Exploring the Bicol Region

                       

You know when you are a Filipino, when you use a spoon and a fork instead of a fork and a

knife. This is because Filipinos are fan of eating viand with rice. Filipino food is known to have a wide

variety of choices, because, we, Filipinos have different perspective of good tasting food. That is why

when you go here in the Philippines you cannot really distinguish what is Filipino food all about. In

other countries like in China, once you have tasted their food you can easily distinguish a Chinese

food with a Japanese food. Let us explore the food here in the Philippines! 

         When we hear Filipino’s best dishes what comes to our mind are the sisig of Pampanga which

is the culinary capital of the Philippines, the chicken inasal of Bacolod, the laing and bicol express of

the Bicol region and a lot more. That’s why I chose the topic of Bicol region’s specifically in

Sorsogon’s food because I want to compare our food here in Pampanga with other places in the

Philippines.

            Sorsogon is a province of the Philippines located in the Bicol Region. Most of the inhabitants

of the province belong to the ethnolinguistic Bicolano and Bisakol groups. Sorsogueños are very

religious and fun-loving. Being mostly Roman Catholics, they are active in every festivity celebrated

throughout the year. Bicol’s food are also one of the well known dishes here in the Philippines. Like

the Bicol Express which consists of sliced pork cooked with green chili and coconut milk. Another is

their Hinagom,it is a serving of brown cake made of rice and a lot more! We will learn more about

Bicol’s dishes as we talk about my interview with a Bicolana.

            I interviewed an old single lady who came from Irosogin, Sorsogon located in the Bicol

Region. I interviewed her in our living room at around 2:00 pm.Her name is Norma Renoncillo

Belisario and she is 55 years old. She was born on April 13, 1959. She came from a poor family that

is why her educational attainment was until elementary graduate. Her father was a farmer. Sadly he

died when she was two years old because of a certain medical condition. When her father died her

mom started working as a house helper in manila to support the needs of the family

She worked as a house helper before in a rich family in manila. Now, she is currently working

as our house helper. She told me that she started cooking at the age of 12. That is why she

considers cooking as her hobby. Every time she prepares and cook our food, you can enjoy how

delicious her dishes are.

 The Bicolanos are a fan of mixing coconut milk also known as “gata” and silly/ Chili to their

dish. One of their specialty dish, also considered as one of the well-known dishes in the country is

Bicol Express. Bicol express as mentioned before, is a dish with sliced meat mixed with coconut

cream and silly/chili. During the interview she taught me how to cook Bicol express. First you need to

prepare your ingredients. The ingredients that you need are 300 grams of pork, 11 to 14 finger

chilies, one whole onion, ginger (thumbsize), six cloves of garlic, two stalk of lemon grass, cooking

oil, Fish sauce (Patis) and one cup of coconut cream or you can use milk for substitute but using

coconut cream will make it taste the Bicol way. If you cannot buy coconut cream you can extract the

cream from a fresh coconut. You just need to grate the coconut meat then squeeze it. Coconut

cream refers to the first extraction while coconut milk refers to the second and third extractions. For

the first extraction, take a handful of grated coconut and squeeze directly over a bowl. Repeat until

all the grated coconut has been squeezed. Set the squeezed grated coconut aside for the second

and third extractions. Then, strain the coconut cream, pressing the remaining grated coconut against

the strainer. For the second extraction, add a cup of warm water to the grated coconut. Squeeze

gently to rehydrate and coax any remaining cream. Then, repeat the procedure above. For the third

extraction, add another cup of warm water and repeat. After completing the ingredients you should

first chop the pork into once inch cubes. Then peel the onion and peel it thinly. After that you should

finely chop the ginger and the garlic. If you want the a very spicy Bicol Express, just slice the chilies

into thin rings. If you want a Bicol Express that is just comfortably spicy, use less chilies. But if you

want to have a Bicol express the Bicolano way you should make it spicy because chilies have a

wonderful flavor and texture beyond the spiciness. If you have the time you can mash the lemon
grass, garlic and ginger together using a mortar and pestle. Then you can start cooking! First you

need to heat the cooking oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot enough add the pork and cook over high

heat keep on stirring until pinkish color changes. Add the ginger, garlic and lemongrass then mix

them by stirring together in a minute. After that, add the chilies and the onion. Then Stir and season

it with fish sauce. Then pour in about a cup of water. Then cover and lower the heat. Simmer it for 30

minutes or until the pork is tender. Lastly pour the coconut cream and stir it together. Then you

should adjust the seasonings. When the sauce starts to bubble, turn off the heat. And there you

have a Bicol Express!

 We also talked about how to do Hinagum also known as Hinagom.  It is made from

powdered pinipig rice, sugar and coconut meat. The procedure starts by heating the raw rice in a

frying pan until it almost all pop ups. Then it will be brought to the  natural smashing  wood to

remove the skin of the rice. After it turns to rice already, you have to soak in a basin with a small

amount of water. Then prepare and heat the frying pan and put the right amount of rice to be pop up

again. The next procedure is to smash or grind the pop up rice. Get the grated coconut meat and

mix it with the powdered  rice you made and then lastly add the sugar. After that your Hinagom/

Hinagum is ready to be served.

Another dish is Pinangat also known as laing in Manila. It is a vegetable dish made from

locally grown taro leaves, coconut milk and selected spices. They are combined and cooked

together. This dish is well-known among the Bicolanos because of its distinctive taste that a Bicolano

could perfect. The ingredients that you need are one half kilogram of Buyod or fresh water shrimp,

meat of five hard bukos or also known as lukadon, two onions, two tablespoon of grated ginger, six

cloves of garlic, three pieces of siling labuyo, 20-25 fresh gabi leaves, young coconut midrib, six to

eight stalks of lemon grass and three to four cups of thin coconut milk. For the sauce, the ingredients

are two cups of coconut cream, five cloves of garlic, four shallots, two stalks of lemon grass and 

three to five spring onions. First you need to peel and season the fresh water shrimp with one and

one half  tablespoon of salt. Then grate the meat of lukadon. After that you should chop the onion,

grate the ginger and smash the lemon grass. For the sauce you need to, first finely chop the garlic.

And lastly finely chop the spring onions. Now let us now start cooking. First you need to combine the

buyod, grated lukadon, onion, ginger, garlic and siling labuyo and chop them together using a large
knife pr cleaver until the mixture looks like cornmeal. The wrap two to three tablespoons of the

mixture in two gabi leaves and tie each other with coconut midrib. Line a heavy bottom pot with the

smashed tanglad and arrange pinangat pieces on top. After that pour the coconut milk over it. Then

Cover the pot and let it simmer over low heat. While the pinangat is cooking, boil together in a

separate saucepan the thick coconut cream, garlic, shallots and tanglad. Season with salt and

simmer until the mixture resembles a thick creamy sauce. Then sprinkle the spring onions on top

and remove from heat. . The pinangat is done when the gabi leaves are already soft. And there you

have a Pinangat prepared the Bicol way.

 While she was teaching me how to cook these delicious dishes, she told me that “practice

makes perfect” especially in cooking. There was this time when she was young, while she was

cooking Bicol express, she did not notice that the meat was already over cooked that is why she

burnt the meat.   There was also this time when she was frying fish and then the oil splashed into her

hands. Another experience is when she was cooking pinangat or also known as laing, she over

cooked the coconut milk. The result was after they ate the meal their lip and throat was itchy. She

told that cooking is all about practice and timing. In order for you to know the timing it takes time.

That is why in perfecting a dish it takes like five to seven times to cook this dish.

As what you have noticed majority of specialty dishes in the Bicol region are mixed up with

coconut cream or milk. It is because they are one of the major producers of coconut here in the

Philippines. When it comes to desserts they are also a fan of using sticky rice or grains because the

Bicol region has the Bicol region basin or also known as the Rice granary of the Philippines. Their

meals are rich in carbohydrates and vegetables. They also have their own versions of adobo, asado

and sinigang which is also known as sinigang sa buko in the Bicolano cuisine.

Comparing the Bicolanos food to our food here in Pampanga is totally different.

Kapampangans are not a fan of mixing coconut milk in our dishes. When you hear Kapampangan

cuisine, you can all hear people saying “Manyaman” a Kapampangan term for good tasting or

“masarap”. That is why Pampanga is considered as the culinary capital of the Philippines. That is

why once people known that you are a Kapampangan what first comes to their mind is you know

how to cook well. Kapampangan cuisineis based on Spanish cuisine which was mixed with different

cuisines which makes it out stand other cuisines here in the country.   In the Bicol region majority of
their dishes are mixed up with coconut cream or milk that is why you can easily distinguish if a dish

is a Bicolano cuisine but in Pampanga the food here has a wide variety of taste. Our food and

dessert uses different mixes and spices to make our food unique.

One of our specialty dish here in Pampanga is one of the well-known sisig. It is a dish that is

composed chopped ears and cheeks of a pig which makes the meat soft. When it comes to desserts

we have different kinds of “Kalamay”. Another is our native halo-halo, you should try the halo-halo in

Razon’s it is the best!

Based on interview and comparing my culture to other culture, I learned that Filipinos may

came from different culture, different practices and different raises but you can always see that there
is a similarity. When it comes to food we are creative in our own way to have different specialty

dishes, which does not have a similar taste. Filipinos are very creative in their own way especially

when it comes to food. Every meal time whenever you see a person holding a spoon and a fork with

a rice in his dish you can say that he is a Filipino.

Everything can be learned through experience that why, this interview gave me an

opportunity to also share my experiences and learn from other mistakes. You should learn to

understand people because we all came from different places and culture. That is why you should

not judge people of who they are but you should just learn to understand what they are going

through. For example our maid, she came from a poor family and was just an elementary graduate,

but this does not mean that you cannot learn anything on your own. 

‘Chekhov’s Gun’ is a concept that describes how every element of a story should

contribute to the whole. It comes from Anton Chekhov’s famous book writing advice: ‘If
in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be
fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.’

In other words, everything that is introduced in a story needs to have a function.

Who was Anton Chekhov? The origin of the term

‘Chekhov’s Gun’
 Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician,
author and playwright who lived from 1860 to 1904. Chekhov is widely regarded as one
of the great masters of the short story (you can read several examples of Chekhov’s
best stories here). Although Chekhov lived his life as a doctor, he managed to keep
writing at the same time. He once said ‘Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my
mistress.’
The term ‘Chekhov’s Gun’ comes from something Chekhov allegedly said in the 1880s
(it was noted down by Ilia Gurliand): ‘If in Act I you have a pistol hanging on the wall,
then it must fire in the last act’. This has become an oft-repeated phrase in fiction and
scriptwriting classes because it describes simply how a story needs to obey its own
internal logic and honour its most powerful images.

What is the lesson behind Chekhov’s Gun?

The lesson behind Chekhov’s Gun is that your story should be cohesive. Each part
should contribute to the whole in a way that makes sense. It does not mean that every
single plot point of your story must be hugely significant. Some story elements function
to create mood or describe setting. Yet each part of your story should correspond to the
whole in at least a tangential way.

Using the Chekhov’s Gun idea like a pro

For example, a mention of cars on a busy street doesn’t create the assumption that a
character is going to drive away in one of them or be run over. Cars on a street are
 commonplace and a normal thing to mention in the course of describing a city scene.
Furthermore, if every object that you mention is imbued with a great deal of significance,
you risk tipping off your reader about what will happen in the rest of the story.

However, an item must play an important role in the story when it is introduced to the
reader in a way that suggests dramatic significance. This dramatic significance can
be signalled in three ways. First, there are items like guns which are unusual in and of
themselves in story contexts due to the way they symbolize violence and aggression.
Secondly, an item can become significant to your reader due to the way it is focused
on. Someone’s wedding ring does not automatically shout dramatic significance, but if a
point is made to mention or describe it in any detail, this signals to the reader that
something related to the ring or marriage is bound to happen.

Finally, introducing something ordinary in an unexpected context suggests significance.

For example, if a character turns up on a snowy day wearing a sundress, the reader
expects an explanation.

In some types of fiction and mystery fiction in particular, red herrings – seemingly

significant plot points-  are scattered throughout a story to mislead the reader. However,
even here, the principle of Chekhov’s Gun must apply. Red herrings cannot appear
without their own causal relationship to the rest of the story.
If a suspect in chapter one has muddy shoes and blood on their hands and the victim is
found stabbed in mud with footprints around them, then at some point we will need to
know why the suspect was temporarily in these circumstances. Furthermore, you will
want to introduce the real clues in such a way that when the reader goes back to look
for them, they are all there, but their appearance in the story was subtle enough that
most readers would have overlooked them.

Practical ways to implement Chekhov’s plotting concept

Now, in a more practical, hands-on sense, how can you apply the principle of Chekhov’s
gun in your own writing?

 Get rid of false“guns” in your own writing. If you plot before starting to write, start
searching for irrelevant guns in the outlining phase. If you make up your story as you go along,
you must eliminate these oversignified elements when you revise.
 Remember that Chekhov’s gun refers not just to actual physical items. Scenes and
characters, for example, can function this way. All the elements of a story must work together to
move the story forward in significant ways. If they do not, then you must eliminate them. As
 another saying about writing goes, you sometimes must “murder your darlings” or eliminate
some of your favourite parts for the overall good of the story.
 Use index cards or spreadsheets to identify the importance of major elements in each
scene. Break down your scenes either before or after writing the first draft. Ask, ‘What is the
overall significance of the scene?’ ‘What questions does it raise and answer?’ ‘Does it do more
than one thing?’ ‘If it serves only a minor purpose, are there things you can do to make it more
significant?’
 The principle of Chekhov’s gun can be particularly useful if you find yourself blocked
while writing. Go back and take a look at what you have written so far. Do you see a “gun”
anywhere in the story you might be able to use to pull the story together? Sometimes your
subconscious will add things to a story that you will only realise the significance of later on.
Some writers will interpret Chekhov’s advice too literally, believing that absolutely every
detail in a story needs to somehow play a significant role. In fact, applying the advice in
this way will lead to a story that is both contrived and lifeless. Instead, use this concept
to make sure your story is not littered with details that seem more important than they
are.

Start creating a blueprint for your novel and get help from other writers. It’ll make sure
that every gun in your novel – figurative or real – is in its place.

Chekhov’s Gun is a phrase commonly used to describe

something you hide in your story and come back to later. It
comes from a quote by Anton Chekhov, the great Russian
playwright, who some claim was the greatest short story writer
in history.

“Remove everything that has no relevance to the

story. If you say in the first chapter that there is
a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or
third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not
going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”
Anton Chekhov

The basis for the concept is fairly simple: if you hide a gun
amongst the set, it must be fired in the play. The gun Chekhov
was referring to was not necessarily a literal rifle, but more a
figurative concept. He mentioned the hidden gun on several
occasions, each time using it to represent a different part of a
play or story he was critiquing.
The principle of Chekhov’s gun can be applied to any story, in
any setting, by any writer. It is both broad and specific, and is
almost universally applied subconsciously in the first instance.
To use it in its most basic format would involve you simply
writing. As you write, small details will be naturally added to
your text. Eventually, when you are approaching the end of your
story, you look back on what you have written and find those
details that have been left and not followed-up. Somewhere in
your first act there will be your hidden gun. You just need to
discover it, and bring it back in the third act. It is cause and
effect.
You can choose to add in your own hidden guns within your
writing, of course, but often these are easier to spot. The true
surprises – the guns that are actually hidden, not just placed –
take a lot of skill to do right.
Let’s say your protagonist has an intense fear of spiders, and
throughout the narrative discovers they are battling against a
shape-shifting alien. It is not difficult to surmise that the final
showdown will involve the alien adopting the guise of a gigantic
spider. However, there may be a throwaway comment early in
the story mentioning the protagonist’s sister, who moved away
some years prior. If the alien instead appeared as the sister, the
protagonist will have a much harder moral choice to make,
creating higher tension and a greater dilemma. The spider can
still be used, just earlier instead of during the finale. Keep the
true gun hidden until the end.
Chekhov’s gun can be applied to as much of your writing as you
are able. Did someone leave a cup of coffee on a table? Why?
How, later in the scene, will that impact upon the conversation?
Did they forget to use a coaster, and therefore aggravate an
already heated exchange between two characters? The hidden
gun is used to both foreshadow and follow-up. Elements that
come into play later need to be hidden beforehand and details
that are mentioned must be there for a reason. If there is no
purpose to a piece of writing, then by Chekhov’s theory it
should be cut as it is unwanted padding. That’s not to say you
cannot include red herrings; misleading and misdirecting your
readers is a key part of maintaining tension, but the things that
cause these deceptions are there on purpose. It is the irrelevant
and unnecessary that Chekhov advocated removing.
To further pick apart the technique, an example would be useful.
Here is a story available in the Public Domain called The Post,
written by Anton Chekhov himself, which utilises several
hidden guns.