WHEN WE ARRIVED IN Nagcarlan, Laguna, and asked for directions to Barangay (village) Buhanginan, we were told where to turn, but they called the place Binalot.

That certainly warmed the heart of Rommel Juan, president of the fast-food company Binalot, whose product is a mound of rice with viand (Filipino standards like adobo, tapa, tocino) wrapped in banana leaves.

The leaves come from this place we were looking for. Juan’s company established Dahon, a community livelihood that was initially put up to assure the company of a steady supply of banana leaves but later became much more than that.

When they started Binalot, Juan said they used to buy leaves from the wet market, and office workers would cut those into the desired size. Their next move was to go to the traders to provide the company cut leaves, what Juan termed as “value-added service.”

It was typhoon “Milenyo” in 2006 that hastened the next step for the company. Banana leaves had become scarce so the company went to the source, which turned out to be Nagcarlan. Dahon then began involving the community to plant, cut, clean, pack and deliver banana leaves.

One of the women who was busy cutting the leaves according to specified sizes said she was glad she could stay near her home and work. She could look after the children and earn much more than if she went to work at a factory because she had no transportation expense.

The men are involved mostly in the gathering and bundling of leaves to be brought to the cutting area. After that, they would bundle the cut leaves then deliver these to the Binalot office and to the other markets they now provide for, such as a “bibingka” and chicken “inasal” outlet.

The scraps from the leaves and stems are gathered in an open area. Juan said it will be a compost area. Dahon has also given chairs, books and paints for the barangay day-care center, and is now helping repaint the chapel.

Awards

For providing sustainable livelihood to a community, Binalot was given the 2007 UPS Centennial Award for “Out-of-the-Box” Small Business Solutions, and the 2008 Anvil Award of Merit.

Dahon is akin to another community-based project in Iloilo that provides the leaves for the many Mang Inasal outlets in the country.

Edgar Sia, its founder, said that the job opportunities of his business extended beyond the restaurant and into communities, one of which provided the barbecue sticks.

Juan said the idea for Dahon began when he attended the 2006 Asian Forum for Corporate Social Responsibility. It took only a year for that idea to be realized.

While the livelihood program was incentive enough for me to make the trip to Nagcarlan, the value-added aspect was the food I was told would be served by the town’s noted cooks.

We had arrived at lunch so a table was set for the guests to taste the specialties of the place. Menudong gulay was one, its ingredients described as lumpia vegetables, only diced with a bit of condensed milk to give that final creamy touch. The other was cubes of carabao meat cooked as adobo sa gata (braised in coconut milk). Both were unfamiliar, so I added that to my new learnings (I love keeping track). There were big grilled tilapia served with a tomato-onion side dish, and very tender nilagang baka (boiled beef). Dessert was composed of leche flan, halayang ube (purple yam jam) and ripe mangoes. We were also asked to try the banana chips, a product still in development. After all, the saba bananas can be another business opportunity.

E-mail pinoyfood04@yahoo.com.