Dumagats’ Indigenous Cooking Traditions

This paper aimed to study traditional cooking practices of the Dumagats, an ethnic group living in Northern Philippines. Specifically it described a cooking tradition using Pugahan and Apong as food sources, from ingredient preparation to food production. It sought to determine this cooking tradition’s uniqueness, embedded cultural values, and possible adaptations to modernization. The following methodswere used: participant observation, in-depth interview and focus group discussions. Results showed that the: (1) Dumagats’ respect of nature (2) rituals are observed with great solemnity (3) gendered delineations from food preparation to consumption are defined (4) communal ways such as sharing the produce to the whole village is a group trait. Dumagats’ cooking traditions provide rich sources of understanding the Dumagat people.