Nueva Ecija's bulalong kalabaw sa mangga is a must-try!

When talking about bulalo, the first thing that often comes to mind is the beef shanks it is made of or the similarity in flavor to nilaga. So you can't blame people who may be a little thrown off if you offer them a bulalo that has a sour taste.

But this is exactly the bulalo that brought fame to a bulalo restaurant in Nueva Ecija - the bulalong kalabaw sa mangga. Good News visited this bulalo restaurant to find the story behind this unique dish.

Edmond's Bulaluhan sa Sapang in Jaen, Nueva Ecija is the bulalo restaurant that sells the bulalong kalabaw sa mangga. Its current owner is Edmond Magtalas, who is known as the area's bulalo master. According to him, the recipe for this specific bulalo started with his family.

Edmond took over the family's bulalo restaurant when his parents started to age and he offered to run the business in their stead. This is when he first thought of selling the family's bulalong kalabaw which uses local mangoes as a souring ingredient. His parents thought of using mangoes because these mangoes are one of the principal products of the town of Jaen.

Despite the fact that this bulalo tastes very different from what they're used to, the bulalo restaurant's customers eventually came around and began to enjoy this unique dish. In fact, the restaurant claims that they are able to consume 300 kilos of carabao meat in the space of a day.

Just like other businesses, Edmond's Bulaluhan sa Sapang encountered a lot of hardship during the height of the pandemic. To survive, their restaurant opened up online orders to earn even a little during the pandemic.

Thanks to their unique bulalo, Edmond has been able to send his daughter to college, and even invest in a car and a nipa hut.

Watch the whole video below.