Azucena

I still recall how the old men in our neighbourhood would spend the entire day preparing this delicacy for their pulutan in the evening:

First order of business is to find a suitable canine they could slaughter. It doesn't matter if its the neighbor's dog, (the one who usually barks at strangers, or snaps at kids playing in our narrow street) as long as its ex-owner gets invited to the feast.

The fun part (at the time) is when the butcher stabs the hapless dog with a knife on the throat. Seldom was I able to see the unceremonial blood-letting, but the other kids say the dog wiggled and sprayed urine as it dies in front of the spectators. The butcher then leaves the carcass in peace as he prepares the blow torch to be used to skin the animal.   

Animal hair never goes well with any dish, and before the flesh could be cut into small pieces, the fur must be eliminated first. For more than an hour, the dog - now in a spit gets a flame bath with a blow torch. The hair falls off leaving the outer skin burnt and crisp with the smell of char-boiled meat wafting in the air. 

At this step in the preparation, most kids give up in watching the spectacle to resume their other juvenile pursuits. Some including me, would still drop by once in a while to see how the toasting is being done. 

When all the hairs have finally fallen, the partially burnt dog is then carried over to the makeshift table. The butcher, now armed with a glistening machete cuts the animal just below the gut. The innards are taken out - the intestines and body cavity hosed down, including the kidneys and the liver. These organs are then chopped into small pieces to be stir fried and served as appetizers.

The gall bladder is excised because the men claim it tastes bitter. The putrified smell of blood and digestive juices sloshing from the table repulses everyone except for the butchers who are tasked to prepare the dog. To bear with the stench, a bottle of gin makes rounds among the men. The stoves are then readied for the entrées.

It's almost evening and the dog, which began as a breathing, barking animal has now been reduced to slabs of meat. The revellers, some who have come elsewhere gather in another table. Stories fly while drinks overflow. The dishes laid out on the table include azucena in tomato-based stew and grilled dog meat. Bopis and adobong aso also appear in the buffet table.

source

Dogs in those days were eaten because it was a delicacy. We were told that dog meat was an aphrodisiac and it makes your body strong. For us kids, to taste even just a morsel of the meat was a rite of passage. Our eagerness however came with a forewarning: Local beliefs tell that dogs know when a person ate their kind.

The canine-eating days have come to pass, and the practice has become a kind of taboo especially in the cities. Animal rights activists have succeeded in changing everyone's perception. After all, nobody in his right state of mind would eat man's "best friend?"

While there are those who think that we shouldn't forbid the ethnic groups in Benguet to follow their tradition. For the rest of us, modern customs have finally prevailed.

All it took was a single generation for beliefs to change.

MANILA, Philippines – Around 60 slaughtered dogs intended for meat trading were seized by authorities in Pugo, La Union on Monday.


Pugo PNP said suspect Anson Cayat, who was driving the van carrying the dogs, was arrested at a checkpoint around 5:30 am.


ABS-CBN News