TAHONG FESTIVAL

Different cuisines with tahong as main ingredient are on exhibit at the town plaza. Culinary contest are held annually. Various activities are done such as beauty contest. Tahong symposium and seminars are held for culture of Tahong.
 
In promoting this delicacy, the provincial government conducted an event/ festival called the Tahong Festival.
 
It is celebrated yearly every September 29.
 
Part of this celebration is preparing cuisines with tahong as main ingredient for an exhibit at the town plaza. There are also culinary contests and beauty contest. The celebration also tends to inform people about the culture of tahong by conducting seminars.
The Philippine green mussel, locally popular as "tahong", is known to all Filipinos. It is rich in iodine, iron, phosphorus, calcium, carbohydrates, protein and vitamins A, B, B2 and C.

Also known as the Asian green bay mussel, tahong is affordably cheap and has a good nutritive value. It can be prepared and served in different ways such as tinolang tahong, adobong tahong, baked tahong and ginataang tahong among others.

In Samar, in the town of Jiabong, tahong is widely cultured. It has been considered as the "Tahong Capital of the Philippines" with more than 3,000 hectares of potential mussel farms, with around 160-200 hectares devoted for tahong farming in Jiabong, and supplies the biggest volume of tahong toManila, Cebu and Davao.

With the large supply available, residents of Jiabong took advantage of this and were able to process them into tahong crackers. Tahong crackers contain no preservatives and no artificial ingredients. It is made from ground tahong flesh mixed with spices, flour and deep fried in oil (but some might not like it as it smells of rancid oil!).