Click to view full screen
- Title:
- Parched Locust
- Date Created:
- 2021-04-28
- Description:
- The pirates anchored in Bashee’s waters (northern Batanes) on August 6, 1687. They were greeted with a welcome drink: sugarcane juice boiled with small black berries then cured in great jars for 3 to 4 days till the excellent liquor became clear. The visitors called it Bashee Drink and it was served to them in every house they visited. The crew bought goats then salted them. It was the season for a sort of locust that devoured potato leaves. So the islanders caught them in nets, “parched them over fire in an earthen pan; and then their wings and legs would fall off, and their heads and backs would turn red... Their bodies being full, [they] would [be] very moist, their heads would crackle in one’s teeth.” Preparing to sail off in October they salted 70-80 good fat hogs, noted to have naturally sweet flesh, and bought yams and potatoes that made good store to eat at sea. They made off for the Red Sea hoping to pass the Spiceries but avoiding English and Dutch ships.
- Subjects:
- Sugarcane Bashee Drink Wine and wine making -- Batanes (Philippines) Hunting Voyages and travels
- Exhibition:
- Dampier 1686
- Source:
- Postcard showing Batanes houses. Early 20th century. FSM Collection.
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Parched Locust", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll207.html