MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH KAKANIN

I love native kakanin!! My chilhood memories are filled with them because my grandmother on my mother's side made them for a living. Biko, puto, kuchinta, sapin-sapin, palitaw, bibingka, suman and a lot of other yummy stuff!!! I remember her making two big bilao's everytime, one for selling, and the other one to divide among her many apo's. My Nanay told stories about them walking long distances (from the now Valenzuela to Sta. Maria, Bulacan) just to sell my grandmother's kakanin especially during fiestas.

Mateo Family, no one in the family knew of this photo's
existence until a few years ago when my Tito Totoy
visited a relative of ours, and this photo was given to him.

I bet you don't know that there are many tpes of suman... among them are: antala (malagkit with coconut milk best eaten with minatamis), maruecos (the purple ones made from pinipig with latik in the middle, one of my favorites!), kamoteng kahoy (looks similar to maruecos but uses cassava instead of pinipig), suman sa ibus (like the ones sold in Antipolo), suman sa lihiya (the ones wrapped in dark green banana leaves and served with grated coconut and sugar on top (another one of my favorites!!) and many others.

Another one of my favorites is the kalamay. But... I am not too particularly fond of the ones sold in Antipolo (sorry!). What I love is the kalamay sold during fiestas and Christmas in our place and coincidentally made by our lola's. They're very thin and laid flat on banana leaves, so chewy and a bit sweet topped with a bit of latik and comes with a small packet of budbud (pan-roasted grated coconut) that you sprinkle on top just before eating... arrggghhh!! I miss that sooo much!! All the Lola's who used to make them are now gone, and I guess they were not able to pass the recipe on to their children :(

MATEO FAMILY
FRONT ROW: Mommy Celing, Inang Regina, Tata Bestre, Nanay Lilay
BACK ROW: Kuya Isaac, Tita Dela, Tito Nato, Tita Ete and Tito Totoy

I also love love love puto bumbong!! That purple elongated kakanin brushed with butter or margarine, with grated coconut and sugar mixed with toasted sesame seeds on top... yum!!!! It's one of the things I missed so much last Christmas because for the life of me I cannot find puto bumbong anywhere here in Oregon :( . I remember my Nanay and I going to Meycauayan (we live in Valenzuela which is about 2 jeepney rides away) just to be able to buy some puto bumbong near the big church there. I was never into drinking tea but somehow I loved having it with my puto bumbong. My Nanay told me that in the old times they did not use food coloring for puto bumbong, rather they use a dark-colored sticky rice called pirurutong. 

I have here a recipe for Bibingkang Malagkit that reminds me so much of the bibingka that my lola used to make that's why I named this after her.  INANG REGINA'S BIBINGKANG MALAGKIT:

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE BIKO:
2 cups malagkit (glutinous rice or sweet sticky rice)
2 1/2 cups kakang gata or thick coconut milk
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup brown sugar
3 pcs. pandan leaves (screwpine leaves)

FOR THE TOPPING:
1 1/2  cups thick coconut milk
1 cup brown sugar