PUGO, La Union – Thousands of residents and visitors gathered here to partake of the various delicacies prepared by the participating fourteen barangays and six schools that joined the 1st Tinungbo festival cookfest that used the traditional bamboo as their cooking material.
The participating barangays and schools simultaneously cooked their chosen local delicacies in their respective booths for over two hours while the viewing public eagerly waited for the rice and viand to be cooked and served to the public that took turns in tasting the delicious food cooked using the traditional bamboo material.
Among the local delicacies that were cooked by the participating barangays and schools included the traditional Ilocano dish ‘dinengdeng, inabraw and fresh water fish cooked In different styles.
The participating barangays and schools to the fist Tinungbo festival cookfest were Ambangonan, Ambalite, Cares, Cuenca, Duplas, Maoasoas Norte, Maoasoas Sur, Poblaion East, Poblacion West, Palina, Tabora East, Tabora Proper, San Luis and Saytan while the schools ere Pubo Catholic School, Pugo Central National High School, Maoasoas National High School, Cares National High School, Saytan National High School and San Luis National High School.
The Tinungbo festival took its name from the local dialect tinungbo, an indigenous way of cooking rice, fresh water fish and other local delicacies using light young bamboo internodes, locally called as tubong, grilled over charcoal or low fire.
With its vast plantation of light bamboo locally called bolo along river banks and in the mountains, the old folks of Pugo during the ancient times traditionally used available raw materials for cooking. This had been carried on through generations although it is no longer widely practiced because of the presence of modern cooking utensils, gas, and electric stoves.
Mayor Priscilla M. Martin underscored reviving the tinungbo and celebrating the life and memories it evokes in the present time, a tradition of family love, camaraderie and gratefulness for God-given treasures to the people of Pugo.
In the olden times, the main livelihood of the people in the locality was farming and farmers used to go to the mountains or forests to forage for food or cultivate plants along the vast forest lands of the town. After being done with their work on the mountains, they go down to the rivers to take a bath and while in there, they eventually have their picnic by catching fish.
Since they do not carry with them any kitchen utensils, the old folks used the light bamboo to cook their food and it turned to be a delicious indigenous way of food preparation.
Martin and other local officials expressed their gratitude to the residents and visitors who took time in attending the various activities that were lined up by the Tinungbo festival organizing committee and the local government to include Pugo as one of the preferred tourist destinations in the province in the coming years.
The local chief executive underscored the conduct of the Tinungbo festival will be an annual institutionalized crowd drawing event of the municipality with the hope that it will flourish to become one of the well-attended crowd drawing events in the province highlighting the importance of preserving and protecting indigenous ways of living in the community.
By Dexter A. See