A.Paulita Roa IN the 1879 report of the priests of the Order of the Discalced Agustinian Recollects of the San Nicolas de Tolentino Province, it mentioned that there were large numbers of carabaos in Cagayan de Misamis (now Cagayan de Oro). I surmised that the carabaos then were both farm and dairy animals for their milk was a daily staple in the breakfast tables of the Kagay-anons Many swore that this milk tastes better and is much creamier that cow’s milk. For decades, Canitoan was the dairy center of Cagayan de Oro. Most of the residents owned a carabao or more and earned hefty incomes selling fresh carabao milk commonly known as “leche fresca” in the city every morning. I remember that the ritual of preparing the pamahaw or breakfast in our home ususally started at dawn. By then, the lecheras or lecheros from Canitoan were making their rounds in the houses of their sukis with their big covered baskets, delivering milk in sterilized bottles. Our cook would put the leche fresca on a pot and heat it on the stove. The the milk rose almost to the rim of the pot, it was removed from the stove and poured immediately to a big ceramic milk jug. My siblings and I were served leche fresca as soon as we sat down for breakfast. We were allowed to drink as many glasses as we liked, and we constantly vied as to who gets the nata or cream that was found on top of the milk. For the adults, their daily fix was cups of freshly brewed Merayon coffee paired with this rich and creamy liquid and that would definitely make their day great. Like most households in Cagayan, we made our own queseo or cottage cheese by putting a little vinegar and salt to the leche fresca. It is then cooked over slow fire, stirred occasionally till it hardens. Voila! We had queseo for breakfast! This is best eaten as a sandwhich preferrably with the pan de sal from Ah Fat Bakery. I miss this pan de sal for they were incomparable--crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside and not sweet. I liked to add guava jelly to my queseo sandwhich and the taste was simply divine. Sometimes, we fried the queseo and it was eaten with sinanglag or garlicky fried rice. Great for one’s cholesterol! Cagayan de Oro is famous for our puto which is a standout among all kinds of putos around the country. It is the leche fresca that accounts to its rich and exquisite taste. So also with our local version of the leche flan and the once popular leche crema. Then we have our pastillas de leche which is tostado and different from the soft ones from Bulacan but equally good. Our binake was made more delectable with young corn and the ubiquitous leche fresca. All these local delicacies relied heavily from the steady supply of carabao milk from Canitoan. But the ultimate is the sinfully rich leche fresca ice cream. This superb frozen dessert is largely made from carabao milk! This came from the old recipe of my father’s first cousin, Tita Trining Reyes-Pineda, and she first sold it commercially in the late 1950s in her coffee shop called “The Hideaway.” This was located on the first floor of her residence in Divisoria (now the site of Joni’s Chicken). The ice cream was a big hit and it was eaten with her special barquillos that was partly made with--carabao milk, of course! Today, Mitos Pineda-Ortigas revived the ice cream of her late mother and is now known as the “Caramilk Ice Cream” and is under the La Favorita brand. The taste is just as good as it was made more than 50 years ago. In the 1970s, the dairy industry of Canitoan was gone. The barangay’s verdant fields where the carabaos used to graze have been converted to subdivisions. The much missed carabao milk is now part of our childhood memories. There is a Carabao Center at the Central Mindanao University but it cannot supply the city like Canitoan did years ago because it is located in Musuan, Bukidnon. Also, many of us now prefer dairy products in powder form. However, let us not forget the immense contribution of Canitoan’s fresh milk to the food culture of Cagayan de Oro--that, plus several generations of robust Kagay-anons!