Fish tales from Dagupan

When a small town in Dagupan, some 212 kms. north of Manila, takes a crack at immortality by vying for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, something fishy must be going on. Fact is, we went to Dagupan recently for the Bangus Festival 2002 and came home with lots of fish stories. Like, did you know that bangus can be cooked a hundred and one ways? But that’s getting ahead of our story.

This is one big fish (event) that didn’t get away. It all started when, over a lunch of bangus, city government officials led by Mayor Benjamin Lim thought they should push Dagupan as the bangus capital of the world. And what better way to focus world attention on Bonoan, Dagupan than by making a bid for the World’s Longest Grill, a category that does not exist, according to Guinness’ Records Research Services Officer Susan Morrison who relayed this message via e-mail to event chairman Frederick Abesamis. There is, however, a category for the World’s Longest Barbecue, the current record holder being Peru. On Nov. 13, 1999, its La Municipalidad Provincial de Canchis cooked up the longest barbecue measuring 613 meters long and made up of 536 grills (each one measuring 1 m x 72 cm).

So did Dagupan beat Peru?

Dagupeños had hoped to set up a 1,001- meter-long grill, each grill measuring 1.20 m in length (and pre-sold at P1,200 per to participants who included families, clans, organizations, businesses, local and barangay officials). In addition, the festival aimed to draw 40,000 participants to beat Peru’s 20,000 participants and run away with the title "the world’s largest grill party."

The final score: Of the 915 grills with coal and bangus (10 per grill), only 617 grills were actually lighted, measuring 740 m. Unfortunately, a lot of grills were not lighted and no bangus was cooked on those grills because the charcoal and the fish got stranded on the way due to the very heavy traffic that rendered a lot of roads impassable. If only the bangus could swim their way to the competition site. But certainly, it was the largest grill party ever with assorted guests estimated at over 80,000.

Certainly, it was the longest queue to the washroom that we saw. The longest wait, too, for media people to get an interview with the Mayor who must have gotten lost in the crowd. "Oh, I was just passing through, on my way to the comfort room," Butch Velasco of the info office told us when pressed for bangus facts and figures.

It’s no fish story that Bonoan, Dagupan has got the best-tasting milkfish in the world. This is because the Dagupan bangus’ diet consists of a kind of lumot called lablab that’s grown with organic fertilizer.

"Water is drained from the pond and the fry are thrown in with the fertilized lumot before water is put back in," Jane Jarabe of the Philippine Tourism Administration volunteers to explain.

Grown in a stress-free environment, it uses its tail when it eats so as not to disturb the surrounding algae. The bangus comes out fleshier, with a smaller head, smaller scales and a shorter tail. It takes four months for a bangus fry to mature (and end up in the frying pan). One kilo of female bangus can produce as many as 250,000 eggs, costing 20 centavos per fry.

Dagupan can produce 90 million bangus (30,000 metric tons) a year, earning a projected gross revenue of P20 billion. One-fifth of the city’s total land area consists of fishponds for culturing the delectable Bonoan bangus, prawns, shrimps, crabs and mussels, which are available all year round. A feasibility study is being done on the setting up of a bangus processing plant. According to Westly Rosario of the National Integrated Technology Development Fisheries Center, new techniques are being introduced to make the breeding of bangus even easier. Satellite nurseries are being built in surrounding areas, too.

Guests certainly smelled something fishy at the bangus cookfest where chefs from the city’s finest seafood restaurants (easily our favorite was Matutina in one of which branches President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo likes to eat) tried to outcook each other for the best-tasting bangus concoctions from soup to appetizer to main course to dessert.

Ever tasted Boneless Bangus with Pan Melted Cheese, Flying Saucer with Bangus Spread, Pinaputok na Bangus, Fried Bangus with Coco Vegetable, Steamed Bangus Salad, Bangus with Black Bean Sauce, Milkfish Chowder, Mush Bangus, Bangus Bouillabaisse, Bangus Rolls with Cherry Sauce, Grilled Bangus with Broccoli, Pearly Bangus Soup, Spicy Bangus with Fried Garlic and Pepper, Bangus with Fresh Fruit Salad, Cheese Stick Bangus, Buko Pandan with Bangus Milk, Bangus Pot Po Tauho Soup?

If you haven’t, then fish be with you!