Another fond food memory I have of the
Philippines were the vendors who wandered up and
down our street, announcing at the top of their lungs
what it was they were hawking. There was the guy
who would yell out, Puto! (a white cupcake-sized,
subtly sweet steamed spongey rice cake) and its
Robin-esque sidekick Kutchinta! (a similarly-sized
glutinous rice cake that’s much sweeter, caramel in
color and topped with coconut) – both of which
would be served on banana leaves (talk about cheap,
organic, biodegradable and renewable!). There was
also the other chap who would carry a long pole on
his shoulders. One each end of the wooden staff
would be tied buckets. One bucket would be filled
with silken tofu and the other would contain a sweet
dark, syrup with little tapioca pearls. We kids would
run up to him in our chinelas (“flip-flops”) and ask
for a “cinco lang” (“only five centavo”) portion of taho
– which is a small cupful of the tofu topped with the
syrup. It was a great merienda (“mid-day snack”).
And there was also the halo-halo (“mix-mix”) man,
who was the absolute savior of those who suffered
from the tropical Filipino humidity. Halo-halo is the
more labor-intensive Filipino version of shave ice. The
halo-halo guy would shave snow from a big block of
ice using a hand plane and good old-fashioned elbow
grease. He then topped it with sweet ingredients like
condensed milk, langka (jackfruit), sweet red beans,
and bite-sized jellies of various colors. Sometimes
he’d even have ube (purple yam) ice cream which
would add a little bit of savoriness into the mix-mix.
Puto
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Photo by Obsidi♠nSoul
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Photo by KC Sacramento,
via Wikimedia Commons