BUSTOS, Bulacan—”Minasa,” an original food delicacy the rich exclusively prepared for them and their guests and was told as a product borne out of Spanish-inspired houses of the wealthy folks here during the old times which recently have been one of the Overseas Filipino Workers and Balikbayans most favorite Bulacan sweets pasalubong will take center stage recognition during a Minasa Festival here was started last Jan. 16.
Lourdes Cruz, a 75 years old retired teacher and one of the pioneer makers of minasa, dubbed as the “meryenda ng mayayaman ng kahapon’ said the cookies they sold at P140.00 per plastic jar are most in demand by OFW and Balikbayans as their keep-sake food stuffs for their families, friends and work mates in foreign countries where they stay.
With around ten makers of minasa in this town and the industry to yet has a minimal of only close to P2 million worth of investment, the distinct one town one product pasalubong food stuff of Bustos is well known especially by many Filipinos abroad.
Cruz said their regular buyers and customers who came to their stores and manufacturing sites in this town are not only OFW’s and Balikbayans from the province but even came from as far as Ilocos, Batangas, Quezon and Cebu who would make a detour here when they are in Manila just for jars and containers of their minasa.
She said their last Christmas sale especially for the Balikbayans and OFW’s rose to more than P200,000 excluding the sales from different government and private agencies as part of the Christmas party baskets and give-away.
Cruz said she belongs to the fifth generation of “meryenda ng mayayaman kahapon” makers who rose from the later less richer and middle class group of the original minasa makers.
Minasa, she said is formerly and originally a favorite home-made merienda of only the wealthy and rich folks in this town which they exclusively prepared for them and their guests during feasts and other special occasions during the Spanish time.
She said that time, the minasa cookies, known as minasa because of the literal and actual hand mixing and flattening of the flour mixture or batter are not yet being sold commercially.
But, over the years, even those from the middle class and even the poor managed to learn to prepare and cook this minasa because the maids and workers they have in their haciendas and houses who they ask to join them and help them while preparing the minasa came from the poor class of residents.
“ Ang tawag namin dito ay meryenda ng mayayaman kahapon. Mayayaman lang talaga ang nakakakain nito noong una, pero kalaunan, may natuto na ring mga nasa middle class hanggang sa yung iba kahit mahirap natuto na irng gumawa nito,” she said.
She said the minasa uses cassava flour, egg yolk, coconut milk, sugar and margarine are being made and baked by the rich using their own old style process especially the “minasa” or the literally mixing by the hands alone the batter of mixture for the cookie product.
Cruz recalled she was just a small girl when she heard her ancestors talking to one another expressing joy over their learning of how to make minasa.
“Tuwang tuwa yung mga lola namin nung matutuo na silang magluto ng minasa, sinabi nila sa sarili nila na pwede na rin silang masabing mayaman kasi marunong na silang gumawa ng minasa at nakakakain na rin sila nito,” she said.
It was only in late 1980’s when she decided to make pieces of the cookies and sold them in their store here for some experimental purposes and as a continuous work to be busy with for her retirement in teaching work.
Called the “Fe’s Minasa,” her and her family’s cookie products was the original maker of the minasa of Bustos that continue to bake today the delicious minasa. Cruz store, house and baking area is located just opposite the municipal government hall and compound in Poblacion.
She said all her four children, all males knew how to prepare and bake the minasa. There are times, she said, they bake the cookies with the names of each of his son as the molded designs based on their own clamors and requests.
After all the ingredients are mixed, they will be placed in a wooden mold with usually floral designs which they use up to this time and they will be cut into smaller pieces before they are placed on top of an aluminum tray for baking inside huge oven.
Before, Cruz, said, the rich make their minasa just like how bibingka was being cooked, with flames on top and at the bottom. But, during these days, oven helped them a lot in easier and speedier baking. She said they still keep with her the old cooking gadget of the rich people in her town and plan to preserve and keep it in her baking spot.
Cruz said their preparations from mixing was made better and lighter through the help of the Department of Science and Technology after it gave them worth close to P400,000 worth of mixer, cutter and molder.
Mayor Arnel Mendoza who is the first local official of Bustos who gave interest in further promoting the minasa industry in the town out of the Festival said their notion of the minasa cookies since they were small kids was show different yet still related to the minasa as the rich folks of this town’s favorite merienda during feasts.
Mendoza said they usually heard from old folks that minasa cookies are made by rich people in their town so as to still make good use of the pales and pales of left egg yolks which are remnants of the egg white used during those times in sticking the piles of bricks used in the construction of Spanish-styled houses.
“Yung ang kuwento sa amin, lumaki kami sa ganoong kuwento, ginagamit ng mayayaman yung claro ng itlog sa pagdidikit ng mga bricks pag gawa ng bahay noong Spanish time at yung mga asawa nilang mga babae, para hindi matapon at masayang lang ang pula ng itlog, ginawa silang cookies na tinawag nilang minasa,” he said.
Arnold Beltran, Bustos municipal secretary said some of the famous Mercado and Mateo Spanish-inspired houses in their town built in 1853 and 1888 were said to have used egg whites as in between sticky materials for the bricks and stones.
“Karaniwan ng mga bahay na iyan ay pag-aari ng mga land lords, yung pula ng itlog ginagawang minasa para ihanda pag may special na okasyon at panregalo sa mga bisita nilang mayayaman,” Beltran said.
The mayor recalled the rich people formerly use the extract of sago plant which are abundant in their town before switching using the cassava flour which is presently being used today.
Mendoza who said the minasa business in Bustos is still a cottage industry believes it will further grow bigger in years to come as more families and businessmen may also invest in the business to meet the demand abroad and even in local market.
The Minasa Festival will also highlight a street dancing competition highlighting the cookies and in the uniform tune of Minasa Song Festival sang by known band Escabeche in the country whose members are from Bustos and adjacent Baliuag town.