You can’t go to the Philippines and not eat rice cakes. We had our share of just about every way rice can be made into cakes.
We were lucky to find the one in the center of the photo above, it is called “patupat”. It is glutinous sweet rice that is cooked in a vat of sugarcane while it is being boiled down to become raw sugar. I remember seeing the process of extracting sugarcane juice and collecting it in a huge vat with fire blazing under it where it boils until it is reduced and thickened. It is in this mixture that “patupat” is cooked. Rice is encased in these square packets woven from bamboo leaves, and dropped into the boiling sugar cane to cook and absorb the unique sweetness of raw sugar cane. A recipe is available here. Thanks to my cousin Joy who hunted these delicacies down in La Union and delivered them to my grandmother’s house just so we could have a taste of it.
Other sweet delicacies we sampled were:
There are also the various baked products like ube cake, buko pie, mamon, enseymada, pan de sal, and more that I can’t remember at this moment. It’s no wonder we all gained weight despite the heat!
Click here for another photo of rice cakes from my friend Emer.
never heard about tupig before.. sus rice rice rice
talap… i love patupat i learned about it among my Ilocano friends here…
Hi purplegirl! thanks, yes, it was the girls’ first time going to the Philippines, and they enjoyed it, especially the foods! Hubby didn’t get to go with us this time around though π
Hi peggy! yes, we did have a great time. The weather was really nice, it stayed around mid 70’s to 80’s most of the time so it was perfect! We didn’t mind the warmth at all. π
Looks like you had a great time. I can’t wait to see the rest of the pictures as well as well as recipes. How warm was it?
welcome back, Jmom! i know, i know, you had a grand time. vacations to the Philippines always involve eating fests. i can’t wait for the rest of your pictures. was it your kids’ and hubby’s first time there?