Philippine Food Illustrated

Inagonon - /i-na-gun-on/ Waray [eastern Leyte] pre-colonial dish [n.] fish cooked in vinegar.

Similar local dishes

a.k.a. inagun-on in Waray
inon-on in Bicolano
inun-onan in Cebuano, Boholano, Waray (present day)
paksiw in Tagalog
paksi in Capampangan
nilengla in Ilocano

piyalam in Tausug

A pre-colonial Waray-waray dish in Eastern Visayas. It is the inon-on of Bicolanos; the inun-onan of Cebuanos, Boholanos, and present-day Warays; paksiw of Tagalogs; paksi of Capampangans; nilengla of Ilocanos; and piyalam of Tausugs. The grandparents of present-day adobos.

Photo credit to Kyle Closets on Facebook

Inagonon of Butuan

I could only trace inagunon (or inagun-on) still exists in Butuan where mangko (a.k.a. pirit or tulingan, bullet tuna) is the kind of fish used in this dish. Why inanogon is in Butuan is not a puzzle at all. Leyteños brought it there. Demographically, the populace of Agusan del Norte (where you can find Butuan City) include a large number of migrating Leyteños. In fact, I have a number of close relatives there who came from western Leyte and relatives of my wife from eastern Leyte.

You know this dish?

The Warays of pre-colonial eastern Visayas (Leyte) used to sing the song Tagay preserved by Myles Mariano in a literary work he shared, Philippine Literature. The song mentioned inagonon as their pulutan (food served in drinking session).

An Ilocano friend of mine shared an anecdote - that while in Grade 6 (about five decades ago), he was with a choral group and sang the song they fondly called Igduhol-duhol and won 2nd place at the regional level competition. His younger sister made it to the national championship and won. They were told that it was a favorite song of former First Lady Imelda Marcos, who is a Waray from eastern Leyte. The kids were trained to sing and play the piano by a certain Sister Alice. Apparently unfamiliar with the Waray language, Sister Alice told the kids it was a Visayan love song. Convinced, the kids sang it to the best tune of their hearts, and they won! Hahaha.

The song was actually titled Tagay and it mentioned inagonon as a pulutan. If the fish is actually cooked and preserved in vinegar, it is something to think of why inagonon should be consumed all the way in one day or else they could not have it anymore the next day. The reason must not be because it would spoil soon, but peer pressure to finish a serving so they could be served with more drinks and pulutan. Binge drinking in those times was known to last for days or a week.

I made my own translation of the song as the one shared by Myles Mariano appeared to be lost in translation on some of the lines. Obviously, the one who wrote that translation is not familiar with the Waray language.

By the way, I still don’t know the tune of the song. I expect to receive the audio from a friend who introduced me to this very old Waray-waray song a few years ago.

All photos by Edgie Polistico are copyrighted.

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