CALASIAO–Puto Calasiao, so called the town’s “white gold”, will take center stage anew when the town revives its Puto Festival on May 5, coinciding with its nine-day annual fiesta.

Since puto has become a big money-earner in Calasiao, Mayor Roy Macanlalay is restoring the Puto Festival in a bid to create a bigger market for it nationwide.

The town, he said, will make one big puto as a special attraction of the festival but he clarified that the event will not be submitted to the Guinness Book.

Macanlalay said since the first Puto Festival was launched five years ago, their town’s puto – a tiny, sticky and white variety made from rice – has become more popular to thousands of households nationwide.

In this year’s festival, the municipal government will encourage puto-makers to create and design attractive packaging to make their products look more appealing to buyers.

“Each one will be asked to package his/her product differently in order to create an identity for their respective products,” said Macanlalay.

Another new feature of the festival is a contest that will identify what other food products go best with puto, other than dinuguan, chocolate, cheese or eggs.

There are now about 100 families in Calasiao engaged in puto-making.

Each of these producers will have its own exhibit stall at the fair site.

Although no export market has been developed, the puto is already becoming a popular pasalubong to Pangasinenses in the United States.—LM

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