Just felt another round of earthshaking a few minutes ago just like a few weeks earlier.As parts of Western Visayas were rocked by the strongest earthquake since July 1990, I can't help but reflect on the current events with food. And here's linugaw - commonly known as ginata-an, this concoction of sticky rice flour, coconut milk and sugar plus ube, cassava, saging na saba, sago, coconut strips and a lot more. And while we're at it LINUG is the local term for earthquake.
We were often joked during our younger years that if we are naughty days before our birthday, our “handa” during the party would be “linugaw”. And that made us become little angels prior to the big day. There’s nothing really degrading but for kids, exchanging cakes, spaghetti and hotdogs on sticks among others for linugaw would seem like a horrible birthday party.
Of course that never happened and linugaw became more appreciated now than before. The recipe varies from place to place much more also from household to household. Together with Nang Palang’s famous buko pie and of course, baye baye, this trio became a staple during the Fiesta Minatay.