Several pieces of saba (a thick and fat variety of banana) are boiled. While steaming hot, they are peeled and put in the wooden mortar (bayuhan) and pounded with a wooden pestle. Grated young coconut and muscovado sugar are added until well blended. This is eaten straight from the mortar while it is still hot.
This is a most delicious and delicate merienda snack from the Visayas. It is made with a very flaky crust (similar to crust of hopia, the Chinese beancake) and the filling is muscovado sugar. The piaya has to be baked on a homemade griddle over coal.
This is Enting Lobaton, a famous lechonero who roasted this young pig at my cousin’s backyard in Silay. The methods of cooking a lechon are legion and every region has its own secrets. Enting’s pig tasted of lemongrass because he used bunches of it to stuff the pig.
Dried fish is a necessity in a country with more than 7,000 islands. In a country where refrigeration is scarce, salting and drying fish is the only way to preserve food and feed its people. Market vendors usually arrange their fish in varying artistic patterns to attract buyers.
This is one of my most favorite kakanin (native desserts). Budbod means suman in Cebuano, but this suman is not really a traditional suman which is usually made of rice. This is made of millet which is cooked in coconut milk and sugar, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled in thin coconut milk again. Very buttery.
Puto means steamed rice cake and puti means white. There are other variations of puto such as purple yam (purple) or pandan (green) rice cakes. This is made by soaking the rice in water, grinding it and after adding sugar and baking powder, it is poured into colorful cups like this and steamed until cooked.
The Ilokanos are famous for their basi, sugarcane wine. They crush fresh sugarcane, squeeze the juice and boil it. The result is a form of molasses that they put into old, antique clay jars and let ferment. Within 3 – 6 months, then they have a dry or sweet wine which is similar to port.
The heads of these dried fish are woven together. Note the kalamansi (Philippine lime) artfully placed off center as a slight hint as to how you may enjoy the fish – something sour, of course.