Through the invitation of Micamyx, fellow travel blogger who hails from Dagupan, a bunch of us bloggers went to the northwestern province of Pangasinan to enjoy and discover what this beautiful place has to offer. Bolinao in Pangasinan is far, but interesting. Located at the tip of the province, it has history, culture, food and it’s own language.
For many years, I’ve been yearning to visit this place but didn’t have the time until fellow travel blogger Mica invited us.
Of course, I’ve been to Pangasinan before, passing the province enroute to my Ilocos destinations. When I had the chance to join Lakbay Norte, I was able to visit the beautiful colonial era Capitol of Lingayen as well as the Hundred islands. Thus, this trip is good to better appreciate the province.
It was Sunday when we arrived in the morning in Bolinao. The centuries old church is just beautiful and full of people hearing mass. However, what captured my attention were the series of stalls selling this Pangasinan delicacy, the binungey. By the way, binungey is malagkit (sticky rice) cooked with coconut milk inside a cut of bamboo tube.
The binungey is well known in Pangasinan. The first time I’ve tried it was during our Hundred Islands trip in Alaminos when it was served to us. While there is no major difference as with regards to taste, the Alaminos binungey only had grated coconut put on top while the Bolinao variant is sealed with banana leaves. Of course, the aroma is different for both.
Like what we do in my hometown of Talisay in Cebu where we have the same malagkit based delicacy sans the bamboo, pair it with ripe and sweet Philippine mango. The best!
so it is binungey… in Ilocos Sur we have also our version, it is the “tinubong” also made of a special rice grain [“diket”]and coconuts. Glad to know merun din sa Cebu. At least I know now na hndi lang pala sa Ilocos merun nito, nice to know.. 🙂
I remember that lovely morning 😀 It’s been 11 months! 😀 I miss this part of Pangasinan
@ed, tinubong is more of a dessert since it’s sweet.
@mica, yep 🙂
The title is quite misleading, Binungey is originally from bolinao and not a just a variation of it.Actually,Binungey is a bolinao term that refers to that delicacy.
thanx for the info
Nice. When we went to Bolinao, we were just confined within the beach area and this was not on the place.
http://walkingwonderland.blogspot.com
It is best to go to Bolinao on tiangge days which are every Saturdays and Tuesdays to avail of their dirt-cheap veggies (similar in prices to Baguio), seafoods and delicacies. Most of the binungeys are sold in front of the Catholic church which is across from the Municipio. They have a big market so go around and discover what Bolinao has to offer. You may find more binungeys inside the market at a slightly cheaper price. The last time we bought some, they set us back P200 per 3 big binungeys (they used fat bamboos with those). Not exactly cheap. The slightly cheaper ones are slightly shorter and the bamboo used are skinnier. If you are going to buy fresh fish, squids, lobsters, crabs, seaweeds, sea urchins, etc in Bolinao, make sure you bring coolers and packed it with ice. Binungeys will keep for 2 to 3 days. A tip to prolong the non-spoiling of the binungeys, let them stand with the open end on top then on the very next day turn them over so the “gata” would flow down to the open end. Don’t worry, the juice won’t ooze out of the bamboo. My suggestions on what to buy when you are there can be read or in Alaminos can be read in my (sorry…shameless plug) blog about Hundred Islands here:
http://phinoyesque.wordpress.com
Please post your comment.
BTW, Puerto del Sol (the resort) is very nice but accomodations there are rather steep. If you are just there to enjoy the beach then pack up and leave, go to Patar Beach instead. It’s cheaper there. Then you can proceed to Baguio for your overnight stay. Just a suggestion of course.
thanx so much for that very informative reply Justin 🙂