Pigar-Pigar: Manny Vent Cornel’s legacy
By Leonardo V. Micua
ON late, late nights in early 1980s, the late PUNCH editor Magno ‘Manny’ Vent Cornel, who relished being referred to as “anak na managtalaba”, would go to the market just to buy a kilo of beef, fresh from the slaughterhouse.
He would bring the beef to Isao Bulatao who maintained a ‘turo-turo’ eatery on Galvan Street being patronized mainly by tricycle drivers, market ‘kargadores’ and other late street hangers-on.
Manny, who had a penchant for exotic food, would closely watch Isao follow his cooking instructions, exactly as he would do in his own kitchen.
cornel
Cornel, who served as OIC vice mayor of Dagupan when Cory Aquino seized power following the Edsa People Power Revolution, would constantly remind Isao, “just turn it upside down twice and once done, it is ready to be served”.
Little did Cornel know that the beef delicacy he concocted was to become a hot sensation in Dagupan City almost 30 years later, years after his death.
It was Cornel, a wordsmith and once dean of practicing journalists in Pangasinan, himself who called his recipe Pigar-Pigar – turning the slices of beef upside down twice when being cooked.
Pigar-Pigar as cooked by Isao to satisfy Manny Vent’s craving for exotic food is prepared this way: Drop finely sliced beef sprinkled with salt in a boiling pan of oil, then add onion and garlic when ready to be served. He directed few slices of onion and cabbage, half cooked, added to the cooked beef when served.
SAMSON
Councilor Chito Samson, a bosom friend of Cornel, said many times, the ‘anak na managtalaba’ would tag him along late nights to the market to buy the meat from the “suki” Andring Cervantes, a meat stall owner at the old public market and a balae of the late former Councilor Alfredo ‘Manok’ Sta. Maria Sr.
“We knew that the beef was fresh because some of the cow’s organs were still moving”, Councilor Chito recalled cheekily.
The first ‘Pigar-Pigar’ that Manny Vent concocted was initially mixed with a slew of ‘papait’ (a juice derived from the intestine of the cow just slaughtered) and the cow’s liver as appetizer,” said Samson who described his friend Cornel as one who had a special craving for exotic food or something extra-ordinary to his taste.
Among Cornel’s regular Pigar-Pigar addicts included Regional Trial Court Judge Salvador Vedaña, Seato Gonimil, Manny Gatchalian, Sonny Areola, Dr. Sta. Maria and sometimes this writer, then Cornel’s, fellow staff member in the Sports Weekly Magazine.
Manny Vent proudly served his Pigar-Pigar to visiting fellow sportswriters from Manila, like Al Mendoza, Recah Trinidad, Erning Gonzales, Ding Marcelo and Teddy Cecilio at his home.
Isao’s business flourished with pigar-pigar but this was interrupted by the July 16, 1990 earthquake. She bounced back in business in 1992 only to find out that other eatery joints had become converts to Pigar-Pigar to cash in on its growing popularity.
Samson, the event chairman of the first Pigar-Pigar Festival on April 18, one of the newest features of the Dagupan Bangus Festival, believes the Pigar-Pigar in Dagupan tastes much better than its look-alike, the bengbeng of Mangaldan or the imbaliktad of Ilocos Norte.
The stream of night diners, mostly travelers converging on Galvan Street on late nights to dine on Manny Vent’s favorite is proof of this.
Manny Vent was editor of The Sunday Punch, correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and contributor to many national magazines, including the Sports Weekly.
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
