TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan (PIA) — Through a pioneering endeavor, Cagayano cuisine was featured in an annual dinner organized recently by the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and the Mama Sita Foundation at the Ateneo campus in Quezon City.
The yearly activity highlights regional and provincial cuisines all over the Philippines, and the event, held on November 29, saw the introduction of Cagayan’s unique cuisine in the National Capital Region.
The full-course dinner consisted of various dishes and delicacies originating from Cagayan and northern Luzon. These include Tuguegarao City’s carabao chicharon, sinanta noodle soup, and pinakufu rice cake, Pamplona’s nipa wine, Lallo-style carabao milk candies, and Cagayan Valley-wide dishes such as inabraw, sarabasab, and binallay rice cakes.
According to ADMU professor and anthropologist Dr. Fernando Nakpil Zialcita, the original convenor of the annual dinner together with the Mama Sita Foundation, Cagayan cuisine is not so much known elsewhere in the country.
Cagayan Heritage Conservation Society and Philippine Information Agency representative Jan Karl Coballes gives a brief overview of Cagayan’s traditional cuisine during the event. (Image by PIA-2)
This is the rationale why Dr. Zialcita initiated a collaboration with local cultural heritage experts in Cagayan spearheaded by the Cagayan Heritage Conservation Society in order for Cagayano cuisine to be put into the limelight.
One of the dishes featured and served during the dinner is sarabasab (or insarabasab), a dish made from chopped grilled pork, raw onions, vinegar and other spices. (Image by PIA-2)
Also served during the event was inabraw or dinengdeng, a staple dish in northern Luzon consisting of various vegetables cooked in broth and flavored either with clams, hibi, bagoong, or dried fish. (Image by PIA-2)
As part of the activity, Zialcita, on behalf of the ADMU Department of Sociology and Anthropology, also presented their plans to conduct a field school for their students in Cagayan, in order to explore and research more on not just local cuisine, but other local traditions and native industries as well. The said immersion is targeted to commence in 2024.
The dinner was attended by various lifestyle writers and social media content creators specializing in food and culinary traditions, academicians from ADMU, UP Diliman, and foreign institutions.
The event was organized with the support of the Cagayan Museum and Historical Research Center, the Provincial Government of Cagayan, and the Philippine Information Agency – Region II. (OTB/JKC/PIA-2)
