Comments on: Rainy Day Comfort Food…

By: junb

junb — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:13:30 +0000

Google listed the scientific name as “Dioscorea luzonensis Schauer” also known as Camangeg in ilocano. Looks like a high school girl has found a good use of it as a cheaper alternative to Ube https://www.ilocostimes.com/jun11-jul01-07/feature_agri2.htm

By: atbnorge

atbnorge — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:33:48 +0000

@MM & Footloose, you’re curious, eh…That tuber in the link is what we call tungo. It is not mayatbang. The longest mayatbang I saw was nearly half a meter or maybe more because Father had to cut it…It’s like gold for a farmer because it is guaranteed sold the moment one finds it.

Good luck on your quest, MM!

By: charlie

charlie — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:08:24 +0000

Footloose mayatbang is about 18 to 24 inches long and about 3 inches in diameter(not a perfect circle). Tugi is a small root crop compared to mayatbang. We had some last April while I was in Manila. My father bought them from a vendor in Morong, Rizal. Just talked to my father he thinks it grows wild in the mountains of Rizal and Laguna as Atbnorge mentioned earlier.

By: Footloose

Footloose — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:25:50 +0000

Charlie and Atbnorge, could it be this?

https://www.stuartxchange.org/Tugi.html

By: Footloose

Footloose — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:55:35 +0000

Atbnorge, thanks. Sounds like yam. If it is indeed yam, it should be yummy then.

By: Marketman

Marketman — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:49:02 +0000

charlie and atbnorge, you have now given me another quest… to find this mayatbang at the FTI market… the hunt is on… :)

By: atbnorge

atbnorge — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:36:11 +0000

@Footloose, I can describe mayatbang as a tuber that grows long and burrows deep n the ground. It has white skin with small brownish dots. It doesn’t have a “tree” like cassava that one can cut into footlong sticks for planting. They just grow out there—somewhere in the forest. I am afraid I cannot tell if its plant is like that of a potato or a vine like ube (Father is no longer here to furnish that info). I haven’t heard mayatbang being domestically cultivated because I remember my father digging for them in the dense forest part of our farm in Antipolo, Rizal. Its flesh is very white when peeled and has a slippery consistency; it’s taste is nothing like gabi—more like ube. If one wants to buy them in the public market, one must be early because only a handful of small farmers have them…I wonder if only the Tagalogs know of this wild ingredient.

By: EbbaMyra

EbbaMyra — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:31:31 +0000

MM. Footloose: A farmer neighbor of mine in Quezon Province has a 30 year old Katmon tree which yield every year bountinful katmon which everybody ignores. On my annual visit there, I always make it to a point getting some of the fruits and eating it raw with salt and often wonder if I can use it for sinigang. I then asked my cousin caretaker to plant about 2-3 of this tree and he said only the birds can pick the right seed and drop it to ground. Well, I will research it more about this tree, since now I realized that this is only found in the Philippines and is considered endangered species.

As for another souring agent, dried kamias is allowed coming in the states, so I brought with me 3 packages of it, and placed in the ref. I just dehydrate them directly in the broth when I wanted to do sinigang na bangos. Ummm, makes me hungry…

By: Footloose

Footloose — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:29:22 +0000

Present tense, groannnn

Charlie, thanks, see I though it was a souring agent.

By: charlie

charlie — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:21:35 +0000

Mr MM & Footlose.. Mayatbang is a root crop that is like kamoteng kahoy. I called my father and he said he normally buys them by the road to Pililla Rizal or Taguig FTI market.