Laoag hosts world’s longest boodle fight

Laoag residents and guests partook of a 5-kilometer feast on Feb. 27 offered in what the city believes is the longest boodle fight that could make the Guinness World Record. LEILANIE ADRIANO/ INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

LAOAG CITY—The boodle fight is a century-old tradition embraced by military cadets and is less combative as it sounds. Boodle is cadet slang for food, and a boodle fight means food is laid out from which all cadets are free to partake, according to the Philippine Military Academy’s yearbook, Academy Scribe.

To residents here, a five kilometer-long boodle fight, which the city hosted on Friday, followed the same tenet. Part of the city’s 19th Pamulinawen Festival, the boodle fight was intended to set a Guinness World Record.

But Mayor Chevylle Farinas said, “[This] boodle fight shows that regardless of status in life, all people get to eat in one table with the same food and using bare hands.”

Everyone did just that, digging into a main course of the Ilocano “pinakbet” (vegetable stew) and “igado” (meat stew), set on tables that lined the main streets here.

The feat was intended to beat a record set earlier by Camarines Norte province, which mounted a 2.3-km long boodle fight.

“[But] more than what the record may signify, the [Laoag City boodle fight] is a celebration of the pride that we all have as Ilocanos,” the event organizers said to lend context to the community undertaking.

All 80 villages of Laoag City, aided by nongovernment organizations and local businesses, cooperated to build the bamboo tables and to prepare and set the boodle fight for city residents.

“Our intention is to set a world record that will promote not only the city, but also its people,” said Ramon Formantes, chief of the Laoag City media office.

He said the boodle fight was properly documented by residents and guests from Metro Manila who were invited to witness the event. The photo and video documentation of the boodle fight would be forwarded to the Guinness Book for evaluation.

The feast began as soon as the 4:30 p.m. siren of the provincial capitol rang out, and people savored the community’s iconic recipes, like pinakbet.

Pinakbet, a meal associated with the Ilocos region, symbolizes the Ilocano’s frugal yet healthy lifestyle because it is a stew composed of whatever is in season, including eggplants, ampalaya (bitter melon), okra, chili and tomatoes. Leilanie Adriano, Inquirer Northern Luzon