KAPANGAN, Benguet – Food enthusiasts will have a chance to partake of indigenous delicacies that will be prepared by international calibre chefs during the whole day Benguet Food Heritage Promotion spearheaded by the Cordillera Hydroelectric Power Corporation COHECO 60 and COHECO Tawid foundation which will be held in barangay Cuba, here, on Thursday, December 13, 2018.
COHECO 60 Environment Director Ernie Wijangco said that the objective of the food heritage promotion is to show, demonstrate and increase the value of the local products to broader audience, citing that an example of a local product that has increased its popularity, demand and value is the so-called ‘adlai,’ a traditional local grain from Mindanao wherein a kilo of the said grain is already P800.
“This activity proposes to capitalize on the popularity Tatung Sarto, a popular chief, who will demonstrate other variations on the use of, among other local products in Kapangan, balatinaw, a black variety of rice, bungkitan, a white glutinous variety of rice and damaso, a red variety of rice. This heirloom rice varieties will serve as a base for different dishes embellished with kiniing, a locally smoked slab of pork meat. Kiniin will also be used to develop a Kibungan version of favada, using local pulses. To top this menu, the making of tapuy, a local rice wine made from balatinaw will be shown,” Wijancgo stressed.
He added that all rice varieties will be harvested fresh from the fields prior to its use in the said dishes that will be served.
The COHECO 60 official disclosed that a kitchen and a dining area, complete with all the utensils and ingredients for the demonstration will be set up at a farmers plot adjacent to the rice plots.
According to him, the output will be a mini-documentary feature film to be aired at Channel 2’s Unang Hirit hosted by chef Tatung and that the same activity will also be published at metro style.com and hopefully at Esquire magazine.
COHECO 60 Legal Officer Atty. Jingboy Atonen explained that following the field visit, the crew will also pay a visit to the La Trinidad food festival and perhaps partially document and link the event to the field activity.
He claimed that barangay officials of Balacbac and Kbiugan tourism officials and employees will be actively participating in the activity to learn value added of locally produced indigenous products.
Atonen appealed to various stakeholders in Kapangan and Kibungan to support the conduct of the said activity because it will definitely help in the aggressive promotion of local products to help market quality produce of the agriculture industry stakeholders.
COHECO 60 is on the process of putting up a 60-megawatt run-of-river hydroelectric plant in the border of Kibungan and Kapangan towns after the indigenous peoples in the two municipalities endorsed the construction of the renewable energy project several years ago.
By HENT
