BINUGBOG1
Original Ilokano
Short Story by Joel B. Manuel
Translated by the
Author
“WE start processing the
canes tomorrow, dear wife,” Iliong said when they are about to retire after
they are done with their chores that early evening. They have piled the sugar
cane before the presser. They have lubricated the gears of the sugar cane
press. They have readied the pails for carrying the sugar cane juice. Bunggol,
their carabao, is chewing its cud comnfortably on its bed under the molave tree
near the sugar cane press.
“Shall we do the binugbog?”
Iliong asked.
“That’s what we have done
before,” Elma answered in a low voice. She massaged her arms which was strained
with the heavy canes as they loaded the pasagad2 and as they
unloaded it again on the anawang3. They are aching. It is as if a
wearing pain is tearing her flesh apart. “That has been our practice ever since
the olden times, like what our elders say,” she added.
“Yes, we may never know the
consequences if we don’t follow,” Iliong sighed.
They call it binugbog, the rice
cake cooked in sugar cane juice instead of tagapulot4. Here in
Lading, their village where there is now only one among the originaal three
sugar cane presses, that tradition has never faded; the processing of sugar
cane commences with the making of the binugbog; afterwhich, any of the sugar
cane products could already be made, the basi5 the suka6
and the tagapulot.
“You go and collect rice
then, do that early while Budyong and I will do the pressing,” Iliong said.
“You go and ask for the coconut from Mistro Iboy, too.”
Elma fell silent. She
pretended to massage the persistent ache which seems to split her arms. “I will
try to go,” she answered weakly.
Who among her neighbors could
she invite to make the binugbog? Elsa? It has been a month since Elsa last came
to Elma’s house despite, she being a regular visitor before. That was December
when Elma learned that Elsa slaughtered a goat and Elsa’s husband, Sendong,
failed to invite Iliong to join him in slaughtering the animal.
“Ne, they no longer know us?
They could do things themselves?” Elma lamented.
“Do not think of such things.
When they failed to ask for us, we could do nothing, dear wife,” Iliong said.
Melia? Even Melia is
distancing herself, Elma thought so. That was since October when Elma had
spoken to Melia’s children who came to sell the shrimps they had caught from
Lading River.
“Kindly wear facemask, you
tell your mother,” Elma said. “That is the advice of the government everytime
you go out of the house.” Elma studied nursing but she was unable to graduate
because she got pregnant with Iliong’s. They are recruiting her to be part of
the BHW but she refused because she reasoned out that with the volume of work
for the job, she would no longer have the time to do her business of selling
suka, the Ilokano vinegar.
Melia became mad because of
that. News reached Elma that Melia reasoned out that her children are not going
to the población anyway such that they need to wear facemask. From there, it
has been a long time since thay have never exchanged words with Melia athough
they often see each other from a distance in the vegetable fields and in the
pastures.
Who else? Baket Mimang. Ah,
well Baket Mimang would always attend the making of binugbog. She has no
pending issue with Baket Mimang. She is talkative, just that. Her mouth spews
out invectives while she is stirring the cake. She is like the one being
referred to by the Four Decade Duo, one that cackles and cackles. Her jabbering
would go together with the action of her sagging muscles while its her turn at
the stirring position. Instead of her slowing down while night approaches, just
the opposite; her tirades escalate as night settles in.
Paning. Yes, Paning also.
Paning could not be faulted with anything, she just smiles and smiles while
stirring. But the moment she hears a word which may not even be directed at
her, she would do the walkout. She is nicknamed walkout girl just because of
that. Binugbog season is not binugbog session in Lading without Paning
eventually doing the walkout. But surely, she would reappear when the binugbog
is almost done.
Be that as it may, she would
go and invite them all. Because the binugbog could not be made by just five
people. There should be many of them. Stirring the cooking dough would be more
difficult as it thickens. The stirring is not only done by the females. The
males would even be involved as they have stronger arms.
So, she would invite Anti
Ildang, the lesbian. Then Surtido, a sissy who is muscular. Surtido is Baket
Mimang’s moderator. But wait, she would likely suffer corner stares and tirades
from Pungkit if she won’t invite her. If Baket Mimang would fire words in a
cracking manner, Pungkit would do it in a blitzing manner. That’s why she is
nicknamed Pungkit. Many would be hit broadside when she scatters words. That’s
why she is Pungkit. You would be hit directly.
In short, almost all of her neighbors minus the
senior citizens but she would also collect rice contribution from them.
Therefore, all of Lading would be involved.
THREE AT DAWN, the sugar press is already making
grating noises. The sugar cane juice is being extracted. The juice is still
aplenty in the month of February. Bunggol’s footfalls are heavy as it is put
under the yoke.
At dawn, instead of her collecting the rice
contribution, Elma sent Kangkang and Bitsing. She prepared the five bamboo
paddles. She washed them. She washed also the bigao7 made from
Balatong as well as her big aluminum wash basins.
Elma was glad because Kangkang and Bitsing seem
sagging when they approached the house. She got the list of how much was the
rice contribution of each.
“What was the comment of your Aunt Elsa?” she
inquired.
“Why is it that your mother was not the one who came
to me she asked,” Kangkang replied.
“But is she coming?”
“I am coming, that’s what she said,” Bitsing also
answered.
Elma was relieved.
“And your Aunt Melia?”
“I will see if I could make it, she said,” Bitsing
answered.
She soaked the rice in water and then proceeded to
help in the pressing of the cane. Twenty cans of raw sugar cane juice could be
accommodated in Iliong’s vat. The sweetness of the binugbog would be just
right.
When the rice was softened and drained, she sent
Bindong and Pansis to go and have the rice milled into flour at the flour mill
in Bangbangcag. They rode in the kurungkurong as the rice had become heavy.
The children arrived just when they were done
pressing the sugar cane. Elma called them all to a late breakfast. When they
were done, Iliong started the fire inside the karaang8. Sugar cane
bagasse, called usang, dried under the sun is used as fuel. There is prepared
dried bamboo but that would be used when they will cook tagapulot.
Baket Mimang and Surtido were the first to arrive.
Baket Mimang’s hair was so neatly done, her coal and silver hair done in a
pinggol9. Surtido wore a sando shirt, like a muscular but effeminate
man that he is.
Baket Mimang immediately went to finger the milled
rice flour placed on two big basins atop a papag10. “Could they not
have whiter rice?” she frowned. “These are remains of what they feed their
chickens, that’s what they had given.”
“Ayna, where could we find white rice like my skin,
auntie, all rice crops had been drenched with rain?” Surtido also fingered the
rice flour. “But if it’s tough rice, it is good for binugbog,” he said.
Pungkit next arrived, leading Tuato, his youngest.
There is scabies on the scalp of Tuato.
“Naa, they had brought their rein, they never really want
to do the stirring!” Baket Mimang commenced in a blurting manner.
“His father is out, auntie,” Pungkit put heavy
emotions in her words. “Who do you think would take care of my dear son, our
house posts? Suppose he would find live coals and he would play with them;
would our house be spared from conflagration? And if it spreads, would not the
firemen come again, specially it’s still COVID-19. Whom shall we run to? Ala,
think of that, Baket Mimang?”
“I talked just a pinch, but you brought a cavan of
talk with you?” Baket Mimang muttered.
“Ay, there should be nothing I would be answering to
like that if you don’t talk and talk,” Pungkit rationalized. “Those are the
things that give us animosities!”
“Ayna, the binugbog hasn’t been placed over the fire
yet, but plenty of words already, aunties?” Surtido mimed.
“There, there, so that you won’t be talking like you
are the only ones with consciousness,” Pungkit muttered and then she wiped the
nose and face of her youngest.
The ones who arrived early for the binugbog split and
grated the coconuts. Mistro Iboy had contributed the coconut. That has been his
perennial share everytime they make the binugbog because he always goes to the
población as he teaches at Banna National High School.
They had removed the floating detritus of the boiling
sugar cane juice when others arrived. Paning was already in. Melia, too. Elma
breathed a sigh of relief. But she is expecting Elsa, her komare and her
confidant. Would she be coming?
Once they had pressed the milk of the grated coconut,
they added it to the paluag11. Oil like aroma issued from the surface
of the boiling sugar cane juice.
Elma was grateful that she had seen the arrival of
her komare Elsa. She is hoping that she would be given the chance to corner
Elsa. Once they are on speaking terms, she knows that that they had patched
their differences. That goes the same with this Melia.
When the volume of the sugar cane juice has so decreased
and they were sure that it would not overflow upon placing the rice flour so
that it won’t stick together, they placed the rice flour. They next placed the
margarine and vanilla. They cut some of the perres12 and squeezed
them into the mix. They accelerated stirring so that the rice flour would not
stick to the bottom of the vat.
But Elma was watching her komare Elsa. When it is
Elsa’s turn to stir, she would be silent. So, when Elsa and Paning and Surtido
and Elma would be stirring, the dough would be silent from outbreaks of the human
mouth.
Elma ordered someone to cook the rice. She also
ordered them to prepare the viand of a half tin can of kardis13.
“Those who slaughtered goat, apo, they should bring
something here!” Pungkit shouted as she rocked her son Tuato. She tried her
place at the stirring position but just only for ten minutes because Tuato
wailed as Bunggol teased him. She immediately handed his paddle to Lakay Botsi.
“What made you remember a goat, auntie?” Surtido
asked.
Elma remembered the slaughtering of a goat which
caused their conflict with Elsa. She looked at her komare. Their eyes met.
“There should be shrimps as viand,” Pungkit said
again.
Melia who is stirring threw a glance at Pungkit and
then tranfered her stare to Elma. Elma vowed her head since she remembered the
cause of their not in speaking terms with Melia.
One by one, the participants brought in rice and
viands. Different kinds, Boiled munggo. Boiled eggs of the abuos. Pakak14
boiled with bagoong. There was even ginger minched and seasoned with bagoong
requested by Elma from Iliong. They took turns eating lunch.
“This is the only feast without any meat,” Pungkit
quipped.
“You are not sharing anything from the contents of
your refrigerator, that’s why,” Baket Mimang answered.
“Naa, am I the only one hoarding? Those who are
raising native hogs, they have no feelings at all!”
All of a sudden, Paning slid her plate on the papag
and the plate collided with the buttocks of Baket Mimang who instantly raised
an alarm. Paning rose. She jerked her right arm, she whizzed away and later on
her buttock is already swaying as she negotiated the rough road that led to the
paved barangay road. Those who were eating looked at each other; Baket Mimang
who had been shaking her kain15 followed suit in going home, saying
that her buttocks had become itchy after being inundated by the broth of dinengdeng16
made of kardis.
“You were talking about native hogs and Paning has
many of those,” Baket Mimang remarked to Pungkit upon her return.
“Ay, I did not mean it, auntie,” Pungkit grinned.
“Ala, someone would take my place because I have to
grab something,” Surtido said as he released his paddle. “Even just two of us
so that the dough would not be burnt!”
Anti Ildang rose. This is the woman who is muscular.
She always saves the day for the group.
They kept on stirring the mixture with their paddles
as the afternoon marched on. They took turns with the paddles. The sons and
daughters of those who contributed the rice also participated in paddling the
cake. Another group was assigned to maintain the flame of the karaang. While
the excess water sugar cane juice evaporated and the dough is being cooked, the
voice of Baket Mimang escalated. Pungkit would always respond and she would
scatter her scathing talk.
The crowd swelled by four o’clock when the mixture
had thickened. Elma was stealing glances at Elsa. What could be the best angle
of approach with her? Or it would have been better if Elsa talks to her first.
But when they were in the stirring place altogether, they just kept on staring
at each other.
At six, the binugbog was done. It would be declared
done when they release their paddle in the center and it would stand upright.
They would then dampen the flames. Children and olds alike flocked to the anawang.
Each one has brought a spoon and when the stirrers would fish out their
paddles, the children would scrape the binugbog from them. Paning had returned
and she was smiling as she took her place among the stirrers as if she had not
done her walkout.
“Be ready with your containers,” Elma announced. The
casserole was sounded by striking it repeatedly.
Iliong brought down from the shed the contraption for
lifting the giant vat from the karaang, it was made of bayog17
bamboo with branches. The branches would fit the lip of the vat and an aged and
sturdy bayog pole would be inserted on the loop of the cable attached to the
contraption.
“Move away,” Iliong announced after he had inserted
the bayog and they had fitted the contraption to the lip of the vat and they
had could feel the cable tenses. They pulled the pole up. The vat was withdrawn
from the earthen oven.
“Ala, please do the apportioning, Baket Mimang,”
Surtido said while he readied his casserole.
“Why should it be me, the one who called us to make
the binugbog should be the one to do that,” Baket Mimang quipped.
Elma approached the vat. She has a big ladle with her.
“Ala, arrange your containers before me, she announced.
It was Pungkit who first came with her casserole.
“Ay, the one I am referring to always comes first,”
Baket Mimang fired.
“I am now going ahead of you because my son is
already sleepy,” Pungkit fired back.
Elma was surprised when she realized who was next in
line. It was Melia. She looked at Melia. Melia was smiling.
“Ay, I would add some more, komare, for your perres
and margarine,” Elma tested.
“For the perres only, komare, the margarine was
Katiang’s,” Melia smiled.
“Is that so? Even so, komare,” Elma said and she was
relieved that she had talked to Melia. She filled the casserole over the brim.
“Thank you, thank you, my dear komare!” Melia said.
“Ay, yes, my beautiful komare, until next time
again,” she smiled back.
“Let’s move fast, it’s already dusk!” Baket Mimang
said.
Elma was again surprised when Elsa sat opposite her,
on the other side of the vat. “Where are your containers and I will help in
distributing the cake?” Elsa said.
“Why, were you the one who called us for the
binugbog?” Surtido teased.
“Ne, ay, even though, brother, I am her buddy,” Elsa
answered and looked and smiled at Elma. “Best friends help each other, no
matter what you would say.”
“Ay, is that so, well I like it,” Surtido clapped.
Elma was relieved to hear the voice of Elsa. “Ala,
you apportion from there, komare, I would take charge from this side,” Elma
finally said. “We could finish faster.”
They have given each one his portion according to
their contribution but there are those who stayed still. The vat has some more
of the cake left. They had also given the share of Mistro Iboy for his
coconuts. They have also apportioned a part of the cake for the sugar cane
juice.
“Where on earth is my casserole?” Elsa was alarmed.
“Who could have picked it?”
No one answered. Elsa rose and searched around the
anawang. Her casserole was nowhere to be found.
“Is it gone, komare?” Elma asked. She suspected that
the one Paning presented for her portion was the same casserole Elsa has been
searching for. Paning do not even have anything with her when she returned from
her walkout.
“It’s gone and gone, komare,” Elsa said. “That one
who borrowed it is shameless for not even asking me!”
“Ay, just never mind, komare, I will lend you one.
You’ll return it. Budyong, go and get a casserole from the kitchen because your
auntie Elsa needs to borrow one! The bigger one, please!”
The casserole ordered by Elma had arrived, Budyong
set in in front of her mother and Elma filled it with the cake. She filled it
over the brim with the olive colored binugbog.
“Here it is, komare,” Elma handed Elsa the casserole
full of binugbog. She was smiling in full.
“Ay, many thanks, komare,” Elsa smiled back. “I will
come to return it tomorrow, komare, and we will have a tete-a-tete,” she said.
Elma nodded. She had missed chatting with her
bestfriend.
A little later, the people went homeward, traversing
the westward path. Baket Mimang and Surtido were left behind.
“You are done making the binugbog again, Elma, my
daughter,” Baket Mimang said. “You have made all the folks of Lading happy
again.”
“Those who have animosities are now at peace with
each other, that’s what you mean, auntie,” Surtido said.
“Yes, for now, but we can’t predict the future,” the
old woman grated her teeth. “They will quarrel again, surely!”
“It’s just like that, auntie, people quarrel, they
will be at peace again when it’s season for the binugbog!” Surtido frowned.
“They’re just like the binugbog. Its product is sweetness. But come, let’s go,
old woman!”
Elma smiled. She used her thumb to scoop a little
from the side of the olive cake. It is only now that she would taste it. She
savored it in her mouth. It’s fragrant. I’ts sweet. It is flavorful and
satisfying. She lifted her portion of the cake and proceeded home. #
1 binugbog – massive rice flour cake cooked in sugar cane juice
flavored with coconut milk, vanilla, margarine and the larger Philippine bony
lemon called perres.
2 pasagad – the native Ilokano carabao-pulled sledge
3 anawang – the area around the sugar cane press. It usually includes
the sugar cane press, the earthen oven and any other support shed or structure
4 tagapulot – molasses
5 basi – fermented sugar cane juice which is a popular Ilokano wine
6 suka – sugar cane vinegar, it is so popular as a cooking
ingredient in Ilokano dishes
7 bigao – the shallow and wide winnowing basket
8 karaang – a massive oven dug in the earth with 3 holes with
connecting tunnels, the first for accommodating the fuel, the second is where
the vat sits and the third is the funnel for conveying the smoke out of the
oven.
9 pinggol – the whorl of a woman’s hair
10 papag – a low table or bed with bamboo decking
11 paluag – sugar cane juice boiled and slightly lessened in volume
from the original raw uncooked juice because of evaporation
12 perres – a variety of Philippine lemon fruit with an uneven
surface and thick rind.
13 kardis – pigeon pea
14 pakak – breadnut or kamansi
15 kain – a long skirt
16 dinengdeng – the Ilokano vegetable viand cooked with bagoong
17 bayog – a variety of resilient and sturdy spineless bamboo with
small center canals and dense grains
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