Kakanen ed Mangaldan

Kakanen ed Mangaldan

What a great way to bring our kabaleyans together in celebrating our culture by renewing our ties with our ancestral past through the food they ate and now we get a chance to eat.

There were no fast food snacks and desserts then. Our folks used what was available, and surprisingly, our snacks would make vegetarians happy . . . even the vegans would rejoice for we used coconut milk instead of dairy. What we had aplenty were rice, sugarcane, coconut, camote, cassava, tugi, mais, mani, saba, langka, guava and our folks whipped up a dizzying repertoire of 'foods for the gods'. And if it is of comfort to some, no preservatives or FDA-approved food colours were added. Kakanen was simply natural, tasty, crafted from renewable resources.

A few days ago, I sounded out the possibility of organizing a 'bake sale' of Kakanen with the officers of the MAREVA (Mangaldan Residents of Vancouver). Sounded good, but it did not take off then. There was an emerging support from one officer, Philip Fabia, a die-hard proponent of things good about Mangaldan. I bounced off the idea in a bigger forum, the Mangaldan International Organization (MIO) in Facebook. There I picked up interest from Amor Lomibao, Ernie De Vera, Benedict Sarzaba and Manuel Biason.

With that, I decided to go for it, to start this blog in Aliguas Mangaldan, one dedicated to our 'Kakanen'.

What does a 'Kakanen look like?' My external hard drive yielded a throve of pictures and let me start sharing a few.

You are a Mangaldanian if you can give the names correctly. Use the Comment section.

  

 

 

 

 

There you go! Some of our 'Kakanen'. If you have any pictures to share, send them to djoma@aliguasmangaldan.net . We will be building a library of pictures as well as the recipes . . . as we continue to celebrate our culture and our lives. Abante Mangaldan!

Kutitem

The other day, Manny Biason, based in California, contributed the word, "kutitem" to the growing list of dessert/snack foods we fondly call, "Kakanen ed Mangaldan". One kabaleyan, Agnes Billote-Padre, saw the posting and asked, 'What is Kutitem' and we got a response from Manny:

Say kutitem say procdure na panaggawa singa suman balet say pandumaan na suman tan kutitem aya:

Say kutitem gawa ed ansakket ya walay laok to ya pino pino babang. Amay nantaepan walay pinon babang to man sikato natan iman so tipunen da insan da ilaok ed ansakket.

Wow! That recipe just tells us that our ancestors knew the value of high-fibre bran (babang) and that practice of collecting the 'babang' from the 'lasong' spoke of how they would put to good use what today's modern person would just consider as waste.

One day, we would be able to post a picture of 'Kutitem' in this site.

A big shout to Abogado Manny, whom I would like to claim now as a 'kapinsan' along the blood lines of the Seraficas of Mangaldan.

Here's a conversation from Manny (5/2/2012) captured from MIO FB:

Matalag so taga Mangaldan ya makapikabat no anto so kutitem. Sayan kanen maslak ya gagawaen na saray mairap bilay ya kaparak tan saray taga bario ya kaparak. Ta pian maka minus ed gastos, laokan mi so ansakket na pino pinon babang (80% bab...ang tan 20% ansakket). Now, this kind of snack is out of tune. It was prevalent during the time when 'gawat', famine struck every nook and cranny of the country and we still have the saying that: '"no antikey so ules, ikukot so sali". Now, the 'ules" is too long specially where we are now and where money is easy for most. This snack has become obsolete and unnecessary in our present world. Unless we want to go back in time - some 50 or so years ago. Just go to Rite Aide and get a gallon of ice-cream (vanilla my favorite) which is a lot less expensive and more yummy than the "pinon" babang. But, frankly, the kutitem is something that is in my heart, a part of my being a "barbarriotic", and I'm proud of it.

 

Folks from town who were/are - trendy may not know about this snack and I can not blame them 'coz the kutitem was/is primitive. The tastes and texture still cling to my palate up to this day. Nobody does it anymore.

The Listing Begins

From Ernie de Vera of California: "Dinikdikan" - a version of 'nilatikan' with 'kahoy', niyog, binayong mais and brown sugar from Barangay Nibaliw.

From Manuel Biason of California: "Kutitem", "Inlubi", "Undaunday", "Kiniler", "Binuburan"

We hope that Jojo Fabia who teaches at MNHS would accept the invitation to go around and take great pictures of our 'Kakanen' so we can share it in this site.

Jojo Fabia just added (April 30, 2012): "Tupig"

Let the List continue to grow . . .

Anne Biala de Guzman just added (May 1, 2012): "Masikoy"

Additional from Raffy Rivera (May 3, 2012: "Ube", "Bocarillo", "Gondol" and "Leche Flan"