Political Palitaw
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Palitaw ala Putli Mandi
Those with different food preferences may engage in rent-seeking behaviors--"Pasuyo naman, bilhan or gawan mo ako ng less sodium, no gluten (Please, get me or make it less sodium no gluten)”; “Heto extra pang snacks mamaya (These are for snacks later)"; Or, "Anak, gulay muna ha para may prize ka sa akin. Bukas ang favorite mo (Child, vegetables for now, okay? You’ll get your favorite dish tomorrow)." It can also be a tyrannical decision of the matriarch or a party host, who with just one glare, can squelch other dinner mates’ cravings.
Diplomacy at the household level is, of course, not as complicated as the tension the Philippines is having with China over the West Philippine Sea. Or as ironic, considering the fish we are importing from China to fill the domestic shortage may have come from our very own waters.
Food security has always been a political challenge for many Filipinos, with some politicians pushing for agricultural or food programs with disastrous consequences lasting generations. Take for example the "land to the landless" agricultural program and the Ilaga movement that led to thousands of killings and the uprooting of indigenous groups in Mindanao, mainly the Muslim Filipinos, by the poor and landless migrants from Luzon and Visayas.
The Green Revolution allowed industrial-scale application of revolutionary pesticides and a farming system that displaced traditional and indigenous methods with disastrous environmental, cultural and health impacts. The Masagana 99 program of former President Marcos was an economic sham that did not generate any semblance of masagana or prosperity.
Sometime in the ‘70s or early ‘80s, Negros Occidental saw an untold number of deaths due to famine caused by a combination of a tilted balance of trade in the sugar industry, a one-town-one-product policy still being practiced now in many parts of the country), as well as regulatory capture that paved the way for the skimming of dollar revenues from foreign trade on sugar commodity by some Marcos cronies, according to published reports.
Our current food security and humanitarian programs still rely on "imported" food items with little local job- and value content from the affected communities. There are many locally-grown goods in municipalities that can be transformed and used in emergency situations or sold and promoted as local and marketable products during normal times. But then, we have to deal with expensive facilities, logistics, and transportation. The list goes on.
Among the presidential candidates in the upcoming election, Leni Gerona Robredo provides a sound economic plan that includes rural and urban infrastructures, rural (I interpret this as agriculture or primary market) development, job creation, etc. She was the only one who gave me chills when she presented her initial priorities about the economy because they reflect all the aspirations and laments I've heard from the communities in many parts of Mindanao and Visayas in the past two decades. So, inspired by her and the Tausug's putli mandi, I cook palitaw with bukayò filling, I cook. Palitaw is a native kakanin (snack) similar to mocha, while a bukayò is deep-amber caramelized coconut meat shreds.
If Leni is able to identify and share her priorities, I have no reason not to come up with several versions of palitaw or putli mandi.
The pale pink palitaw uses alugbati fruit to color the glutinous rice dough, and each small ball of the rice dough is stuffed with bukayò with gorgeous vanilla beans. Who does not like pink? It's all the vogue now, the emblematic color of a socio-political movement leading to the national election and beyond.
Yellow used to be the color of hope and youthful resistance, but it has been demonized in the Philippine political environment. So, why not bring back hope and invigorate the dull plate and the palate by making yellow palitaw. This palitaw incorporates turmeric and mango puree into the dough stuffed with bukayò filling, flavored with candied dalandan (native tangerine) peels. I made it several weeks ago for a delicious sunrise.
The chocolate palitaw incorporates cocoa powder into the dough. The cocoa produces a warm tan color for uncooked dough and a mighty chocolate for the cooked. The filling consisting of caramelized coconut and chunks of dark chocolate gives a divinely syrupy ooze in every bite of palitaw.
“If Leni is able to identify and share her priorities, I have no reason not to come up with several versions of palitaw or putli mandi. ”
And, lastly, my favorite is a hardy brown Pinoy palitaw. Black, thick molasses gives the raw silky white glutinous rice dough a sepia coloring. It later transforms into a bold and vivid deep hickory brown after being fished out of the boiling water. Its filling of durian and bukayò matches the glory of this sticky palitaw.
These native goodies are easy to prepare. Make palitaw, not lies. It is as straightforward as that:
1. Knead the glutinous rice dough, instead of spinning stories of the country's "golden years" during the martial law period.
2. Stuff the rice dough with sweet filling, not fake degrees and absurd "accomplishments" in public and humanitarian services.
3. Submerge the dough in a pot of boiling water, not disengage from public debates or presidential interviews that may put candidates in a hot seat.
5. Roll the cooked dough in liberal amount of coconut shreds, not roll out trolls in elaborate platforms. And, most of all,
6. Plan your palitaw cooking session with utmost care for details, proportions, ingredients, and steps, instead of serving blusters and bravado involving motherhood statements to improve the nation's future.
How to Make Palitaw ala Putli Mandi
1. Prepare your dough by combining 3 cups of glutinous rice flour and 1.5 cups of water in a bowl. Stir until the mixture forms a lumpy mass. Divide into 4 equal parts. The fun part begins just as you chart your life and the future of this country. Make your coloring agent using natural ingredients from your backyard or kitchen. I did mine by popping 20 to 25 ripe berries of alugbati mixed with 1 tablespoon of water for pink, 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric and 2 tablespoons of pureed ripe mango for yellow, 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder for warm tan, and 1 teaspoon of dark molasses for hickory brown. Color the small dough balls and knead well. You may dust your colorful dough with glutinous rice flour if it is too wet or drizzle it with water if it is too parched. A perfect dough must be malleable.
2. Prepare the filling. I made bukayô as the base by caramelizing 1/2 cup of sugar in a pan over medium heat and adding into the bubbling sugar 2 cups of freshly grated coconut meat. Stir constantly for about 8 to 10 minutes until it fills your kitchen with fragrance called home. I divided the bukayô into 4 portions and flavored them separately with vanilla, candied peels of dalandan (native mandarin), dark chocolate, and durian.
3. Pull a marble-sized portion of the colored dough and flatten it. Insert a teaspoonful of the filling to the flattened dough. Crimp the edges so that the filling is tucked inside the dough. Gently make a rounded roll of the crimped dough between the palm of your hands. Do the same for the rest of the colored dough and filling. In a pan of boiling water, drop the dough balls, but do not overcrowd the pan. The dough balls will submerge in the boiling water for a few minutes. You will know that your dough balls are cooked once they begin to float.
4. Immediately remove the cooked dough balls from the pot using a strainer or slotted spoon and roll them across a bed of desiccated coconut. The tradition calls for freshly grated coconut.
5. Four delicious gems. The etymology of the palitaw delicacy comes from: litaw (in tagalog), lëtaw/l'taw (in Mëranaw) or lataw (in Bicol) which means to float. Unlike the palitaw we are familiar with, the Tausug and Yakan version of palitaw includes a mono-flavored coconut filling. Hence, my version takes inspiration from the Sama, Tausug, and Yakan traditional creation, and they even assigned a beautiful name to it, Putli Mandi. Putli means princess from the lore while mandi is a Sama word for "to bathe or who bathed." These spherical confections truly resemble precious gems from the deep seas. And, perhaps, in this uncertain period, the palitaw or putli mandi takes on a different semiotic importance in the Filipino politico-culinary repertoire. It is a dessert of resiliency forged and submerged in a deep boiling pot but the feminine authority always emerges to behold, to provide, and to share.
Assad Baunto is a Mëranaw economist working on the policy nexus of development and conflict. Following a teaching stint at the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila University, he traveled and learned from people in local communities across Mindanao and the Visayas. He focused on the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao where he led the work on Marawi early response and rehabilitation and contributed, as a development planner, to the political transition to BARMM. He and his friends recently set up a management and advisory outfit, Development Advisory Group Philippines, and own a small food processing business in Marawi whose operation was severely affected by the pandemic.
