In a cold and breezy landlock province of Kalinga, my native land, a native delicacy can warm up your shivering skin and cold bones. Binungor, is an exotic cuisine that will not only satisfy your hunger but will also test your tolerance for hot and spicy foods. It is a vegetable savory dish. It mainly consists of local mollusk “agurong” or “bisukol”, an edible shell found on rice paddies, ponds, and streams, bamboo shoots, local mushrooms “laplapayag” and “kesop”, unripe jackfruit, squash, string beans, “kardis “, a local pea, and bird's eye chili, a small chili pepper that is packed with intense level of spiciness and hotness, and you can also put meat as desired.
It is customarily cooked and prepared in clay pots “banga”, it is the traditional way of cooking this delicacy, but you can just cook it in a regular cooking pot as an alternative. The process of cooking is simple and not complicated, you just simply need to clean the shell, leaving it soaked in water for 2-3 days, to wait it excrete all the mud and food debris that it had eaten. After that, make a hole on its peak using pliers or knife, similar concept of putting two holes in a liquid canned goods, so that air can penetrate which later make it easier to get the meat from its shell. Then put all the ingredients in the pot except for the cleaned shells, then let it simmer. When the ingredients are almost cooked put the star ingredient, “agurong” or “bisukol”, together with the desired amount of chili pepper. Lastly, add salt to taste. It has a unique flavor; it has an umami-like savory taste with a hint of bittersweet taste from the bamboo shoot. The spiciness will depend on your desired taste, but it can’t be called binungor if it is not spicy. Hence, the spiciness of this dish makes it distinguishable from the “dinengdeng” of the Ilocanos. Just like any other Filipino cuisine, binungor is a savory dish and is also best complemented with rice. Its spiciness will delight your palate and make you crave for more.
Binungor is sentimental and comfort food, especially now that I am living and studying away from home. I missed the unique earthy flavor and the intense level of spiciness when you sip the flavorful soup. This food means so much to me because my father, which is a good home cook, by the way, will cook it for us every time the family is complete. No matter what and where, life will bring me into in the future, this dish will always remind me of my identity…my culture…my roots. This food speaks a lot about the Ykalingas. Tolerance to its extreme level of spiciness symbolizes sense of pride and our bravery. This dish also represents the unity and diversity of the Kalinga People. Even though, Kalinga has a lot of different sub-tribes, they can still impose respect, tolerance, and understanding, tribal was no longer an issue, where in Kalinga are known before to be a notorious headhunter, conflicts can already be solved through peace packs or what it called “bodong”. Where in fact, Kalinga has low crime rates, it is surprisingly 2nd on the list of the safest place in the Philippines.The secret to that would be the Kalinga virtues; “paniyaw”, “ngilin”, “bain”.
This food will always be on the table and can’t be missed when we speak of Cordilleran cuisines. It is also commonly prepared during functions or celebrations. Kalinga adventure will not be complete without trying our gastronomy. This food will forever be part of our culture and identity and I hope the next generation will embrace it.
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