1. 76 77ESPEJO ESPEJO
T
he Maqueda Bay stretches across Samar
Island’s coastline, dotted by towns and
cities that subsist from an age-old fishing
industry. Spanning 92 kilometers east of
Catbalogan City, the waters teem with
lapu-lapu (grouper), sapsap (slipmouth), dilis (anchovy),
alimango (mudcrab), pasayan (shrimp), pusit (squid), and
binga, a species of cowrie shell only found in the sea of
Samar. This wealth of marine resources is a common
sight in Pier Uno, where one would find Catbalogan
City’s fish market. At dawn, fishermen’s boats heavy
with the night’s catch would arrive in droves at the foot
of the public market. Early market-goers crowd over
banyeras loaded with the sea’s bounty while the faintest
gleam of sunlight touches the blue of the city’s slice of
the Pacific. Market day begins.
For Roberto Orbe, producer of dried fish, commonly
known as bulad, which in Waray means “dried,” the day
begins at 5 AM if the sky promises fair weather. If it
does not, it starts late in the morning. Oftentimes, they
do not need to go to the market to buy fish for drying.
Fishermen would arrive, duong, he called it, at their dry-
ing area to sell them fish. On very fine days, the fish is
taken and washed in seawater and placed on a landahan,
a mat of woven bamboo strips. The fish would be ar-
ranged, paghapid, that’s what it’s called, for it to dry in
the sun. Grown men, women, and children when they
have no classes join in the chore: balancing on bamboo
stilts, carrying trays of fish, and placing them on a plat-
form of bamboo held together by nylon threads.
Bulad is fare to rich and poor alike, and no Filipino is
unfamiliar with the salty smell of dried fish greeting
them in the breakfast tables where it goes well with
garlic rice, eggs, and tsokolate, a sweet, hot drink made
of ground cacao. Even top hotels and restaurants serve
the dish on their breakfast buffet, displayed together
with the world’s cheeses, breads, and drinks, as bulad has
since been considered a regional delicacy.
Known for its bulad and danggit, another variety of dried
fish, Catbalogan City has been in the dried-fish busi-
ness for decades mainly because of its topographical
location. It is the life source that sustains the folk in this
quiet part of this coastal city. The Samar Entre-Pinoy
Organization, of which Mano Roberto is a part of, has
helped this cottage industry by consistently encouraging
dried fish makers to use advanced techniques that will
increase the export quality of their products. Packag-
ing is one important area under study. This step, says
this bulad producer, will hopefully mark bulad as a prized
product proudly made in Catbalogan that will soon be
exported maintaining, in its new packaging, the distinct
taste that sets it apart from all the dried fish delicacies of
the world. E
BULAD
By Cristina Magallon
Photography Jeremy Bayaya