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| the "Duting tan Dukto" meal |
A distinctive flavor of the
Strawberry Festival here in La Trinidad, Benguet is Duting tan Dukto, a
community breakfast. It is a crowd
drawer as residents of the town and guests would enjoy an inexpensive but great
meal. It is preceded by a fun run which
in itself is an exciting event as it is one of the few occasions in the year
when a portion of the highway would be closed to give way to hundreds of
runners, from toddlers to the elderly.
It is rational as after the exercise, the stomach would be treated to
breakfast.
This year’s edition of Duting tan
Dukto was staged this morning. A meal
cost a hundred. It is composed of camote
of different varieties – violet, yellow and white, local version of grilled
pork, slices of boiled egg, fresh strawberries, and strawberry jam.
Duting, tan, and dukto are Ibaloi words and understandably because La
Trinidad, in the first place, is an Ibaloi land. But not everybody knows the translation. La Trinidad has become a heterogeneous society
and Iloko or Ilokano is the lingua franca.
When I first attended this event, I knew “dukto” to be referring to the
sweet potato as
it sounds similar to how one root crop was called in my native place Ifugao. I thought “tan” to be the conjunction “and” (this I found later to be correct) and “duting” to possibly refer to the roasted pork as this seemed to be the other main course in the meal. This morning though, we were seated next to a group who too were discussing among themselves what “duting” was. One of them confidently said that “duting” refers to strawberry.
So Duting tan Dukto is – “Strawberries
and Sweet Potatoes”? Ohh! strawberries and sweet potatoes makes me hungry again for
the next Duting tan Dukto! Certainly, it can be prepared at any home but it's different when you eat it at the municipal park!
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| A town eating together - the distinctive flavor of Duting tan Dukto |
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