Bataan holds first ‘Araw ng Mangingisda’

MORONG, Bataan: Fisherfolk in a fishing village in Morong town adjacent to the South China Sea on Friday featured simple recipes of the lowly galunggong during their first “Araw ng Mangingisda.”

Resty del Rosario, leader of fishermen in Barangay Sabang, said 368 fishermen in the village participated in the one day event.

“We organized this event to give importance to the cooperation of the fisherfolks in the food security program of the government. This is also a way to uplift this sector,” del Rosario said in Tagalog.

The bonding of fishermen in the area has minimized illegal fishing and has even stopped dynamite and commercial fishing. Del Rosario, however, asked government to provide further assistance to the poor sector.

Fishermen in motorized bancas made a short parade out into the vast sea as a big number of people watched from the shore after which they tried the different recipes of galunggong.

“Masarap [delicious],” Malou Dungog of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority said as she tried the sinaing sa gata sa pressure cooker na galunggong with luya and siling pula. Some even paired the fish with ice cream. Why the focus on cooking of galunggong or GG, del Rosario explained that the fish is abundant from March to May.

Other recipes were lumpiang shanghai na galunggong, kilawing galunggong with sibuyas, sili and kalamansi, lumpiang galunggong, bola-bolang galunggong, piniritong galunggong, sliced galunggong with crispy fry, paksiw na galunggong, kilawin sa gatang galunggong, fish ball na galunggong, apritadang galunggong and binalot sa dahon ng gabe na may gatang galunggong.

Galunggong can be bought in the village at P50 a kilo. In Balanga City, it is priced at P100. Ernie B. Esconde