The Upland Food

During our visit to the different communities in Benguet we were treated with series of snacks and lunches. We were lucky to be served and had tasted the delicious native food.

For the main dishes, dinakdakan was served which was made of pork tossed in mayonnaise. The native chicken cooked as tinola is one of my favorites. Native pig is usually butchered and prepared for meals in this highland. Native pigs are black in color. It was cooked as nilaga. I thought it was fish when I tried it because of blackish skin and the fat or the adipose tissue is firm. Steamed red rice and Baguio vegetables were also served to us.

In one of the villages we visited, they put out the burnay or jar where the tafey or rice wine is stored. One has to scoop out the wine from it because it is composed of the red rice being fermented around a strainer tube and its juice concenrates at the tube’s center.

Puto is a winner because you can taste the pureness of rice and its sweetness. I think boiled camote or sweet potato is the staple food in this locality because I saw it in every place we visited. Rice cake topped with latik or coconut gratins was also served. Wild tea (guipas or subosob) was offered to us as a finale.