PAMPANGA PRODUCES more than enough munggo, or balatung (native mung bean legume variety), to feed its
people with plant protein as an alternative to animal meat.
Pinoys can never skip a week's meal fare without a mung bean soup as part of their standard viand selection. Rural Kapampangan folk have theirs with ampalaya (bitter gourd) tops and leaves, sautéed with fish paste or fish sauce, and sprinkled with chicharon (crispy deep fried pork fat). Others prefer it with malunggay (moringa) leaves, sautéed with shrimps or shredded tinapa (smoked fish). Urban Kapampangans relish it with finely sliced celery stalk and leaves instead of ampalaya, probably because of the seasonal availability of the vegetable.
In the southern parts of Luzon, people add fresh, yellow miki noodles and chunks of meat (either pork or beef). In the Bicol region, they add fresh coconut cream and pechay (green leafy vegetable from the cabbage variety). While in the Visayas and Mindanao, the favorite add-on is alugbati (vine, seaweed-tasting, leaves).
To cook balatung, the hard dry seeds need to be boiled first for over 30 minutes or so until a good, smooth consistency of the seeds is reached. Most Kapampangans love the soup-meal mashed and very smooth— they do this by using a strainer, mashing the boiled seeds out off the skin and collecting the purée.
Balatung is also used for dessert: The brown variety is used for halo-halo, (roasted in) ginatang malagkit, rice cakes, and hopia.
Balatung is planted during the dry season, usually after rice is harvested. The balatung plant spreads its leaves that serve as shade, preserving the remaining moisture it needs from the soil. Farmers discard the mung bean leaves and stems in the rice paddies, leaving them to rot into organic and nutrient-rich fertilizer for the soil.
Now, what is my point in writing all this?
Analysis: Resource availability, regular (although tedious to) use.
Market opportunity: Canned pre-boiled balatung, in boiled-raw form or sautéed in various flavors— shrimp, smoked fish, pork, beef— and add-ons of preferred fresh vegetables and leaves.
What a convenient energy-, cost-, time-saving food item for users. Almost instantly, we get a hot meal-soup out of us Pinoys' favorite balatung, a staple in most of our meals.
Export the product, see what happens: Income to local farmers, income to the manufacturers, jobs and income to the unemployed.
To the Kapampangans, especially: A raw material to work on to exhibit culture, creativity, innovation, culinary expertise.
Here's more, to the flowering of an industry: Mung bean oil, mung bean noodles, mungfu (mung bean curd-tofu), mung bean fermented paste, mung bean dried protien chunks, salted mung bean sauce (green sauce), and so on.
And on: The humble balatung, canned, competing with the regular American pork-and-beans convenience meal, and with the ever-present Chinese tokwa and by-product concoctions.
What do you see in the balatung? A seed, merely? Me? I see possibilities. The balatung: A source of pride to harness its usefulness and profitability.
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