“I trust Christmas brings to you its traditional mix of
good food and violent stomach cramps.”
Ebenezer Blackadder in
'Blackadder's Christmas Carol' (1988)
Its eight days to go before Christmas! I really can feel it. There
is a lot of heavy traffic due to Christmas shopping and Christmas parties
everywhere. Oh! Poor wallet of mine, it is nearly empty. Just kidding but I'm
not here to talk about how my savings for the last months were just about to be
drained instead I'll be giving my insights about food and drink, mainly, and
anything that goes with it.
For now, I'd like to share to you about the Filipino sweet
delicacies commonly served during Christmas time. I'm not giving any recipes
here for now since I'm still working on that myself. I focused my attention
about sweet delicacies because I love sweets! a lot. It is also our tradition that there should be a sweet in your handa for your Noche Buena on the Christmas Eve. So this might help you in planning what you'd like to prepare this holiday season.
Here's my top four sweet delicacies commonly served during
Christmas:
Puto Bumbong
When you here a whistling sound nearby, there is a Puto Bumbong
for sure. It is a kind of steamed rice cake made with a variety of glutinous
rice called pirurutong which gives off its
distinct purple color. Traditionally, it is cooked in a bamboo tube and steamed
until the moisture or steam rises out of the tube, usually it takes time to
be cooked . It is topped with butter and/or with desiccated coconut
and brown sugar. You can buy this near the church after you attend the
Simbang Gabi or anywhere in the street since there are new ways in which you
don't have to cooked it in a bamboo tube.
Bibingka
When there is Puto Bumbong, there will be also Bibingka nearby
too. Another kind of rice cake, Bibingka is made mainly with rice flour,
coconut milk or water. The other secondary ingredients are eggs and milk. Its
mixture is put on a star-shaped molder with banana leaf and cooked with
charcoal in the bottom and top of it. This results to a soft, spongy texture
and toasted banana leaf aroma mix with charcoal aroma. It is served with topped
salted egg or butter. Bibingka with lavish amount of toppings are called Bibingka
Espesyal. In the municipality of Baliuag in the Province of Bulacan,
Bibingka is served together with Salabat (Ginger Ale).
Ube Halaya
Ube Halaya is a dessert made from boiled and then grated purple
yam with coconut milk, sugar and for others they include condensed milk and
margarine. It takes almost a day to cook this food because of the tedious
pre-preparations like rinsing the Yam to the dirt then boiled it and other
stuff. Though it is a lot of hardworking to do, the taste of this delicacy is a
sure worth all the efforts you made. It is usually a Christmas hit food. It has been my family's tradition to cook Ube Halaya
every Christmas. The recipe that we use in making this has come from my great
grandmother at my father's side and passed on to my grandfather then to my
father. I'd like to learn how to cooked it because the way my father cooked this
Ube Halaya is really so good. It is ideal for business for those who are
looking for extra income this holidays and a gift for friends and neighbors.
Leche Flan
Creme Caramel, Flan or Caramel Custard, only Leche Flan among the
three sweets that I presented to you is not a Filipino origin. It came from
France and Spain. Leche Flan is a custard dessert with a layer of soft
caramel on top. There are a lot of ingredients used in making this but in our
country it is made of egg yolk and condensed milk mixture together thoroughly.
It is cooked in a steamer over open flame or stove top, I rarely see it cooked
in oven here in the Philippines. It is a hit in the Noche Buena table. One of
my favorite sweets.
So there you have it, my top four Filipino sweet delicacies
commonly served during Christmas time. I hope I help you with your Noche Buena
dilemma. You may leave any comments, suggestions or violent reactions on my
page. Thank you for reading and have a great day ahead. May you have a Merry
Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!
References:
www.wikipedia.org
www.expatch.org
Note:
The photos you see on this page are not from the author. It has
been copied from other websites for the author's convenience. The author
is not claiming any of those photos as hers.
