Surprising Interview: "Is the local dessert masikoy from Bayambang?"

 Surprising Interview: "Is the local dessert masikoy from Bayambang?"

What a surprising interview I had last Monday. Three college student-researchers from CLSU (Nueva Ecija) approached me and asked for a recorded interview about local cuisine.

For the first time, I was interviewed about a subject I have been researching about since I can't remember when, so was I glad. Without much ado, they said they wanted to "validate" whether the dessert called "masikoy" indeed originated in Bayambang town of Pangasinan.

I was stumped because I didn't have any idea and have never heard of such a possibility. And I told them so, but, yes, I said, I know masikoy, and as far as I can remember, it was only here that I was able to taste it and only for a few times, because a certain lady ambulant vendor by the name of Linda Fajardo used to sell it around our area.

I gladly described to them what masikoy is: basically a twist on the classic palitaw in that the rice cake pieces are sliced into little bite-sized bits and served swimming in a sauce that is basically galapong or rice flour cooked in water, white sugar, coconut milk, buko strips, and toasted-then-pounded bits of langis or linga (sesame seeds). The sesame seeds' smoky nuttiness serves as a pleasing foil to the oiliness of coconut cream and the heaviness of rice starch.

(What I didn't tell them is, in retrospect, the term seems to be a combination of tikoy + masi. Tikoy is obviously a Chinese influence, and masi seems to be a cognate of any rice-based sweet in combination with ground peanut, but I am just guessing about the potential etymology.)

I also talked at length about what Bayambang town is known for, as far as unique culinary offerings are concerned: They say the freshwater fish buro and binuburan originated here, I told them, but I have no way of confirming it except through the oral testimonies of residents. Bayambang is also known for gipang, which is like crunchy pinipig but toasted, giving it a greenish-black color and a smoky-nutty flavor. It is often crushed on top of halo-halo. Though these may not be unique to the town, our town is also good at making really good (as opposed to passable) deremen/inlubi, latik, cassava cake, etc. (I momentarily forgot that someone here also makes fish crackers.)

Going back to the aim of validating things, I went so far as saying that, "You know, we, Filipinos, generally don't care about history, especially local history. If I'd ask a random townmate, for instance, why a certain gymnasium here was named after a Benigno Aldana or why a major bridge was named after a certain Mr. Calvo, no one would know. (I'd give a gold medal to anyone who does.) Same thing with all the little things. I have no official documentary basis for any claim about whether this or that originated from here or not. (I was stoked, but I am glad I restrained myself from discussing the etic-, emic- and etic-/emic- modes of doing cultural research.)

Eventually as a comeback -- because I was embarrassed with my ignorance about their revelation -- I said, "Oh, by the way, I recently learned about a dessert dish unique to Nueva Ecija, which I gathered from Drew Arellano's travel show on TV (I actually saw it on YouTube)." "It is called pinaso, which is like a cross between maja and leche flan, but made of rice flour (plus evaporated milk, sugar, and coconut milk)," I said, but no one among them recognized it. So quits na kami!

In my excitement about the little subject of masikoy, I forgot that I have Linda Fajardo's number because she is so good at cooking anything (especially chicken sandwich, arroz caldo, fruit salad, her own unique version of nilupak, fish with mayonnaise, etc.) that I just had to get her number for special orders. But since the students left the email address of CLSU on the letter of request they brought, I tried to reach out to them. But before they left, I was able to give the title to an article I uploaded online about what I know about local cuisine.

I wonder if masikoy was indeed invented in Bayambang. If yes, that's another item of cultural pride for our little town, a town with a growing number of bragging rights to all sorts of things. Too bad people don't appreciate much the role of heritage and history to cultural pride and identity.