Two weeks ago, we prepared and feasted on a dish that I had never tasted since maybe 30 years ago. It was ordinary paksiw na bangus, but cooked as it should be: in a clay pot, called banga in many Philippine languages. I didn’t know if it was just my imagination, but my taste buds told me it was a lot different when food is cooked in a banga, set over wood fire.
Writing about pots, at first I thought, would be one of the dullest chores I ever did. But since I had started this streak of writing about fireplaces anyway, I might as well continue with its logical extension: to write about the endangered craft of native pottery. I don’t think I’ve succeeded. Continue reading “The lowly banga”