Palakang bukid, signature of rice farming in the tropics, has returned.
Dr Abe V Rotor
Dried Frog (Rana vitigera) from the ricefield. The palakang bukid, once threatened - and endangered - is back on the dining table. There are various recipes, the traditional one is cooking it fresh after dressing with acheute (Bixa orellana), coconut milk (gata) tomato, garlic and onions. Now dried frog is available in the market. Try fried frog for breakfast.
The favorite frog signature of rice farming in the tropics is back after decades of threatened existence to the point of being endangered in heavily sprayed ricefields, courtesy of chemical-based agricultural technology.
It is Nature triumph, with farmers reverting to traditional farming - the age-old farming system prior to the so-called Green Revolution. It is indicative of people moving away from high technology that makes their food unsafe, what with all the high residues of pesticides and chemical fertilizers!
How the frog's population declined to almost irreversible level is explained by its predatory nature and aquatic habit. Insects are its main food. Poisoned insects accumulate in its body. Poisoned water kills its eggs and tadpoles, even adults.
Dressed frogs
Dried frogs
There was a time people avoided frogs as food, yet it has been a favorite viand since agriculture began, together with snail, shrimps, crayfish, tilapia, catfish, dalag, and other freshwater fish similarly decimated by chemicals.
Things are changing. Call it social equilibrium, when people become enlightened and cease to become a victim of destructive technology and capitalism. This is a new era of people-oriented, environment-friendly change. ~
* Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday
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