Cordillera s Azucena More than a Delicacy

Eating dog meat, to the people of Philippines' Cordillera Region is as natural as eating pork and chicken.

While the issue of butchering dogs for food has remained contentious, eating dog meat should not be such a sensitive topic; neither should it be judged by those who do not know the culture in the Cordillera.

Accounts of Benguet's Kankanaey and Ibaloi peoples also had dogs as ritual animals when tribal war was rampant in parts of the mountain region.

Talk about exotic food, ha. To the tourists (or somebody like me who came from a southern island) it may really be just that. But to the Cordillera people, it's culture.

I'm not much of a meat-eater. Coming from a place where the sea is just 15 minutes away, I am one of those who can survive eating fish (and other seafoods) on a daily basis. It's not that Bicol come short of "exotic" food.

In my hometown, eating meat of monitor lizard (bayawak) and phyton (sawa) is (quoting the 1st paragraph) as natural as eating pork and chicken. People who've tried them attested that bayawak and sawa's meat tastes just like chicken. I wouldn't know, I haven't had the guts to try either. I've only gone far as eating sting ray and shark's meat, if that is even considered exotic.

Going back to dog meat, we locally call a dog meat dish "Azucena", a play on the tagalog word aso (meaning dog). Too bad I haven't met any opportunity to try one. But people said your body will get warm after eating Azucena. May be one more reason why it's a delicacy in Cordillera (it's always colder in the mountains!).