Binungor: A Shell Shocking Delicacy
In a cold and breezy mountainous province of Kalinga, my native land, a native delicacy can warm up your shivering skin and cold bone. Binungor, an exotic delicacy that will not only satisfy your hunger but will also test your tolerance on hot and spicy foods. It is basically a vegetable stew with local mollusk and chili pepper. It mainly consist of native produce like local mollusk “agurong” or “bissukol”, an edible shell found on rice paddies and streams, bamboo shoots, local mushrooms like “laplapayag” and “kesop”, unripe jackfruit, squash, string beans, “kardis “, a local peas, and bird’ eye chili, a small chili pepper that is packed intense spiciness and you can also put meat as desired.
It is usually cooked in clay pots “banga”, it is the traditional way of cooking it but you can just cook it in regular cooking pot. The process of cooking is not complicated, you just simply clean the shell and make a hole on it’s peak using a pliers or knife, so that air can enter which will be later on making it easier to eat the flesh part. Then put all the ingredients in the pot except the cleaned shell, then let it simmer. When the ingredients are almost cooked put the shell 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 bitter taste from the bamboo shoot. The spiciness will depend on the amount of chilli pepper. It will not be called binungor if it is not spicy. Just like any other Filipino food, it is pair with rice. For sure you it will make you eat more.
Binungor is a nostalgic food, especially now that I am studying away from home. I missed that unique flavor and the intensity of it’s spiciness when you sip the flavorful broth. This food means so much to me because when my father, which is a good home cook by the way, will cook it for us every time the family is complete. This food will always bring me back to time that we were complete and the memories of our family bonding. This food speaks a lot on the Kalinga people, it’s spiciness symbolized our bravery because even with intense spiciness we can still tolerate it. It also represents us being an indigenous people because the ingredients use are native in our land. This food will always be on the table when we speak of Cordilleran foods. During festivals, a cooking competition for binungor cooking is participated by the local Kalinga cooks to promote the traditional Kalinga cooking and to introduce it to other people. Obviously, this food is onr of the Kalinga people’s pride. This food will forever be a part of our culture and I hope the next generation will embrace it.
