In the Timoga Cold Spring Pools, a complete meal is easy to be had. Timoga Cold Spring is located in Barangay Buruun, Iligan City. It is a cold spring resort owned by the popular Marzo family who are obviously gifted with such treasure and abundance. The Marzo family owns practically most of the resorts that lines up the highway, there are about more than five resorts in Timoga. To name some Holiday, Spring Pool, Mimars, Marvillas and a resort with the Olympic size pool. It is easy to locate Timoga, a tourist will never get lost looking for this place because it is located just across the national highway and beside Gloria Macapagal’s Ancestral Home.
Abundance of Water
While the rest of the world are hinting at a possible war of water, this neat little place, have so much water enough to supply thrice the number of population in Iligan City. The water that drains stupendously and continuously into the manmade commercial pools and away into the nearby sea comes from the underground cold springs. This is a fact that refutes the old folks’ belief that the water comes from the mythical Lanao Lake, home of the indigenous Maranao people. So that sets the issue of customary rights at rest.
Food: The Visayan Tradition
Food is a lucrative business. It is also a delicious topic to talk about. Just across the resort are small stores and restaurants that display the old-age customs of the Visayans. Visayans are the Cebuanos and the Boholanos from the Visayas who have migrated to the area a long time ago bringing with them their tradition in food.
Puso is rice steamed in woven young coconut fronds in the shape of a diamond. Young coconut fronds still in their yellowish and barely green maturity are necessary for the puso. These are woven with a special skill learned and handed down from generations to generations. Most of the old folks in the place where I come from know this tradition of weaving. These diamond shape rice that sometimes pass for the shape of heart are hung like trinkets and decorative arts pieces on the stalls. I’ve never seen a puso in Luzon, the closer I got was a sweet malagkit delicacy from Pangasinan and La Union. Rice in puso has a wonderful aroma of the rice and the steamed fronds combined that ups anybody’s appetite.
Eating with Bare Hands
Puso is convenient for picnics because you do not need to bring eating utensils and containers. In picnics and especially after swimming, food is eaten with bare hands. Swimmers assume that the hours of swimming have ridden the hands of dirt so it is clean. The use of a spoon and a fork in eating the puso will look ridiculous and awkward because the rice has caked enough for it to be eaten like a drumstick without the stick.
Lechon
Cebu concocts the best tasting lechon in the country. The people in northern Mindanao, mostly Cebuanos have also mastered the secret of roasting pig. What makes the lechon delectable are the spices that are mixed in the gut of the poor pig. Mango leaves, lemon grass, paminta, bell pepper, salt, vinegar, garlic, onions and 7up or sprite. Lechon is a common and regular menu in any parties big or small. In northern Mindanao we do not need the sarsa that the southerners use for their lechon. Here, the lechon when cooked do not need the sarsa. It is good as it is. The best part is always the reddish-orange crispy skin and the meat on the ribs which has marinated and perfectly cooked with the aroma of the spices.
Pinakurat
It is always good to eat more during picnics so that to increase the appetite further, coconut vinegar with fresh hot chili, kalamansi and soy sauce is the perfect dip. Iligan City however produces and manufacture the famous Pinakurat sauce which is also a perfect combination with the lechon. With pinakurat, the appetite is stimulated and more can be eaten to satisfy the senses.
Chedings
For dessert, Cheding’s roasted peanuts is best. The greaseless peanut and a coke is a perfect combo for an in-between meal. There is no need to worry about extra calories and cholesterol with Cheding’s peanuts. It is a healthy snack.
The complete all-year “summer” package is served right at the doorstep of Timoga: swimming in a pool of cold natural spring water, freshly steamed puso, steaming hot crispy lechon, the deliciously stinging bite of the pinakurat and the munchy Cheding’s peanuts. These make up a complete and perfect meal for a picnic.
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