Aling Belen, it turned out, was the brains behind the delicious longganisa that we were raving about. In her typical shrill but animated manner of speaking, which amused us, Aling Belen related that she had been making longganisa in Isabela since 1970. She had just graduated from college then, and she experimented with ingredient combinations before she got the perfect formula for her famous longg
anisa. She started making small batches of 2 to 3 kilogram longganisas. Business was good and soon she was making 10 to 20 kilograms. Her longganisa, she says, became so popular in the province that people would look for her brand and not settle for anybody else’s. The Dy family was among those who patronized her longganisa and promoted it to friends and guests alike. These days, Governor Bojie Dy would sometimes order 200 to 220 kilograms of longganisa to give away to friends whenever there’s a special occasion. Her longganisa business, Aling Belen proudly stressed, was responsible for sending her six children to school. Her eldest is an electrical engineer, her second finished management and marketing, her third works as an X-ray technician, her fourth helps her out in her longganisa business, her fifth studied Marine Engineering at the Philippine Maritime Institute, and her sixth and youngest took up Hotel and Restaurant Management at the Far Eastern University. The secret to her longganisa, she said, is the personal touch that she puts into it. She personally picks and purchases the meat that she uses in making her longganisa. She looks for a certain percentage of lean meat and fat ratio in her meat and does not compromise on its quality. She also observes proper hygiene and cleanliness whenever she makes her longganisa and personally grinds it using her own grinder. She had come over to the Governor’s house that morning not only to deliver the longganisas ordered by Francis Faustino ‘Kiko’ Dy, the eldest son of Governor Bojie Dy, barangay captain of San Fabian, Echague, Isabela, president of the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) in the province, and our media group’s host for our four-day Isabela food tour. She was also asked to conduct a demo on how she makes her longganisa for the group to photograph, and she obliged. So we settled in the garden after breakfast and she did the demo there. Besides quality meat, Aling Belen also added other flavorful ingredients into her longganisa, including garlic, soy sauce, salt, pepper and sugar. After mixing them by hand in a bowl, she transferred the mixture into a stuffer, which helped her mechanically stuff cleaned pig’s intestines with the mixture before tying them into segments with a kitchen twine. Aling Belen’s longganisas contain no preservatives or food color, and she sells them in a stall in the Cauayan City Market for Php280 per kilogram of both the classic and the spicy variants of her longganisa. Her stall is called Aling Belen Special Longganisa and Tocino. The best way to cook her longganisa, she said, is to boil them in a little water, cover then continue to boil. When the longganisa turns dry, add a little oil, and when it bubbles up, poke a hole in it with the pointed end of a knife and continue to cook over low fire until done.
