Descriptive Paragraphs

ERROL WYNSTAN A. RODRIGUEZ August 15, 2012
2012-09086 ENG 1 WFX2 2:30-4:00 pm DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY

THAT LUSCIOUS SALAGUBANG My father is a small time farmer whose taste for exotic foods has been proverbial. Each month, he has a list of rare recipes he used to boast about. For example, last January, he caught a big monitor lizard which he cooked into a very aromatic adobo. I never tried to imagine myself the secrets of his cooking and the condiments that thrilled our nostrils with that mouth-watering aroma. My tour in the kitchen did not end there. In our typical nipa hut with an adjunct outpost as kitchen, I used to notice a foot-long bamboo receptacle resembling a rain maker hung on the wall bound with abaca rope enough to be tied around my waist. I asked mother what was it and she told me it was a salagubang container. It had a matching cover made out of wider-girth bamboo fitted just right. Ah, that luscious salagubang! I can only remember your tempting taste once a year. That was in the month of May. Summer rain came in cats and dogs. Soon planting corn began and my odyssey to eating salagubang had to begin. Father told me that a good catch usually occur during good weather. One evening, father and my two brothers, Earl, 21 and Joe, 19 walked towards that usual cornfield where I helped my two brothers pick up white grubs during the month of December when plowing the field for second cropping season to catch some salagubang. They patiently grab as many beetles as they can and put them in the container. At home after their hunting, Brother Earl had one hundred and Brother Joe had seventy-five while father had one hundred fifty. The next morning, we all gathered in the kitchen table with two long benches on both sides carefully watching four pairs of hands excluding mine snapping skilfully the six legs, and the wings of that edible insect. Each dressed beetle was soon placed in a tin basin crawling on top of each other. I almost did not close my eyes even in just a wink to unravel the truth behind the tempting smell as I watched with awe how my father put his magic touch in cooking salagubang. After washing, he boiled the beetles in approximately one-half cup of water and allowed them to dry in the casserole. Sooner he put the frying pan over the stove and put three table spoonful of margarine or butter. The butter allowed melting; he put the minced garlic and onions and waited to become golden brown then sautéed the beetles adding pinches of salt and black pepper to taste. We had a scrumptious dinner. I ate as many as I can of these delicious beetles. I felt an unusual sensation as I took a bite at its head,which made me crave for another at the abdomen then afterwards, I continued chewing the whole thing in my mouth and swallowed it well with satisfaction. Soon my mouthwatering desire for this exotic food had been fulfilled.