PWC Documents Uvu Cooking

             Armed with cameras, notebooks, and pens, the research team of the Philippine Women’s College of Davao (PWC) traveled to Sitio Macatabo, Barangay Carmen, Baguio District, Davao City on Sept 5. to document Uvu-Manuvu cooking.

The PWC Research Team with the Uvu-Manuvu tribe.

The Uvu-Manuvu cooks were Bae Nilda Landim, Rodelyn Aggas, Mercy Aggas, Vecetation Bangcas, and Datu Paulino Landim, the chief cook.

Datu Landim cooks food stuffed in bamboo tubes over an open fire.

            Aside from cooking the usual pork, chicken, cassava, and rice, the Uvu-Manuvu cooks presented a very rare delicacy: bakbak or frogs. For this special dish, 4 Uvu Manuvu boys had to trek for 3 hours to the Bunoyun River and camp out for the night to catch the frogs. The frogs were cooked in bamboo, while some portions were wrapped in alik-ik leaves and roasted.       

These bakbak or frogs were caught fresh from Bunoyun River.

            For the benefit of the PWC research team, Bae Nilda Landim showed how tinapoy is prepared. Tinapoy is fermented rice that is ordinarily prepared alone, in secret, and in silence by the cook. Violation of this rule will result in failure and spoil the tinapoy, making it inedible. Bae Nilda demonstrated the process of preparing tinapoy upon the request of the research team. She explained that since she was violating the rules of cooking tinapoy, she will throw away what she had made.       

Ka-lot is a poisonous tuber. The Uvu-Manuvu has found a way to make it edible through special cooking procedures.

To end the cooking session, Datu Paulino Landim showed the team the kal-lot, a tuber that is highly poisonous but can be eaten if prepared properly. According to Datu Landim, many hungry, retreating Japanese soldiers died at the end of the Second World War because they ate kal-lot. Unfortunately, the cooks could not show the team how to prepare the kal-lot properly because they only found a small kal-lot tuber  in the forest.

A variety of delicacies cooked in bamboo. Lutlot na bakbak, lutlot na humay, lutlot na manok, linaplap, lutlot na balanghoy, and lutlot na baboy.

            The cooking session with the Uvu-Manuvu is part of the PWC’s research into the Lumad culinary arts of Davao. The research aims to document and preserve Lumad cooking for the benefit not only of the Lumads but also of the entire Filipino people. 

(Published on Sunstar Davao, October 4, 2012)