Pangasinan town celebrates 15th Talong Festival

Pinakbet is a dish composed of varieties of vegetables such as talong, which is the main agricultural product of the town, ampalaya (bitter gourd), okra (lady’s fingers), and squash or sweep potato, sautéed with tomato and Pangasinan’s famous bagoong. It is best paired with fried fish or lechon kawali (fried pork). (File Photo: digipam/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

VILLASIS, Pangasinan — The smell of sautéed vegetables in bagoong, a fish sauce or paste, filled the air and the smiles of the town’s people were a common sight as the municipality of Villasis prepared its different versions of ‘Pinakbet sa Kawa’ as part of their annual ‘Talong Festival’ last January 17.

For more than a decade now, residents from the 21 barangays here have been celebrating Talong Festival, with Pinakbet sa Kawa (vegetable dish in a wok) and Talong (eggplant) Cookfest as highlights.

Pinakbet is a dish composed of varieties of vegetables such as talong, which is the main agricultural product of the town, ampalaya (bitter gourd), okra (lady’s fingers), and squash or sweep potato, sautéed with tomato and Pangasinan’s famous bagoong. It is best paired with fried fish or lechon kawali (fried pork).

Mayor Nonato Abrenica said the municipal government, through its agriculture office, gave each of the 21 barangays about 70 kilos of the basic ingredients of pinakbet dish, while the add-on vegetable ingredients are shouldered by the barangays.

“The ‘sahog’ or special ingredient also varied, some barangays used the usual sliced pork. Others went further by adding sliced lechon kawali, tahong, or shrimp,” he said in an interview Saturday.

By the time the clock struck lunch time, the cooked dishes of the 21 barangays and the municipal government were shared to all the people who attended the event. This is the common practice during the festival which started 2005 through Abrenica’s initiative.

“The objective is to thank God for the vegetable bounty, especially for the main vegetables being produced by our farmers here,” he said.

The harvest of vegetables, rice and corn by the farmers here, Abrenica said, has been good for the past years as lesser typhoons hit the province.

The national and local government’s seeds and fertilizer subsidy program has been a big help to the farmers in maintaining good production, he added.

Abrenica also thanked the farmers for their cooperation in the festivities.

Meanwhile, this year’s popularity contest, search for Mrs. Villasis, has earned over PHP10 million gross income. Minus all the expenses, the net income will be used to buy the town’s new fire truck.

“Almost all the municipal buildings here, including the town hall, were constructed from the funds generated from the search for Miss or Mrs. Villasis contest. We are very thankful to the candidates and to their respective supporters here and abroad for their unending support to our town,” Abrenica said.

He said he was glad that the residents’ enthusiasm and cooperation for the event is “vibrant” again.

“We did not conduct the said popularity contest for the past two years because of what seemingly what we call ‘donor’s fatigue’,” he said.

Other activities during the festival were Farmer’s Day and the Street Dancing competition.

The day’s festivities culminated with the Barangay Night with Sarah Geronimo as guest performer, together with The Voice Kids champion Vanjoss Bayaban who incidentally hails from Pangasinan.