Lechon, calumpit and sagisihin

With the beautiful music of Andrew Lloyd Weber and the soaring high notes so effortlessly rendered by Sarah Brightman on the CD, our ‘foodie’ group set off from Makati to Canyon Woods in Tagaytay on the first leg of a trip that would overwhelm us with the most number of lechons on parade. It took us no time to reach our destination, although we did not escape noticing that national roads are dark, making you feel rather insecure.

Our gracious hostess laid out the perfect comfort food, with very sweet juice from fist-size pineapples, to start off a dinner of the freshest catch from the city market–tilapia with mustasa and coconut cream, alimasag, bulalo oozing with utak, and chunky beef ribs, barbecued perfectly. Slices of pineapples were served as dessert and the lady of the house told us that they are abundant and can be bought at the incredible cost of P2 each!

For breakfast we were pampered with the typical Ilocano first meal–tapa (only slightly salted, fried crisp with all its taba, giving it the real fresh meat taste), Vigan longganisa (not fork-pinched but allowed to burst to be more tostado), daing na biya, plus two types of tomato-onion salad, one with Pangasinan bagoong na isda. Despite all the modern culinary techniques and help available, our hostess still forays to the wet markets, not maintaining a suki but picking up the best of various vendors, still seasons her tapa slightly with salt and nothing else before airing it, chooses the type of fish for a particular dish and goes by the more traditional way of preparing food.

Soon we were on the fringes of Paz and Palikpikan Streets in the center of Balayan, Batangas where, for the first time, we witnessed the much-publicized Parada ng Lechon in celebration of the annual fiesta. It being St. John’s day, everybody was doused, but took this good-naturedly. This was the 20th year of the festivities, but we gathered from our host Carlito Lainez that lechon has always been a "celebration" food for the people of Balayan (like the rest of us Filipinos), who paraded the lechon, in the course inviting neighbors to join in, until it was institutionalized into this annual affair.

For more than a hour, lechons came one after another, dressed as Men in Black, as Lola and Lolo on swings, as a computer techie, as the figure in a bubble, as a motorcylist or simply clothed in t-shirts proclaiming their sponsors. Lots of the roasters were undressed by the people who pinched the skin off for a taste, while most were wrapped in plastic, perhaps to prevent them from being wet or devoured. Later, the lechons would be brought to their respective owners’ homes and the feasting would start.

For us, dining with the locals went on as well. We had the fiesta specialty, caldereta of goat meat, puto, kalamay and kutsinta which were different from the Biñan kakanins we grew up with. In the Martinez (actor Leo’s forebears) home, we were feted with lechong baka, grilled fish sagisihin (which probably belongs to the talakitok family), more lechon (!) and calumpit (native black berries) made into a jam among the desserts. The hospitality of the people of Balayan extended to giving us bottles of bagoong na isda and bibingkang malagkit with thick kalamay topping to take-home.

With food on our minds, we made two stops on the way home. First was at the Bag of Beans along the highway, where we got their raisin and white bread (P80 for the two), lettuce and cilantro, etc. The now better organized Mahogany market was next on our itinerary. We found the little pineapples, langka at P18 a kilo, tinapang tawilis (P20 a pack) and of course Batangas beef (they now have a saw to cut the bulalo, P120 a kilo), tenderloin at P260 and boneless brisket at P140.

For a trip that lasted less than 24 hours, it was one basketful of delights!

We missed mentioning Meralco two weeks ago when we wrote about the increase in power rates. erb approved Meralco’s request, but our question is–could it be Meralco will use this additional income to finance the refunds they need to give to consumers? Unfair! Does this company have a conscience?