By CYRUS M. GARDE
BACOLOD City — Next month, Cadiz City will hold a festival that celebrates buriring or small puffer fish as the northern coastal city’s special delicacy.
The city government is yet to finalize the festival date, according to the City Tourism Office.
Puffer fish are believed to be poisonous, but the small ones — particularly those caught in July and August — are not, and cooks in Cadiz know which part is safe to eat and in what quantity.
At only P100, a kilo of the small puffer fish costs less than a kilo of pork. It can go only as much as P160 when fresh catch arrives in the market.
It is commonly cooked with margarine, onion, garlic, tomatoes, leaves locally known as libas, and santol fruit to remove the fishy odor.
Local folks, however, could not tell exactly why small puffer fish are not poisonous only in particular months of the year.
Fisherfolk in Cadiz consider July and August their “happy months.” During this time of high demand, a box of small puffer fish would cost about P1,500 or more.
They catch the species in the Visayan Sea, especially near Bantayan Island in Cebu. If they are lucky, they would also catch tuloy.
Cadiz, about 65 kilometers north of this capital city, is also famous for the grounding of whales in 1968, the attack of pirates, and being the capital of what used to be Negros Del Norte.
Meat of some puffer fish species is also served as a delicacy in Japan (fugu), Korea (bok), and China (hétún)./PN
