Baguio City Products

I've just posted earlier today (see the article here) that strawberries and flowers which are known to have come from the City of Baguio are actually from La Trinidad, the capital of Benguet and that most of the vegetables are from all over Benguet. Few hours later, Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho (KMJS) at GMA Network aired that even the peanut brittle and brooms sold in Baguio are from other provinces. The peanut products are mostly from Pangasinan while the brooms are from La Union. Indeed, almost all of the so called "Baguio Products" are from adjacent towns and provinces.

Well, Baguio is not claiming that it is producing the products being sold in its market. In fact, the makers of the Baguio Centennial Logo explained that the red wing of the butterfly has strawberry in it to recognize the contribution of the neighboring towns that help make the commerce in the city alive ( click here to read more or here to see and download the logo). But for sure, the neighboring towns are also happy that tourism in the city has opened doors for their products as expressed by one of the interviewed peanut product supplier in KMJS.

So, next time you visit Baguio, grab as many souvenir items as you can and don't forget to ask where the products came from. Because in Baguio, you don't only explore beautiful tourist destinations but you can also have various products from Northern Luzon and other countries as well. (I have not forgotten to mention the ukay-ukay, have I?. )

Cordillera and Igorot Misconceptions

Why can't others get these things right about the Cordillera and the Igorots? I saw lots of websites, blogs and articles correcting these common misconceptions but it seems some people remain uninformed (or they just prefer to ignore the facts and to remain ignorant?)

First, let's clarify what Igorot means. Igorot is believed to have been originated from the Tagalog term i-gulod, meaning people from the hilltop/upland/mountain (i-n. pref. meaning from + gulod, Tagalog term for hilltop). It now evolved to refer to the people from the Cordillera and Caraballo mountain ranges of Northern Luzon. It is unthinkable how such neutral term evolved and gathered backward and inferior connotations along the way that some Cordillerans don't want to be identified or called Igorots.

Now, here are some of the misconceptions I often encountered and have to correct and explain again and again:

1. Igorots have tails. I think this assumption is from the "most ignorant of the ignorants". When I was in college, somebody who learned about my ethnicity asked where my tail is. Instead of harboring self-pity, I felt relief to know that Igorots are not the "stupidiest" people at all. I heard some Igorots discriminating but it did not dropped down to such level of attributing any unusual or abnormal physical traits to a certain group of people. Its astonishing that some do really believe on the existence of people who have tails.
   
2. Igorots are short, dark-skinned with curly hairs. There's nothing wrong being an Aeta, Agta or Ati - of being short, dark with curly hair at the same time but such description never fits generally any of the Igorot tribes. I meet some Kalingas and I-Bontocs who can be considered dark-skinned but they are tall and seldom got curly hair. The Kankanaeys maybe short but they are fair to light complexioned.
   
3. Igorots still use casually their traditional g-string. Some old folks may use their wanes (g-string) from time to time but I don't think the younger generation will find it appealing to use such for daily wear. Aside from its high price, I find it harder to loop and strap the wanes right than donning a pair of jeans. Nowadays, wanes are used in cultural presentations.
4. Baguio is Benguet and vice-versa. Correction, Baguio City is a chartered city located in the province of Benguet. Is that clear? If not, go get a map of the Philippines or of Northern Philippines and you will not miss to notice that Baguio is within Benguet.
   
5. Strawberry and cut flowers are produced in Baguio City. Sorry, this is wrong. There maybe some flower gardens in Baguio but most cut flowers and strawberry are from La Trinidad, the capital town of Benguet. As for the so called "Baguio vegetables", they are actually from all over Benguet.

I hope that somehow, this post will help enlighten those who don't know much about the Cordillera region and its people. I will surely post more as soon as I sort them out.

The Case of the Missing Butterflies - Part 2

Now I know why my friends failed to see a butterfly at the Butterfly Garden in Camp John Hay when they visited the area two weeks ago.

Look!

The butterflies were taken from their sanctuary and are now commissioned to bring the message of Baguio's centennial celebration to the world!

(You can download the logo here )

The Case of the Missing Butterflies

(This was supposed to be part of my post yesterday about the good and unwanted things my friends experienced when they visited Baguio. However, this is something absurd that I decided to segregate it from the rest.)

My friends were having great time exploring Baguio. They made a grand tour of the most visited tourist destinations in the city and are amazed that it does not cost a thing, or a very minimal entrance fee, to visit and relax at those amazing places.

When they were in Camp John Hay, which they have nothing but praises of the design and upkeep of the area, they did not hesitate to take a peek at the butterfly sanctuary. They paid the entrance fee and excitedly entered the hub of the delicate insects. A few seconds have passed and yet they still have to encounter any flying, colorful creature inside the sanctuary.

Perplexed and thinking that they might have entered the wrong place, my friends seek out a sanctuary attendant to ask where the butterflies are.

"There are no butterflies at the moment because the cold weather and the frequent raining the past weeks eliminated our stocks" explained by the attendant whom my friends inquired of. My friends may have not been able to hide their disappointment because the attendant quickly added, "but there are lots of 'butterfly eggs' inside".

Baguio... In The Eye of Visitors

Last week, two friends arrived from Baguio which, by the way, is now preparing for it's centennial celebration as a chartered city this September, 2009. I was anxious to know what they thought about this city of the Cordillerans for I strongly recommended that they take the visit. They were supposed to go directly to the southern part of the country from Metro Manila but the promise of relaxing, unforgetable stay in the city of Pines made them do the detour.

What made Baguio a hit? (In no particular order.)

• The cool weather and the pine scented atmosphere. It's enthralling. It made my friends prolong their stay in Baguio.

• Burnham Park... Beautiful! Great park! Family friendly! Clean rest rooms.

• The Cathedral... It's a great land mark not just in the city but even reminding everyone of their location in their spiritual journey. (My friends are both Catholic. I know they are not that religious but I wonder how Baguio made them talk about "spirirual journey". Was the elevated location made them practically closer to heaven?)

• SM City... A wow! Relax and shop, and at dusk, watch Baguio downtown lights up. SM now serves as a big viewing deck to observe some strategic parts of the city.
  
  

• Mines View Park... It made my foreigner friend thinks he is viewing another Swiss scenery. Yes, they visited the area in a foggy day and it made the view breath taking. (Otherwise, they could have not missed the panteons or cemented grave yards below the viewing area and the colorful roofs that are aggressively taking over the place of the trees.)
• Wright Park... It's just right but it's worth spending an hour or more there.

• Tam-awan Village... It made my friends want to visit other parts of the Cordillera. They now wanted to experience life in a real Igorot community. I might bring them to a town in Benguet or in Mountain Province if there's a chance.

• Camp John Hay. One of the best place to camp!

• Cordillera Cafe, Solibao Restaurant and other local restaurants. They have not tried Sagada Lunch though for pinikpikan and dog meat menu.

• And, most of all, they loved the friendly people all over the place - the hotel attendants, the taxi drivers and almost everyone.

And the misses?

• The rain made the visitors abandon their horse-back riding plan and to explore the neighbouring towns.

• Traffic, traffic, traffic. The weather makes walking very convenient but still, some of the sidewalks are too narrow or there is just too much pedestrian.

• Overcrowding houses and establishments atop some of the hills and mountainsides. From a distance, some of the hills even look like piles of garbage. And there seems to be no stopping on the growth of establishments. Can the houses and buildings protect the mountains and hills much more than the trees can do? How long can the mountains stand to keep the establishments built on their sides and tops?

• Two-way lane overpass? (I think they are talking about the one crossing over Magsaysay Road connecting the old market and McDonald?) Why built a very narrow one like that?

• Botanical Garden is another great area to relax but it's not the place that it should be. Why are the plants not identified and tagged. Wwhy call it Botanical Garden after all if no one learns more about the plants when they visit the place? And what's with the commercial stalls within the vicinity? Well, if management think those are needed attractions or necessities, how about providing nice looking kallapaws (nipa huts) as stalls? Of course, these should be limited number of stalls stationed in strategic areas. It will enhance the "Igorotness" of the garden and for sure, visitors would love to have their snacks inside an Igorot's old house while viewing the colorful flowers and magnificient trees of the garden. One thing more, can't the city government do something about the Igorot's near the entrance of the garden? The foreigner friend thinks our allapos (old folks) there are just con-artists using the Igorot costumes to make money.

• Some part of Burnham being turned into amusement park? The bike rides are tolerable since biking is considered a nature sport. But what about the bump rides? Is not Burnham supposed to be a nature-themed park?

Despite the unfavorable sides, my friends fell in love with the city. They are even thinking of buying a property there. They are wishing though that environmental conservation and protection programs should be considered alongside with the city's continued development. I do agree with them. Do the city's local officials and residents feel the same?

The Bisarots - Mga Bisayang Igorot

I got a niece and a nephew (see inserted photo) who spent their early years in Masbate where they learned to speak the Visayan language. Fortunately, they were also taught to speak Tagalog/Pilipino while they were in the province. When they came here in Metro Manila to study, the younger boy who entered pre-school didn't bother mixing the Visayan and Tagalog languages (that's the Filipino language, isn't it?) He seem not to mind at all when he was told of the equivalent terms of his Visayan words as if he knows better. However, my niece got ridiculed by her classmates in the first grade class for her "hard" accent.

To those who are unfamiliar, some Visayans and even Igorots and Ilocanos have this problem pronuncing the Tagalog "e" as "ee" or "ea" while "i" is often mispronounced as "e". Tagalog words are spelled as they are pronounced.

One day, my niece came home from school ready to spill a bucketful of tears. She complained that some of her classmates called her Bisaya (Filipino term for Visayan) for mispronouncing some words in the class. I gently told her that she is indeed a Visayan for her father is Bisaya, but there's nothing wrong with that. To my astonishment, she declared that she don't want to be a Bisaya. (See how even small kids can cause others to disown their roots?)

"Bisaya ka (You are Visayan)", I insisted, "at Igorot ka rin dahil Igorota ang nanay mo (and you are also Igorot for your mother is one). In short, you are Bisarot".

I can't help but laugh when she looked at me in utter disbelief as if I just sentenced her to death.

"Pero lagi naman nilang niloloko mga Bisaya at Igorot (But they always ridicule Visayans and Igorots", she complained.

"Ignorante kasi iyong mga nanloloko sa kanila (Those who are ridiculing them are ignorant)", I explained. "Ang kagandahan nga nito, pag Bisaya ka at Igorot pa, mas marami kang alam na salita kesa sa iba (The advantage of being a Visayan and Igorot at the same time, you know more languages than the others). Kagaya ko (Just like me)", I candidly added, "nakakaintindi at nakakapagasalita ako ng salita ng mga Bisaya at Igorot kaya naibebenta ko iyong ibang tao na di nila alam (I understand and can speak some Visayan and Igorot languages and I can sell other people without them knowing it)".

She and her brother who was listening intently to our conversation laughed at my last line.

Somehow our talk enlightened my neice and nephew. When they later transferred to La Union, they told their cousins that they are Bisarots - Bisayang Igorots. And right now, though they dominantly use Filipino, they can still speak Masbate-Visaya, they can do straight Ilocano sentences (the major language in La Union) and their cousins started teaching them Kankanaey (one of the Igorot languages).

All About Bobod

Have you ever wondered why some tapey tastes better (and some bitter) than the others? It's all about the bobod.

There is no official English word for bobod but some have translated it as rice cake yeast. Maybe because the yeast is grown in rice powder which are formed into small cakes. Well, the Department of Science and Technology calls it lime (what???) in their advertisement for a Tapuey (yes, with u) making contest (read more about the contest here). Cook's Thesaurus talks about wine ball/wine cubes in their yeast section (click here to read the article) but there's no description thus it is hard to compare if such is the same as bobod.

Bobod Making

Bobod is made from ordinary rice and is produced usually in the following procedure:
1) The rice is soaked in water overnight.
2) After draining the water, the rice is pulverized either through pounding (bayo) or with the much easier manual rice grinder.
3) An old bobod (powdered) is added to the rice powder and mixed evenly. An ordinary sized bobod (around 20-25 grams) is enough for a kilo of rice.
4) Water is slowly added to the mixture to create a dough.
5) Small cakes, around 7 t0 8 centimeters (2.5 to 3 inches) in diameter and 1-2 cm (0.25 to 0.5 inch) thick, are made from the dough.
6) For drying, flat containers (preferably bigao) are covered with rice hay.
7) The shaped bobod are placed on the containers and covered thinly with rice hay.
8) The bobod are left in warm dry place until dried.

Factors Affecting the Quality of Bobod
The quality of bobod is affected by the type of yeast developed in it. (Click here to read more about yeast.)

To make a good rice cake yeast, the innoculant which is the old bobod, should come from a batch that have been proven to produce better tasting rice wine. There are lots of types of yeast and whatever is used as a starter will encourage the growth and dominance of its kind. Bad old bobod will create bad new bobod which in turn will produce bad tasting wine. It is possible to make new cake of yeast without an old bobod since yeasts are ever present in the environment. However, it is also very possible that undesirable yeasts or other types of organisms such as fungi and bacteria will grow dominantly in the rice cake.

Different temperature range will favor the growth of certain types of yeasts. This is the reason Cordillerans leave their yeast cakes to dry on the shelf above their cooking area. The cold temperature in the mountain most time of the year makes the other parts of the house much colder. From time to time, they also bring out the bobod to dry under the early morning sun. It is not advisable though to expose the cake in direct sunlight in hot weather because this will kill the growing yeast. Yeast for wine making grow best in 30-37 °C (86-99 °F) hence it is important to keep the cakes within such temperature range.

Bobod and Wine Quality
As I have discussed in my post about tapey making, it is important to cool down the cooked glutinous rice before adding bobod. Yeasts are living organisms that can not survive in hot temperatures. When the yeast are cooked, spoilage, instead of fermentation, will take place.

The yeast action during fermentation is also the reason why it is advisable for the wine containers to be stored in warm place. When exposed to high temperature, yeasts will stop functioning normally and they die. The increased temperature will also enhance the conversion of wine into vinegar. On the other hand, lower temperature will decrease the activity of yeast and will prolong the wine making process.

It is also possible that inadequate bobod will destroy the taste of wine. Less yeast will result to slower fermentation which may not be able to cope up with the onset of spoilage. In effect, the resulting wine has either bitter or soury taste. Too much bobod may not affect the taste but it will surely hasten the wine making process.