Calasiao

Calasiao is a municipality of 100,000 people (2020) in Pangasinan.

Understand
Calasiao has rich farmlands planted mainly with palay or rice, coconuts and mangoes. Calasiao also has a lot of fishponds along its rivers and wetlands, where fish like bangus (milkfish), pantat (catfish), and tilapia are raised, and a Coca-Cola bottling plant.

Get in
Calasiao is about 2-hour ride from Baguio and a four-hour ride from Manila.

Get around
Local travel is usually by Jeepney or tricycle.

See
Many pilgrims from neighbouring cities/towns and provinces visit Calasiao to pray at the Señor Divino Tesoro shrine, every May 2 and 3. The statue of a crucified Jesus Christ is believed to grow in size and grant miracles.

Do
Calasiao is a short ride to the Bonuan Blue Beach and the Hundred Islands in the Lingayen Gulf.

Every December the town celebrates the Puto Festival.

Every 28 and 29 June is the fiesta of San Pedro and San Pablo.

Buy
It has three malls: Fiesta Mall and Robinsons Place.

Bocayo (sweetened coconut) and dinuguan are also the best products of Nalsian Bacayao and Nalsian Centro.

Eat
The most popular delicacy is the puto made in pure "malagkit" rice. Calasiao is known for its puto, a soft rice cake; suman, a sweet coconut and sticky rice cake wrapped in banana leaves; and bagoong, or fermented fish paste. Calasiao puto is described as the town's "white gold." Calasiao puto is a bite-size, soft rice cake made from semi-glutinous rice that is fermented in earthen jars. It is produced mainly in Barangay Dinalaoan.

The Calasiao puto is a rice cake that is well known all over the Philippines for its melt-in-the-mouth feeling. It is locally sold along the streets going to Sr. Divino Tesoro.

It is known for its "white gold": "cup-shaped, bite-sized, soft rice cakes; the semi-glutinous rice is fermented in old earthen jars" (in villages of Dinalaoan, Lumbang, Ambuetel, and part of Nalsian).

Calasiao puto is made of long grain rice soaked in water, ground and fermented for three days of more, with just enough sugar to taste, and steamed. It can be topped with cheese or drizzled with chocolate syrup for variation. It is perfect to be paired with dinuguan. The town has the traditional white puto and many flavors like pandan (green), ube (violet), banana (yellow), strawberry (light red/pink) and cheese (gold).

The original white puto and kutsinta (another rice cake variety) is sold at P80 per kilogram (70 to 75 pieces), while the flavored ones are sold at P80 per kg. The price is higher by ₱15 to ₱20 in other areas to cover transportation costs.





Drink