Bohol's "Egg Recipe Contest"

CEBU, Philippines – It had been some years since I last visited Bohol, but I still remembered very clearly my trip to this beautiful island. In 1972, I was assigned as veterinary clinician to the Bohol Cattle Corporation owned by then Speaker Cornelio Villareal in Trinidad, Bohol. It was very lonely living inside the 800-hectare ranch until I discovered beautiful neighbors in the nearby town of Ubay.

I recently received an invitation to be judge of the Egg Recipe Contest during the Agri Food Fair of Sandugo 2015. The contest was aimed to promote egg consumption. The theme was: "An Egg a Day is Okay!" The cooking fest was sponsored by the Universal Feed Mill Corporation (Unifeeds) and ALLTECH Biotechnology Phils., with support from the Bohol Provincial Agriculture Office and Nutrimart Enterprises Inc.

My fellow judges were Ms. Teresita A. Bernido, Section Head, Office of the Bohol Provincial Agriculturist; Dr. Grant Amoncio, Marketing Head, ALLTECH Biotechnology Phils.; Chef Ella Mae Labunog, who has worked with Alain Ducasse, France and owner of Estrella Bakery and Painitang Bol-anon; and Rey F. Evangelista, Asst.Vice President for Operations of Unifeeds. I was chairman of the board of judges. Unifeeds Sales and Marketing Asst. Sharon Servande tallied the judges' scores.

The contest required that 1) an egg dish must utilize at least 12 eggs - 12 white and 12 yolk or 12 whole eggs; 2) a single dish shall be cooked on site and to be exhibited in a container not exceeding 18 inches long. The scoring system totalled 100 points, distributed as follows: Recipe (10 percent), Taste (65 percent), Appearance of Dish (15 percent) and Food Safety (10 percent).

With those rules, I had anticipated that apples would be compared to oranges. True enough, during the actual competition, main dishes like the Moringa Egg Omelet were compared to desserts like the Swiss Roll. An interesting entry was a drink with eggs, Special Kinutil, prepared by the "3 Musketeers." The contestants brought everything including a gas-powered oven.

The cooking contest began at 10 a.m. Then there was a short break for lunch at the Gerarda's Restaurant. We had Crispy Tadyang, Seafood Kare-kare (seafood stew with peanut sauce) and Dinakdakan (roast pork belly with spices, mayonnaise and coconut milk). I ate very little. Judging was scheduled right after lunch, and if your belly is full, all food will lose its appetizing taste; while if you are hungry, everything will taste delicious.

The winning entries and the participants were: First Place - Moringa Egg Omelet (by Canjulao League of Women); tying at Second Place were Tinapa Rice (by Albur Rural Improvement Club) and Swiss Roll (by Bood Rural Improvement Club). The rest received consolation prizes. The Moringa (a.k.a. Kamungay) Egg Omelet won because it was delicious and scored well in presentation. By the way, in Bohol, the word 'tinapa' means canned fish and not smoked fish!

Competitions like the "Egg Recipe Contest" should be encouraged because it promotes correct nutritional intake and at the same time improves cooking skills.