At the Bayambang Paskuhan Fair 2024

 At the Bayambang Paskuhan Fair 2024

So I've been trying the offerings at this year's Paskuhan Fair the past few days, and it is interesting what I have found so far.

The vibe at the old Bayambang Central School grounds instantly reminded me of weekend markets in Manila like the one is Salcedo, where Philippine regional cuisines (say, batchoy and Iloilo cookies) are on offer side by side international delicacies (e.g., Turkish baklava and Spanish tapas).

Here in my hometown, it is a lot more low-key, of course, but the effect of this quaint meeting of provincial vs international flavors in one's plate, or palate, is the same.

There was, of course, the usual choices that locals have grown accustomed to, like shawarma, burgers and fries, Chinoy food, and popular Korean fare such as honey-and-chili-glazed chicken, odeng, that horrible street skewers called tteokbokki, or maybe bibimbap.

In the next few adjacent booths, I noticed a sugarcane juice stand that uses sugarcane juice as base for its fruit shakes like dragonfruit shake, avocado shake, and guyabano shake. After trying the dragonfruit shake one day and fearful of blood sugar spikes, I later insisted on an old reliable: good old buko shake using buko water.

I espied an Ilocano booth that sells those giant orange Iluko empanada, which my officemates and I feasted on. The flavor profile (green papaya, poached egg, bean sprouts, Vigan longanisa, Ilocos cane vinegar) was a shock to the uninitiated. On a sad note, I failed to sample the miki noodle because it was no longer available, and I was unable to score the lone bugnay wine on sale.

Puno's Ice Cream and Sherbet's stall offers various flavors of delectable frozen delights reportedly produced from Nueva Ecija, among the more unusual of which is the peanut-butter-and-brownie combo, which I must try on some other days.

Then there are the brewed coffee stalls and milk tea stalls, which are but a reflection of the thriving cafe culture in this town where there used to be none.

But if there's one stall that really caught my attention, it's the one that calls itself Fardin Biryani House, which claims to be an authentic Arab Bangladeshi biryani house, wow, so I've got to try it. The mutton biryani was sold out, so I had to settle for chicken and duck. Well? I am amazed that they used real basmati rice for that beautifully long-grained, fluffy effect, not just ordinary rice. And the dish indeed gave off that real Indian-Middle Eastern aroma, an alchemy of bold spices, most of which are normally intolerable in these parts. (The usual culprits: coriander, mace, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, saffron, nutmeg, and black pepper.) And indeed, the palimpsest of spices proved to be too complicatedly hot for my GERD, as I have very low tolerance lately for chilis and other stuff that scorch the tongue and burn the throat almost literally.

I was also glad to see round Japanese cakes and takoyaki, which reminded me of the time I had these things in Glorietta for the first time, though I have yet to see if the takoyaki is indeed authentic. But, yes, the Japanese cakes are surprisingly the real stuff. I failed to note, however, if they also serve the usual Japanese favorites: soba noodles, ramen, gyoza, sukiyaki.

I next tried Senyora Violeta's puto bumbong. It is okay -- very filling on the heavy side, as expected of rice-based kakanin, but it is surely most fitting for famished construction workers, I should say. I could sense, though, that food coloring was used instead of the original pirurutong rice (purple glutinous rice with delicately fine aroma).

I also spotted the popular local vlogger Ponsyana who sells this idea of lechon-in-a-cup. That's innovation from the get-go, thus I just had to try it. The verdict? It was fun having it -- almost like the idea of consuming sisig or kilawin in a shot glass in a degustacion session, though the lechon bits were on the bland side (I am "mataas-ang-timpla" kind of guy). Blame it on the fact that someone forgot to ask for the requisite liver sauce.

This particular development (the arrival of certain foreign cuisines) was unthinkable just a few years ago, I must not fail to note.

I was hoping to find a Mexican stand (there was a year when there was one, serving tacos) in the hope of having a burrito, but there was none. I have also been craving for Vietnamese pho (noodle soup), poppyseed bagels, rum cake, and croissants, but I have yet to see these things reach this town.

Actually, my secret wishes lately are panettone bread and kouign amann, which I haven't tried yet. (Big hint to would-be Santas.) And I also have been hoping someone here knew how to make a proper chicken galantina, callos, beef salpicao, and lengua (favorite French- and Spanish-inspired delicacies). Maybe Ate Nora Baltazar, our lunch-time lutong bahay suki knows -- after all, she's Kapampangan, and has introduced us, her clientele, to dishes like kilayin. (Not kilawin, silly, but kilayin.)

But I guess that is too much to ask for a humble hometown Paskuhan Fair. I momentarily forgot that this is not S&R or Vikings or Spiral buffet. Maybe not yet, for now, but who knows? Maybe pretty soon. After all, this is a little town that could, where impossible things happen.