DRIED FISH

For most travelers passing by the municipality of Santo Tomas, Damortis is undoubtedly the busiest dried selling area in the southern part of La Union. It is as if the “cabisera” of the town since it is the only barangay with its own market, a church and other commercial establishments which plays a big factor the income of this fourth class municipality.

Sto. Tomas, which has a land area of 3,242 hectares, has long shoreline covering eleven out of 24 barangays. Aside from the protracted coastline, there is also a lake at the western part of Tococ and Balaoc called the Capeng-peng Lake. At the west of Poblacion, is the location of the immense Raois Lagoon. These bodies of water are, to a great extent, suitable and well known for its aquaculture farms for milk fish or bangus, oyster or “tirem” that are incomparable to other towns producing the same.

Fishing is the major occupation of the people in the town. Apparently, this explains why people are so closely knitted with dried fish processing and other related fish processing.

The line-up of stalls along the frenzied highway is well adorned with the vendors’ finished products which cost P 100 to P 400 pesos a kilo. It is a lot cheaper if you are going to buy per  pack because it only costs as affordable as P 30 to P 80 pesos.

In the vernacular, some of the common fishes the villagers treat are the “dalag-baybay”, “turay”, “danggit”, “espada”, squid or “pusit”, “sapsap”, among others. There are also shrimps, big and small, “banak” and “pusan”, which are enormously preferred by most Ilocanos.   Needless to say, men in the family even go to the other provinces like Pangasinan and as far as Bataan just to catch fishes.

It is carefully packed to be more enticing to the customers. Some are formed like a flower, a wind vane, or just contained in a transparent plastic bag.

One favorite among the buyers is the dried milkfish to complete a yummy breakfast. If not, a half dried bangus soaked in a mixture of calamansi, soysauce, garlic and pepper.

Some are process as delectable fish tocino, which is a counterpart of Cebu’s tuna tocino. It has  been derived and cured from deboned shark.

The famous “espada” are frequently sold at P 300 pesos a kilo. In description, it is a long, quite flat and silvery white fish. It is processed either whole or cut.

Aside from the dried fishes and smoked fish products, the fisher folks, who are also farmers, make the peculiar anchovy, “alamang”, “padas”, and patis.

Not only in the town where dried fish selling is so rampant, but the residents also bring their catch or dried fish products to other towns and even to private and government offices where they sell it either in cash or installment.

Sto Tomas., which was one of the twelve original towns, was created in 1764 through a Spanish Royal Decree. Spanish authorities named it after Saint Thomas de Aquinas, the town’s first patron saint. Now, it is St. Mary of the Sea whom they pay homage to every October 2 every year.