By Kinja Tauli, PIKP researcher
When one mentions Sagada, Mt. Province, food is not the first thing to come to mind. However, every place has its own unique food culture – traditional cuisine passed down from one generation to the next. This is especially true for Sagada, where the indigenous peoples of the area have their own set of unique recipes that is intrinsically tied with their way of life.
Indigenous cooking is built from the natural environment. Ingredients simply are whatever is available around, often foraged in the rice fields, forests, and rivers. While plenty of these recipes are still being cooked today, knowledge of them is being passed to fewer and fewer people and may gradually disappear without proper documentation. In light of this, the PIKP project team travelled to Sagada, collaborating with local women’s organization Inayan Watch hoping to have an exchange of knowledge and to get a better understanding of the local cuisine.
The recipes for tapey, bongsos, binaud, and inab-abosang among others were demonstrated.
Tapey is rice wine. The taste can vary from light and sweet to strong bitter alcohol depending on how long you age it. To make tapey, all you need is rice, water, and yeast (bubud). Any type of rice can actually be used to make this, from white glutinous rice (malagkit) to black rice (balatinaw).
Bongsos is pork intestines (small or large) which are then liberally salted and fermented for at least a week. This in turn is an ingredient which can be used in preparing Binaud.
Binaud is similar to a meat bun. Rice flour is used to form the dough, which is then filled with the salted pork intestines, wrapped in sayote leaves, and then boiled. This is a dish usually served during a gathering for when a house being built has its roof put up.
Inab-abosang is a rice porridge made with glutinous rice and root crops, usually camote or cassava. The root crops are chopped up and boiled together with the rice in a big pot with lots of water.
Throughout the demonstration, not just recipes were shared but also stories of childhood memories, gatherings, and rituals where all the different dishes were served. Indigenous food may be simple at the core, but these recipes are rich in history, deeply tied with the creativity and unique culture of the people.