When you speak about General Santos City (GenSan) located in the most Southern tip of Mindanao, you speak about fish; the tuna (Bariles) fishing industry is strongly present in General Santos City. From the airport and harbour large amounts of processed tuna, acclaimed as the most fresh and the best in quality, is sent too many markets around the globe, the city’s ports are daily processing the largest total of fish landings in the country. General Santos City truly deserves to be named as the Tuna Capital of Asia; it is no wonder that many restaurants and smaller eateries (carinderias or turo-turo) offer tuna as their main dish, the word “tuna” is prominently displayed on colourful billboards outside various food outlets. You can order it cooked fried, grilled, as soup and even raw; the grilled tuna is a best seller, but one of the most delicious appetizers is probably “Kinilaw na Tuna”, a raw fish salad that is usually consumed as “pulutan”. A phrase derived from the Filipino word “pulutin” literally meaning "something that is picked up" or “Finger Food”. But there is no fish on the table without a harbour; the Makar Wharf is the main international public port of the city and one of the best open dockyards in the Philippines. The busy anchorage lies at the head of Sarangani Bay, stretching from the Bay from Tampuan to Sumpang Point. Makar Wharf connects General Santos to foreign as well as domestic routes and is equipped with up-to-date facilities. Not far from the Makar Wharf is the Fisher port Complex, a traditional fishing village where you can see hard working fisherman dragging huge, fresh tunas on their shoulders. From first daylight till late in the evening the fish port is a beehive of activities, the larger tuna, some of them can weigh about 150 kilograms, are hauled in nets from the big trawlers and characteristic pump boats and brought to the local fish auction and markets.
↧