SOME OF THE SINGULAR FOODS OF THE FILIPINOS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2455, 3 April 1901, Page 64

SOME OF THE SINGULAR FOODS OF THE FILIPINOS.

Geougd D. Eke, in the Scientific American. In these inlands the gra-^hoppcis not only "row in £icat mimbciv but the size oi tlie jilted & l^ii'-'- iheie aie ikuhu

who make a busir.e&s of catching the grasshoppers, during the best season tor them, which is in May, June, July and lattr. At nr*t the grassnopperss begin to appear in swarms bat of unall size. As the grasshopper grows the proportionate increase m size oi th? s -warms, is noticeable. At first the cloud* of hoppers parsing overhead reemed something like a hazy atmospheie ; alter a few vuckV growth the clouds of Loppcrs become daik aiid heavy. They fly in large numbers, and the day i» darkened as soon as swarms of hopper* appear in any vicinity. TLey usually light in the pas- | lures, where tLey live on the smaller in- [ sects, the grass, the vegetation m general. When a swarm of full-sized grasshoppers I lights on a farm or other productive land the vegetation i? almost completely eaten off. In the meantime, However, the owner of the land, with all his neighbours, have been hard at work catching the grasshoppers. TLe mode of catching the grasshoppers in the Philippines is interesting. There i are always frw o or three bellboys stationed in the tow ers of the big church of each city, town, or barrio of the Philippine grotro thgse boys oeing there for the purpose of soundinc the various signal bells. There are certain strokes for funerals, others for births, and at present there are signals for the approach ol an army. These boys in the tower keep a sharp look-out for indications of the approach of grasshopper I swarms. Dining the hopper season they aie particularly aotive. and announce the approach cf the tv.uim!> as soon as seen, for the grasshoppers often merely pafs over j a town, but usually low enough to permit the natives to cat oh many of them. As scon as the bellboys ecs that there are I some scattering grasshoppers in the air, as an advance guard to the main body, they sound the hopper signals on the bells and hundreds of expert grasshoppercatchers with their nets turn out. There are several methods used by the natives for catching grasshoppei s. The most effective is the net. This is a large butterfly net, arranged with netting placed over a hoop, and to the latter__is fixed a long handle. The native takes this handle, and, with the mouth of the net toward the grasshoppers, he rushes forth, bapt^mg considerable numbers at each run. The grasshoppers always go in swaims, except the advance guard and the Etragglei'S and if anything occuis to disturb their flight they get confused and tumble into bags readily or fall into the open mouths of nets. They fly so closely that they cannot well escape, as when they turn slightly out of their course they come into contact with the other gra-sshoppers nest to them. . . The hopper is first so thoroughly dried out in the heat of the sun or in the b<*ke oven that there is nothing left that is really objectionable, and a nice, crispy article of food results. This tastes sweet oi itself, and something like ginger-snaps. The natives usually sweeten the grasshoppers more by using a sprinkling of brown sugar. Then the confectioners make up grasshopper with sugar, chocolate trimmings, and coloured candies in such a way that a very nice tasting piece of confectionery is obtained. The housewife of the Philippines takes considerable delight in placing before you a nice grasshopper pie or cake. The grasshopper pie is the most wonderful dish, as the big hoppers are prepared in such a way that they do not lose their foim or any of their parts. Care is taken to keep the grasshoppers intact, and they are artistically arranged on the top crust of the pie, while in the interior are some of the broken hoppers mixed with special foods. The grasshopper cake has the grasshoppers sprinkled through it, and resembles plum or raisin cake. In some sections of the islands the natives grind the crispy hoppers into a fine powder, and this powder is used for making articles of food, and in some places it is reduced to liquid form and taken as an article of drink. Another article of food which is relished by the natives is procured by collecting large quantities of moths from the rocks of the mountainous regions. In several spots in the mountains in Panay and othar islands of the southern portion of the Philippine group I saw moths existing so thickly in the rocky fissures that they could ,be scraped off into buckets by the quart. The moths seemed to mass in the crevices. and there hang. One could get a barrftl of the moths in a very short while. The natives have not failed to investigate the worth of the moth as an ariicle of focd, and they use the insect in large quantities. Their mode of catching consists in gcing to the hills in parties of a doren or more with the proper bags and articles for collecting the moths. The scraping process is used in some section's of the islands, while in Negros Isle particulaily I noticed that they adopted a different scheme. Here they spread a bamboo mat on the ground beneath an overhanging colony of the moths, and then proceed to distuib the insects with the point of a spear or piece of bamboo. The little insects lose their hold and drop to the mat. They are slow of action, and before they can crawl away the game is bagged. The dainty natives will not eat the wings or the heads of the little moth, and so they now take steps to remove these objectionable parts. This operation consists in ci eating heat to such an extent that the tissues in the head and wings become baked and crumble off. The natives accomplish this end by cutting holes in the earth, in which hot* fires are burned until the earth is quite hot. Then the hot coals are taken away and the moths are put into the highly -heated openings. The intense heat crisps the heads and wings to ashes so that when removed from the hole and subjected to a sifting operation through netting, the powxlcred parts are sifted off, leaving only the body. This process aKo does away with the legs. Often the moths in their present stage of preparation are eaten with some sugar or with other ar- j ticks of food. Agam the moths aie used , in conjunction with othei mixtures of food j in the form of pudding and prepaied dishes, i The cojoanut is hbeially übfcd m nnxtuios with tlic moth and cocpanut cake aad ,iue

and moth fillings are common. Then in some instances the moth is again baked and reduced to powder by pounding in rice pounding bowls. The powder obtained in this way ib sweetened and used in various iorms.