MANILA, Philippines—How does one prepare for a tuna festival? By not eating tuna in any form before the event.
So scratch the sashimi, tuna panga (jaw) and belly inihaw and the canned versions from the menu for a while. And a good thing, too, because tuna in many variations was what we had during a three-day stay at GenSan.
GenSan is short for General Paulino Santos, who led the first group of immigrants from the Ilocos into this southernmost Mindanao area by the Saranggani bay.
I prefer its old name, Dadiangas, after a shrub that used to grow wild in the area. You can still see businesses and schools that use Dadiangas in their names. So does pool player Leonardo Andam, who is from there and is known by the moniker Dodong Dadiangas.
Criselda Mación, president of the city’s Tourism Association, told us there was a GenSan Tuna Chef contest that we had to judge and that we would have a taste of “Sashimi Nites,” free tuna sashimi during the week-long festival.
The culinary competition was held at the Mindanao Polytechnic College. The judges, Myrna Segismundo, Jill Sandique, Raul Ramos, Booj Supe and I, revised the rules to include other seafood as the main ingredient.
Even for dessert
Students and professionals competed in their own categories to produce an appetizer, a main course and a dessert. Sometimes the contestants got carried away, using tuna even in the dessert either because the new rules did not sink in or they thought that by using tuna in all the courses, they would get more points.
After the judging, what was right or wrong with each entry was discussed. Recipes were also scrutinized for how they were written, especially whether ingredients and procedures were complete.
Judges also learned from the exercise—this time the merits of wrapping food in anahaw leaves (keeping in moisture), the local names of basil (sangig) and the small taro or gabi (karlang), and that cooking with coconut milk is called nilabog (guinataan).
Members of the association, mostly hotel and restaurant owners, hosted our lunches and dinners.
Marasa Grill of Mación was the first lunch for our hungry group that left Manila in the morning without a proper breakfast. We could not wait to dig into the kinilaw of malasugue (marlin), imbao (big clam) soup, salad of boiled vegetables and seaweeds, and grilled tuna panga, squid and prawns.
Family Country Homes served good panga as well. Saranggani Heights was visited during the daytime for the view of the bay and then for dinner and some lessons on gardening. We learned that some varieties of gumamela were named after Filipino superstars (did you know that?).
We were also treated to their best lechon manok, which was indeed so flavorful we almost finished the whole lot. And, on our last day, it was lunch at the air-conditioned Orange with a bistro ambience for a mix of Thai cooking and great kare-kare.
Various cuts
But we came for a tuna festival and we learned something about this big fish that contributed so much to the economic life of GenSan.
We visited one tuna supplier where we learned the various cuts. There were local names like bagaybay for the fat strip, bihod for the eggs and kuyog for the tendon.
Cuts that the Japanese favored were given names like sushi bar and saku bar. There were drumsticks, which were the ends; crazy cut, one of the non-sashimi pieces; cubes, ground, fillet and tail that were either boneless or bone-in.
Best of all, we were shown how to prepare a huge fish for sashimi. James Lacaba was our sashimi chef that night. He reduced the huge tuna into the choicest cuts for us, slicing each piece into red squares.
First, off with the head, the part from where the panga comes. Then the tail. At this point Lacaba showed us the tail flesh to demonstrate that this tuna was not of prime quality because the color of the meat was not even, a condition he termed “rainbow.”
Holding his sharp knife expertly, he cut through the fish lengthwise, separating the four fillet parts. This involved removing the spine at the center and other organs in the belly. But these parts did not go to waste as they were put away for so many kinds of cooking—sinigang, inasal, paksiw.
The Sashimi Nites included free sashimi with every purchase of P100 at any of the food and drink booths in the fair area. Our own prime cuts were tasted where we dined that evening.
We did hear the disturbing news that catching tuna was not as easy as it used to be and the boats had to go farther out. Pretty soon there might not be enough. So what will happen to the canneries in the area and the jobs they generate?
Still, those away from Mindanao will always think that the country’s second biggest island is a bountiful place. Yes, but most of that bounty is not tasted there because they are brought to Manila and to the world. Our hosts made us laugh when they told us that what they got from their wet markets were heads of prawn and bangus because the bodies had been exported elsewhere.
And the tuna that James cut was third-rate because the topmost quality were shipped out to the bigger, better-paying markets.
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