FOOD FIND: FRUITY BANGUS AT PUERTO DEL SOL, BOLINAO, PANGASINAN

One of the perks of my current jobs is that I get to go places, meet interesting people and taste very creative dishes. In a recent trip to Puerto Del Sol in Bolinao, Pangasinan I tasted this refreshing and healthy concoction made by the resort Chef, Fruity Bangus. The boneless bangus belly is used as a wrap fro local fruits like mangoes and pineapple. To cook it, the wrap is simply steamed. The resulting flavor is similar to the Paksiw  na Bangus (bangus slow-cooked in vinegar and spices) but you also taste the natural sweetness of the fruits used.

Binungey- Rice meal-to-go Pangasinan style

Aside from bangus (milkfish), I am not so familiar with Pangasinan cuisine. And I absolutely love it  when I am introduced to traditional cooking.  So in a recent work trip, when  I was brought to the house of one old couple who was one of the few remaining people who knew how to cook Binungey, it was a moment I tried to  record in my mind... in case I needed some winning cooking skills when I get trapped in an island (which nearly happened the next day, by the way-- see my entry entitled "The Kindness Of Strangers 2"). 

My inner culinary geek just took over as I started to record the cooking process. So here it is...

Saw off an 8-inch piece of bamboo with the node in the middle. 

Wash the sticky rice, mix in some rock salt and fill the bamboo with it.

Make sure to leave some space for the coconut cream

Pour in coconut cream (kakang gata)

Cover with banana cut up banana leaf

Make sure to overlap the leaves

Place the bamboo pieces in an open oven

Make sure to be wearing your slipper when putting in the bamboo filled with rice

Heat up the oven with more firewood and the extra pieces of bamboo you're not using

Make sure the bamboo pieces remain standing

Tap down the leaves that are cracking up because of the bubbling coconut cream

When the bamboo turns brown that means it's ready for eating!

Take the Binungey out

Let it settle for a while

Scrape off the burnt bits off the bamboo

Wipe

Cut in half with a machete

And here is what you'll get

The Binungey is not a dessert as I had thought at first. It's more like rice-to-go but cooked inside a  bamboo stalk. Eating it on its own is not such a joy but i am guessing it will go well with fried dried fish or steamed vegetables or pork- deep fried or grilled.

Kindness of Strangers 2

Textures of Bolinao

Maybe the universe is teaching me to be humble. Maybe I am meant to realize that hunger is my worst enemy. This recent trip to Bolinao, Pangasinan gave me another lesson in the kindness of strangers.

We were set to produce one segment about the ecotourism in Bolinao, a quaint third class town in Pangasinan. this entailed having to travel by banca to Balingasay River, the Giant clam farm and seaweed sanctuary.

And so, the crew, in two boats, set out to sea by 6:30 AM. Four hours later, we were still at sea, under the sweltering sun, our lunch an hour away by boat. We had one small mineral bottle each and a small box of chocolates. The Giant Clams and the seaweed were nowhere near edible (nor were they available for harvest). We were hot, sticky and turning irrational.

Since were near Santiago Island,  we decided to dock on its port to find some food. There was one store that sold softdrinks and less than 10 meters away was the only sari-sari store of the barangay. As we scouted the shelves for anything that was readily available, the store owner, Aileen, came out and asked us what we wanted from her store. 

 We asked her if she could possibly cook some instant noodles for us. She readily agreed to do so. We pushed our luck and asked if she could possibly cook some rice and sardines for us. She was surprised by the request but did not hesitate to agree.  As we helped her cook lunch, her daughter Alexandra joined us as well as other members of her family.

We kept everyone in their household busy, showing us where the washroom was and in typical Pinoy fashion, apologizing for the spareness of the facility. They used their electric stove and and the dirty kitchen kalan using firewood. It was a classic show of Filipino hospitality and bayanihan.

photo courtesy of Irene Pacana-Liwanag

Aside from what we brought from her store, they offered us arorosep, the small grape like seaweed that goes well with fish. They had harvested some and had just cleaned some for selling.

The arorosep is washed in fresh water

The hairy bits and other sea debris are removed by hand and washed again

The seaweeds are again soaked in fresh water before it is brought to the market to be sold

Rice, noodles, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs corned beef and freshly washed seaweeds- the meal you see here is one of the best I've had because it was given out of kindness.