyMAprJjYkmmN-rpEvPZMYkt02-nzwu0pjHjZdeBAcgYp1OlP3q067OM70uPk1rAH9MQJHbDonLPR8zAK2nRHrTLU-lMrjdA6w53mT_33V39GrCO6KOVCLRbCgQzc/s320/DSC07041.JPG

 

 

 

Edgard Guevarra of GEO Farm, an organic farm (among others) in Brgy. Mangayao, used to make an organic lemongrass concentrate which is sweetened using muscovado sugar. The concoction also contains gotu kola and mint extracts. It is reputed to be an herbal drink.

 

 

References:

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

Some of the articles were taken from the Bayambang Culture Mapping Project of LGU-MTCAO and Bayambang National High School in cooperation with the Center for Pangasinan Studies


Buro-making: https://bayambangmunicipalnews.blogspot.com/2019/08/buro-making-bayambang-style.html
Pinakbet: https://bayambangmunicipalnews.blogspot.com/2019/08/feature-how-bayambanguenos-cook-pinakbet.html
Kanen tan Mirindal: https://bayambangmunicipalnews.blogspot.com/2019/09/a-quick-survey-of-local-kakanin-and.html
Inlubi: https://bayambangmunicipalnews.blogspot.com/2019/08/panag-inlubi.html
Gipang: https://bayambangmunicipalnews.blogspot.com/2018/03/crunchy-bricks-you-can-eat.html
Deremen: https://bayambangmunicipalnews.blogspot.com/2019/10/panaggawa-na-deremen.html