Bryan Atas The Batuan Effect

Humanities 1 - Manansala

Being an Ilonggo offers advantages. Aside from being able to watch Dinagyang live or in 4 different channels it also enables one to regularly savor delicious Ilonggo dishes li!e "adyos-Baboy-#ang!a$"B# the %inabawan and the #inaga. And one can&t hel' but as! what ma!es these dishes s'ecial( )ell the !ey to good food is good use of ingredients. And guess what these dishes have in common * batuan. If a shroud of mystery covers this fruit +ust imagine a greater mystery that surrounds this batuan 'lant. As a !id I used to thin! that the batuan is a citrus-li!e shrub. ,ow I !now that Batuan or Garcinia binucao is a tree reaching a height of about the same as a two storey building. In Manila Bulletin -nline one article entitled .ourmet&s ,ote'ad by Boysie /illavicencio said that its closest relative is the Mangosteen 0Garcinia mangostana1. My most recent encounter with this tree was when I visited my mother&s colleague Dr. ,adala in #a'a2. Dr. 3Bing4 ,adala has batuan trees in her bac!yard. Its leaves are smooth and leathery. It has small 'ea-si2ed red flowers that are somehow incons'icuous from afar. Its famous fruits are yellowish green to light green in color and somewhat round in sha'e. 5he fruits are usually harvested at a time when they are yellow green since batuan at its ri'e most age have an acrid taste very susce'tible to rotting thus not desirable as a souring agent anymore. -ne interesting thing that I learned from Dr. ,adala was that the batuan tree has a 3gender.4 5hat is they are dioecious. 5his sim'ly means that one tree 'roduces only male flowers while the other 'roduces only female flowers. %adly the difference between a male and female batuan tree is only obvious during the time flowers turn to fruits. In male batuan trees flowers +ust fall off6

while female batuan flowers slowly turn to buds then to fruits. In fact I find it fascinating to see Dr. ,adala&s towering batuan trees standing side-by-side with leaves gently touching each other as human cou'les hold each other&s hands wherein one cannot survive without the other. Ilonggo&s call it 3batuan4 but it has other names in other 'laces. According to a 7esearch on #esser "nown 8dible 5ree %'ecies com'iled by Helen B. 9lorido and 9e 9. :ortiguerra it is !nown as 3binu!ao4 in #aguna and Bataan 3Balu!at4 in Ilocos ,orte 3Bang!o!4 in ;ambales 3Bilu!an4 7i2al Bataan 3"amang2i4 in 5ayabas and 3"andis4 in <alawan. Indeed Batuan is not endemic to the region si=. And in fact it is cultivated in #anao 8='erimental %ection. Ilonggo&s thin! of batuan as a souring agent or in hiligaynon 3pampaaslum.4 5he same way those in #u2on use %am'aloc and "amias as souring agent in their dishes. Batuan is very common in Iloilo that I was even able to buy it at %M for about >? 'esos 'er !ilo and that&s about five 'esos for four 'ieces last ,ovember. And by the way I&ve read from Mar!et Manila that the 8:@ farm at ,egros sells batuan 'urees too. Batuan&s use as a souring agent is versatile. It can be used in a number of dishes including "ansi and <a!siw. And according to an article in Manila bulletin -nline by Mr. Boysie /illavicencio some use the batuan leaves as stuffing in roast chic!en. I may not have the 'ower to 'redict the future of Garcinia binucao but what I do !now is that batuan&s fame is s'reading ra'idly and more and more 9ili'ino&s are Ilonggo Dishes that use batuan 1. "adyos-Baboy-#ang!a 0"B#1 >. %inabawan A. #inaga 4. "ansi B. #aing C. 7oast chic!en D. <a!siw

reali2ing its ca'abilities. #et&s +ust ho'e that future will bring new and delicious batuancontaining dishes. %o if someone wants to coo! "B# but couldn&t find any batuan for sale +ust loo! for that Garcinia binucao tree it might even be in your neighborhood and you may not !now it.

Bryan Atas is technically a 1D year old male6 academically a freshman B% Biology student in Eniversity of the <hili''ines6 but 'ersonally he is a nature lover and dee'ly understands the im'ortance of 'hytochemicals in botanical nutrition. Basically he a''reciates good food from natures& bas!et. 8mail addressF bryanatasGyahoo.com