Online newsletter for the citizens of Sagunto, Sison, Pangasinan, Philippines
We Ilocanos have always been proud of the beautiful countrysides in our part of the world. There are many major tourist attractions already in Northern Luzon, but closer to home, Sisonians and Pangasinenses may be witness to another budding spot on tourists’ maps.
As part of its efforts to promote tourism in the Northern parts of the Philippines, the North Philippines Visitors Bureau (NPVB) has been conducting media familiarization tours to various locales in the northern part of the Philippines. On it’s second Lakbay Norte trip this past month, one of the stops was a ‘patupat’ factory in Pozorrubio.
Photo credit: Ferdinand Decena
Members of traditional media and new media were treated to the traditional method of making this uniquely Ilocano delicacy starting with the ‘dadapilan’ which is the process of extracting sugar cane juice.
Let me digress for a minute for those who are not familiar with ‘patupat’ or a ‘dadapilan’.
‘Patupat’ is glutinous rice cooked in a woven container made of coconut leaves. Just weaving the basket alone is an art. After a rectangular basket is made, it is filled with uncooked glutinous rice and sealed up. The packages are then cooked in bubbling cauldrons of sugar cane until thoroughly cooked, sticky and delicious.
‘Dadapilan’ is a sugar cane mill used to extract the juice from sugar cane.
In the photo below, members of Lakbay Norte watched as sugar cane is pressed through the mill to extract its sugary juices (photo credit: Pozorrubio Online)
The following photos show how the packets of glutinous rice are cooked in huge vats of sugar cane juice until the rice is cooked and the sugar cane has caramelized.
What is amazing about this process was how nothing was wasted and everything was recycled. The pressed stalks of sugar cane were used to fuel the cooking and the cooking liquids, after cooking the rice cakes and caramelizing, were poured in coconut bowls to be sold as ‘panucha’ or ‘matamis na bao’ also known as brown sugarcane.
One member of the Lakbay Norte group is a blogger and great photographer who chronicled his visit to Pozorrubio on his blog. Visit his blog at Ironwulf.net to see more of his photos and thoughts about the tour.
Resource: Pozorrubion Online: Pozorrubio, soon a tourist destination?! by Jing Villamil
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Oh yes! Nette, I remember your patupat factory in your apong`s backyard (Bongog residence). I really enjoyed dipping my fingers into the big big cement pot or patupat dip, connected to that dapilan. Licking sugary fingers was such a kiddie memory, right? When they haul the big sieve carrying lots of patupat, it`s drawing big Ohs and Ahs…ahhh. bring back those days. On the side of the mill you could see the carabao circling patiently the wooden machinery to continue spinning the lever of the mill….what a great memory of our childhood. If I can sketch well, I will try to reproduce that image in my memory to remind everyone of what nice culture we had in our barrio.
my gosh..these pictures showed a very small factory pot compared to what you had before. about 15 meters was the circumference of the large cement pot, and was deeper that these above. where did that go? the location of that large pot was where we had the wedding reception of your cousin. wala ba kayong old pictures non?
Hi Ems, yes, I do indeed remember that dadapilan! The thing I remember most about it is the smell. To this day, the aroma of burnt sugar evokes memories of that time in our childhood. If you notice, the dadapilan in the photos above is now mechanized, not propelled by ‘nuwang’ power. hehe! Too bad Sagunto did not keep these old ways of doing things going, but I suppose we all have to make a living and doing things the old fashioned way was not always profitable. But now as the younger generations are becoming more fascinated with the old ways, maybe it’s time to revive some of these traditions if nothing but to keep the interest and pride among the younger folks alive.
You remember the huge vat they used to use? You’re right, it was so much bigger than the ones shown on the photos. You could take a bath in the ones they used to use in daya!
Sayang nga wala yatang photos of the old dadapilan. I’ve never seen any.
BTW, are you referring to Auntie Norma’s wedding? I remember that one too, they still followed many of the old rituals. There was one involving a ‘kamen’ but I can’t quite remember the details now.
This is really some great stuff! Although I didn’t know of the dadapilan idiay Daya, I knew of one in Binalonan. But, of course, there was the big Sugar Central in Manaoag, where my grandfather (Cesario Erfe) worked.
And, “Wow! Patupat was being made in Sison then!” Thanks for sharing, Nette and Ems. We’ll have to visit the old site sometime.
Hi Leo, I agree, I am finding out about so many venues near Sison that I didn’t realize existed. This was one of them. I agree, we need to tour these places whenever we go home. That’s why I thought of posting them here so those who are going home will add it to their itineraries. We might as well support our own, right?