6th Talong Festival set Jan. 14

VILLASIS, Pangasinan , Philippines   – The first month of the year promises to be a busy time for the townfolk here as they are now ready to celebrate the sixth year of their Talong (eggplant) Festival on Jan. 14.

Mayor Dita Abrenica said it’s a thanksgiving of the people, many are farmers, for their popular vegetable products that rightfully make the town acclaimed as the Vegetable Bowl of Pangasinan.

She said it is also their way of promoting their talong of which this town is the top producer in Region 1.

But among these agricultural produce, Abrenica said it is the eggplant that made them very popular. Their festival has become synonymous to it since the town first launched the Talong Festival in 2005 under then mayor Nonato Abrenica.

She said that in one natiownide popular game show, one question was asked by a host on what town celebrates Talong Festival and the contestant got the right answer.

Abrenica said at 5 a.m. of Jan. 14, ABS-CBN will have its Umagang Kay Ganda live television coverage featuring artworks contest using talong and other pinakbet vegetables and cooking “pinakbet sa kawa” followed by a street dancing exhibition and free lunch.

Then, people invited as guests of each barangay can partake of the cooked pinakbet plus other foods like fish, chicken or pork barbecue, fruits, among others brought by each barangay to make their get-together happier, she added.

The pinakbet sa kawa was also held last year and it became a success. Each barangay was also given kawa (very big cookware) where they cooked the pinakbet and which they can use during big affairs in their respective barangays.

Pinakbet is an Ilocano dish derived from the word pinakebbet, meaning “shrunk” or “shriveled.” The original Ilocano pinakbet uses bagoong using a variety of native vegetables like bitter melon, eggplant, tomato, okra, string beans, chili peppers, parda, winged beans, and others while root crops and some beans like kamote, patani, kadios are also optionally added. It is usually spiced with ginger, onions and garlic.

She said that in the afternoon, there will be another Talong Cookfest which she consistently chaired since she was the first lady of this town. In the evening, a street party would be held.

During her husband’s administration where Dita was the chairman of the Talong Cookfest, they had produced a cookbook featuring 101 ways to cook talong where the winning recipes of the years the cookfests were held and the bestsellers were featured.