Putting out a cookbook might have been the last thing on their minds if Navy Ensigns Elmer Cruz and Emerson Rosales were still at duty— at sea or a naval facility. But incarceration has a way of drastically altering people’s lives, as the two young Philippine Military Academy alumni (Class of 2000) discovered first hand.

Cruz and Rosales are among the hundreds of Magdalo soldiers thrown in jail for their participation in July 2003 in what is now popularly known as the “Oakwood Mutiny.” The duo have turned to cooking, among other activities, to not just while away the time— and they have a lot of that in their hands—but also recreate the flavors they had savored during their childhood, their cadet years, and their stints at sea.

Rosales has sailed to Scarborough in the north, Palawan in the west, and General Santos, Davao, Zamboanga and Sulu in the south; Cruz has journeyed to as far north as Itbayat Island in Batanes and to as far south as Sibutu Island in Tawi-Tawi.

But pulutan?

Why not? After all, pulutan has been many a soldier’s trusty buddy (besides beer and spirits, of course) in good and bad times. Pulutan conjures the camaraderie that binds many Pinoys, including these idealistic soldiers. And Cruz and Rosales has yet to see a book devoted to the pulutan they adore.

From these soldiers’ galleys come piquant pulutan fashioned out of both plain and peculiar ingredients: terrestrial and aquatic creatures like woodworms, rice bugs, field mice, beetles, stingrays and sea urchins, and sauces concocted from pig bile and cow and goat intestinal juice.

Ensigns Cruz and Rosales and their contributors swear by all the entries in this recipe book. It’s a soldier’s pledge.

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