USING an heirloom recipe, Bagonhon Lourdes Villason – Marba of Bago City would cook her famous panara.
Villason-Marba said she inherited the local delicacy’s recipe from her great grandmother and she thinks it could be more than a hundred years old already.
She mastered making the Panara through the many years of her cooking experience.
What makes it unique is the fact that she uses rice flour in making its wrap while the ingredients included chopped meat, shrimp, mongo sprouts and chayote (mirliton).
She is also using a small polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tube pipe instead of the regular rolling pin in making the panara’s wrap saying that it needs patience and mastery.
Asked why she is using rice flour in making her panara, she said, “it will make the covering crunchier up to the last bite.”
The taste and texture of her homemade panara is truly her own and is unbeatable.
“If one will dip the Panara into a Sinamak [spicy vinegar], one will keep on eating more because of the combination that makes the eating experience indestructible,” she stressed.
Bago City Senior Tourism Operations officer Mae Ann Fortus always invites her to cook whenever they have guests.
Recently, Villason-Marba had a demo cooking for the SunStar team who visited Bago City during the paper’s 14th-anniversary celebration.
Through Nanay Lourdes, the Sunstar team enjoyed partaking tray of Panara.
She keeps the recipe and the legacy of their great grandparent alive with her continued making and cooking of the Panara.
Aside from its delectable taste, her Panara is also living proof of the rich heritage of the city dubbed as the “Home of Historical and Natural Treasures.”