Search on for ‘most beautiful’ bangus

DAGUPAN CITY — Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest Bonuan bangus of them all?

The answer will be known at 1 p.m. today as the first Dagupan City Bangus Rodeo featuring the search for the longest, the heaviest and the most beautiful bangus (milkfish) will be held in a roadshow in the city’s public market.

The event will also select the fastest bangus deboner and bangus eater.

These unusual contests are part of the first-ever Bangus Festival wherein this city also bids tomorrow for the World’s Longest Barbecue using bangus, pork, chicken and vegetables in the Guinness Records.

The festival is the brainchild of Mayor Benjamin Lim with the aim of marketing the Bonuan bangus here and abroad and promoting this city as the "Milkfish Capital of the World."

Now, how does one select the most beautiful bangus?

"By the mere look and smell, one can easily select a winner," said Manny Yao, festival chairman and Dagupan "Bangus" Jaycees president. "The ‘contestant’ must have red gills, perfect scales, uneven tails, small head, clear eyes and round belly and must not have an earthy taste (maablir in the dialect)."

Here are tips on how to spot a real Bonuan bangus:

The mouth is not big or wide. Bonuan bangus has a small mouth because it feeds on fine algae that grow at the bottom of the pond.

The lower part of the fin must be shorter than the top, because when the Bonuan bangus feeds on the fine algae the lower fin grazes the bottom.

The scales must be fine and smooth, a refinement caused by the fast-changing waters in Bonuan ponds which lie close to the Lingayen Gulf. This constant change of water also explains why Bonuan bangus does not have that earthy taste.

Finally, the real Bonuan bangus is neither lean nor fat and has a rounded, almost ovate, and firm tummy.