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.
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| 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 :(
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| 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
