Binatog

Binatog is this common street food in the general Luzon area of boiled, whole white corn kernels that's eaten with grated young coconut and sugar. I haven't developed an affinity to it, as I had been warned by elders when I was a child that the combination of coconut and corn is lethal for the stomach. And of course it is streetfood, with all the gruesome reputation attached to it.


But when you get to Daet, in Camarines Norte, the first province of the Bicol region, binatog is not corn, but a kind of suman. But again it is not the usual suman that we know - rolled into cylinders and wrapped tight, so that when you're getting fat and you are close to bursting your clothes' buttons you are also called suman.

Binatog in Daet is glutinous rice (malagkit) that's cooked in coconut cream, salt and ginger, just like the common suman. But instead of rolls it is scooped into a piece of cut banana leaf, the edges gathered and wrapped with a string so it is ensconced in a packet, the kakanin loosely resting at the bottom.


So it is not a compact thing that you dip in sugar, but rather a moist and creamy, semi-dry porridge that you eat with a spoon. It's common merienda fare, or afternoon snack, in Camarines Norte.


A little sugar is sprinkled on top, and the mingling of saltiness and sweetness and the creaminess of the gata on your tongue is almost too much of a sensual experience. Perfumed by the banana leaf packet in which it had been steamed, and with undertones of the ginger that provide spikes of spice, the crunch of sugar on the yieldingly soft grains, the thick coconut cream a constant presence, it's a multi-textural, multi-sensory encounter.

It's bliss.



I may sound crazy with my world turned upside down by something so ordinary, so homey, as a suman. But that's precisely the point. It had been more than a pleasant surprise to find that there can be other ways of cooking glutinous rice with coconuts and bananas. It's comfort food to the max.

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Postscript: Also called binutong in Albay.

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Bade at the Naga Market

The morning before the translacion, before the downtown streets were closed, I took an early jaunt to the Naga public market, which was within walking distance from my hotel, being just a couple of blocks away.

I had been to Naga almost exactly three years ago, and the market had been one of our stop-overs then.

My main agenda was the bade, or dried fish (daing), section. I was able to procure some good specimens back then, and I hoped to do the same this year.

Last time I had been able to buy good espada - the small variety, of about four to six inches in length - which was sold for only about a quarter of the price quoted in Pangasinan and La Union.

The third floor of the public market, accessed via a winding stone staircase, used to house the bade section, but it had been gutted by fire. Nowadays bade vendors remain scattered along the roads surrounding the building while repairs are ongoing.

The espada available were longer than I would have preferred, and not of good quality because of the incessant rains. So I decided I'll just have to save money for the espada in Dagupan, the shortest of which could go as high as P1,200/kilo.

But there are a lot of fish endemic to Bicol that are salted and dried to mix with vegetables, particularly ginataan (stewed in coconut cream), which is just about the only way Bicolanos are inclined to cook anything.

I get the impression that Bicolanos swoon over abo (first photo up), a fair-scaled and white-fleshed fish that is sold dried. Particularly since it cannot be found elsewhere, so it induces homesickness for Bicolanos away from home.


Same with this black-skinned species, which is also thick-fleshed, called, and I'm not kidding, new look (pronounced like the English words). I don't know if there are Bicolano words that sound the same as "new" and "look," but the vendor even went to the extent of telling me that the scientific name is Ligate taba, very seriously and with a determinedly poker face, because the fish is very oily. She didn't explain further as to the reproductive capacity of the fish, but I don't know if I had been had.


Unsalted, boneless dilis. The previous two bade were very salty and cannot be eaten with rice for breakfast, as what we usually do with daing or kaling in Pangasinan. But this one's almusal-worthy.

Dried krill that's so red it stands out among all the white to gray monotony of dried fish. It's so red I'm not sure if some food coloring isn't involved.


There's agamang in Pangasinan (bagoong alamang), and guinamos in Iloilo, and there's dinailan in Bicol, salted fresh krill packed and rolled into cylinders, used to flavor, again, ginataan.


They buyer can choose the plastic-packed dinailan, or the traditional ones wrapped in banana leaves.


Among the pasalubong shops I bought pure cocoa tablea balls (roasted and ground cacao beans), and espied unshelled pili nuts sold by the kilo.


And lacquered shells, real ones with the nuts intact inside though inedible, made into keychains, sold by the piece.

There were also pancit bato, which I love, with more bite than ordinary canton and tastier, in vegetable (malunggay and carrot) varieties.


The woven and handcrafted bags, made of native materials, were of special interest to me, too, but I didn't buy this time because the ones I bought three years ago are still good as new. The quality is really excellent, the designs eye-catching, and would be quite the handsome pasalubong, even Christmas gifts, for special people.

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Bob Marlin, Take 2
Bring Home Bicol

My Eating Experiences in Naga Three Years Ago
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• Sea Urchins

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Pinangat at Peňafrancia

Pinangat is a traditional Bicol dish that's sold by vendors who walk around town starting around lunchtime. The entire morning is taken up with the preparation and cooking of pinangat due to the amount of work involved.

The seafood of choice - usually shrimp, but also fish - is chopped fine, mixed with onion, garlic, spices, wrapped in gabi leaves, then slowly cooked in coconut cream in thick clay pots over wood fires.

It is a handy meal in itself, and is a particularly heavy lunch to be had with steaming hot rice. Much, much more rice than your usual because the authentic pinangat is fiery so it cuts through the richness of the coconut cream.


I joined a regional conference for our offices in Bicol, and it was just my extreme luck that it was scheduled on the eve of the translacion of Our Lady of Peňafrancia. So I booked my return flight late the following day so I at least could observe the ritual.

It turns out my luck had peaked, because this year is the tercentenary of the Peňafrancia celebrations. Until I went to Naga last week I haven't heard of that word tercentenary, which means it is 300 years old.

And as if that wasn't enough, this tercentenary celebrations has been imbued with deeper meaning, because the Archbishop of Caceres (the archdiocese of the Bicol region) had been diagnosed with lung cancer and refused any medical intervention. Just before the Peňafrancia gala he was cleared, the cancer absolutely gone.


The translacion is the official start of the Peňafrancia. Non-devotees, to which camp I previously belonged, only know of the fluvial parade, which takes the image of the INA, as she is reverently called (Filipino for mother) back to the Basilica of our Lady of Peňafrancia.

But the translacion happens nine days before the fluvial parade, which involves a procession along the streets of Naga City to take the image from the basilica to the Naga Cathedral for a nine-day novena.


During this year's translacion the image was first taken to the Peňafrancia shrine for mass before the noon-time trek to the cathedral. I was told this year had the biggest turn-out so far, which was highly warranted given the circumstances surrounding this year's anniversary. The heavens dumped rains while the congregated people waited for the translacion to move, but it didn't dampen the spirit a bit. The rains were even greeted with joyful shouts, taking it as blessing from above.

What was interesting was the mass of men, from late adolescents to senior citizens, lining the route of the procession. They wore t-shirts in uniform colors (different colors for each zone), had cloth bands around their heads, were unshod, and extremely drunk. Yes, drunk, extremely so, all of them. Which contributed quite a lot to the merry atmosphere of the occasion.


But as explained by the locals, the drinking habit during the Peňafrancia was not to enliven the proceedings. Because the men, officially called voyadores, carry the image, or the truck on which the image is placed, and are responsible for letting the procession move along.


And because it is a religious ritual we are talking about, and a ritual that has an infinite list of miracles attached to it, people are bound to be packed, very tightly so, during the procession, with the requisite pushing and shoving and elbowing. Slippers are bound to be left on the roadsides, shoes hurt feet upon trampling them. So everybody's barefoot.

As for the drinking, it is to prevent the men from fainting. No, Bicolanos are not Maria Claras, but I don't think even Hercules himself could tolerate the smell of a million different male bodies copiously sweating under the noonday sun, with all the odors associated with it emanating from them.

Since the festivities started at noontime our office in Naga provided an early lunch. No pinangat there, as it was catered, and no pinangat on the streets either. There were only woven buri fans and hats which were useless under the rain, and proved even a liability, for the sewn yarn embroidery bled and stained our clothes.

But we did go around the city the night before, and a Bicolana colleague pointed out that Molino Grill along Magsaysay Avenue serves authentic pinangat. The pinangat comes in regular and spicy variants, and is available frozen to bring home as pasalubong. But it is also served as pulutan, since Molino Grill is a bar.

The spicy variant had run out when we got there, though, so I was able to procure only the regular kind. It was great, very lightly creamed, the filling totally devoid of pork fat, unlike copycat pinangat that have lard as a cheap extender. It had slices of sili pansigang on top, which could be crushed for a mild heat.

Pinangat is known in the northern Bicol area as tinumok. What we know as tinumok in Metro Manila, however, is vastly different, as it contains ground pork and is wrapped with pechay or cabbage, which is easier to clean and cook.

Other Posts on this Naga Trip
Binatog
Bade at the Naga Market
Bob Marlin, Take 2
Bring Home Bicol

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A Collection of Street Food Across the Philippines
Biggs Diner & Bob Marlin
Pinangat Pizza at CWC
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Pili Brittle Discs