Pililla Eats

As mentioned in my previous post, I spent Holy Thursday and Easter morning doing missionary work in Pililla, Rizal, a rural poor town about 50km north of Makati. Before I start talking about some of the local food I just wanted to share this picture.

St Mary Magdalene Parish Church in Pililla is 425-years old and made of stone. It’s been preserved and restored amazingly well and I’m sorry I didn’t get to take a snapshot of it. But this is a photo of the Virgin Mary in the Church’s courtyard. It’s a pretty huge statue, probably 6 ft tall or so? The church takes care of 4 dogs and I found this scene after having dinner with my co-missionaries and parish priest. The dogs really know whom to seek for shelter!

Anyway, here’s some local food I came across in the Church parking lot.

I love love love peanuts, especially local ones. Planter has nothing on Pinoy roasted garlic peanuts, and I’m not talking about the junky MSG-laden nuts too! A 1-1.5 oz bag of roasted garlic peanuts was P10 or 21 US cents which was a nice distraction from falling asleep during Christ’s 7 Last Words (sorry Jesus). When I take the bus home from my real job (okay I’ve done it twice only) I love buying the same paper bag full of joy. Yum yum.

You can find this happiness-on-a-stick anywhere in the country but it was especially wonderful in Pililla as we trudged through one of the 3 processions we attended. The tindero didn’t skimp on the brown sugar, thank God. I think it was also P10 for 2 saba bananas.

This cart is owned by a man I like to call Green Mango Guy. His cart is attached to his bike so he can pedal wherever he pleases, peddling his awesome green mangoes.

You can tell he’s a skilled green mango connoisseur – he knows where to cut in the right places and how to carve out the skin.

He lays each green mango in a plastic bag on egg crates for easy display to the salivating customers. I recommend getting the green mango that almost looks yellow / ripe.

Didn’t I say he was an expert? He isn’t like us regular folk who cut out mango skin piece by piece. He carves out the skin in one piece, which looks very octopi-like.

This is one thing you won’t find anywhere else, I tell you. Green Mango Guy makes his own ultimate green mango topping: chili salt. He pounds rock salt with sili labuyo / bird’s eye chili until the chili goodness melts into the salt. He then sieves off the chili, leaving this perfectly orange-hued spicy salt (the other topping option was bagoong or fermented salted shrimp paste that smells like the death of the ocean).
The perfect merienda: ripe-ish green mango topped with chili salt. Bliss for only P7 or 15 US cents. I miss this already!

I love love love Green Mango Guy’s chili salt. I think other variations that would work well with green mango are
[1] salt + chili + sugar, and
[2] salt + chili + fried garlic

More veg finds at the Salcedo Market Part 2: Vegan MoFo #14

Other vegan finds at the Salcedo Market include:

Mushroom siomai (P75 or $1.55 for 3 pieces), beans and tofu for lunch, and a fresh fruit shake stand.

Vegetarian cuapao sandwiches for only P30 ($0.62)!

Tommy's Freshly Roasted Coffee: pretty awesome locally grown, harvested, roasted, and brewed coffee that does not taste like car battery acid. The beans are sourced from mountains all over the country. Varieties include Metropolitan, Urban Tempo, Hacienda, Colombian (this one's imported), and Decaffeinated. The stall sells ground coffee as well as freshly brewed cups of coffee.









A stall of spices! This is definitely not McCormick. Spices 'n Flavours carry herbal and spiced teas such as liquorice tea, herbs such as Thai oregano, and spices such as Zaatar (a Middle Eastern spice blend). You'll find artisanal salts here too.













Kalinga Blended Mountain Rice from Kalinga province. Click on the second photo to read what is written on the package. There are 4 or 5 different colors in the blend!












Freshly boiled peanuts and (not freshly boiled) locally grown cashews.

Kakanin and other native rice based desserts for the taking. Not vegan: leche flan, kesong puti (white carabao cheese), cassave cake, and pastillas (milk candy).

Budbud Kabog (budbud, sounds like "good good") is a millet and coconut milk based kakanin. This stall sells a variety of flavors, including chocolate, ginger, langka / jackfruit and mango. I love the original and the ginger. P25-30 ($0.52-0.63) per piece. They give free samples too (check out LV bag #4).









UFO (Uncle Finn's sOya) soymilk and fresh firm tofu! I heart Uncle Finn's soy milk. His stuff are made with non-GMO soy beans. I didn't see any taho being sold, but his taho and soymilk are so much better than Mr. Bean's.

And last but not the least...













You can't have too many white plates and wooden kitchenware. The white plate stall sells square and rectangular plates as well as interesting bowls. The wooden kitchenware stall sells chopping boards, cheese boards, trays, bowls, and salad servers made from acacia or kamagong. I got myself a cheese board as a mini tray for my cupcakes.

So there you have it! Do yourself a favor and explore the market. Don't forget to bring a canvas or banig shopping bag when you do. Go on an empty stomach.

Fresh Buko (Young Coconut) Juice: Vegan MoFo #7

Street food carts, especially this refreshing one, can literally be found anywhere around the metro:

I am not a big fan of artificial obese causing drinks (aka soft drinks) and "juice drinks" -- I think those companies should have never been formed! Down with capitalism, down with huge food conglomerates that are out to rob you of your health and wealth!

Sorry, on to mofo'ing...

On a day when the sun turns you black in 10 minutes (everyday!), humidity is at 90% and the temperature is at 90-95 degrees F (30-35 degrees C), a cool refreshing drink is always welcome to soothe your parched throat. Buko juice (never labelled "young coconut water"; juice sounds much more delicious!) is the liquid from the cavity of a young or unripe coconut. The juice is highly nutritious and contains sugar, fibre, protein, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. It also provides isotonic electrolyte balance and is a good substitute for those sugary drinks marketed as "electrolyte balancing". I guess this makes sense, as living in a humid tropical country drains your body from moisture and makes you tired all the time.
















One way to have this drink is to have the "coconut man" cut out the top with his hunting knife and pour the juice into a plastic bag; stick a straw in the bag and you're good to go.

Another far less wasteful and far cleaner method is to have him cut the outer shell of the fruit, slice off the top shell, exposing the meat. Stick a straw through the flesh and drink to your heart's content. It's always nice to share a drink with friends or coworkers. At P16 or US$0.34 for 1 shell, it's a steal.


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If you recall my post about my obsession with rose water, I finally got around to experiment and came up with rose water cake. Here it is fresh from the oven, with the parchment paper still stuck to the bottom. I'll be giving this with frosting on top to my cousin Monica who'll be celebrating her birthday this weekend. The cake came out... how should I say it... skinny? It was about 1-1.5 inches tall. I hope she likes it! The smell was intoxicatingly good. Since it's skinny it feels like a guiltless pleasure and can be eaten it everyday...

Street Food: Vegan MoFo #6

I hope this counts as my Wednesday post! So I missed the "deadline" by a few minutes, big deal...

Anyway, I've been wanting to blog about Pinoy (Filipino) street food that is vegan naturally. Of course I'm not talking about balut or betamax. I'm talking about cruelty-free, yummy, dirt cheap food (about P7 or US$0.17 each piece), like:

When I'm in a Filipino restaurant and all that's available is sizzling pig face and pig blood stew, I feel really sad that Philippine cuisine is so meat-centric. Even vegetables are cooked in animal flesh unless you order otherwise.

Lumpia is the Filipino term for "spring roll". Actually, according to Wikipedia, lumpia's name is actually a derivation from Chinese: 潤餅; pinyin: rùnbǐng; POJ: jūn-piáⁿ, lūn-piá. Lumpia can be eaten fresh or fried, and in this case, it is the latter.

There is nothing better than a deep fried vegetable lumpia doused in coconut vinegar (suka) spiced with garlic, black pepper, and bird's eye chili (from a recycled mineral water bottle with a hole in its cover), eaten straight from the bilao (woven basket) to plastic bag to mouth.

Street food seems to be extremely photogenic, probably because of the insanely bright sunlight. Turon is a saba banana wrapped in a spring roll wrapper, sometimes with a sprinkle of brown sugar and a piece of jack fruit inside (or not). While in the process of being fried, the turon is sprinkled with brown sugar again, which caramelizes and coats the surface of the roll.

Turon probably comes in third after the lumpia as best street food (the number one street food is carioca -- caramelized fried balls made from rice flour -- which was sold out when arrived). The lady who peddles her treats comes at around 3pm everyday and sits at the corner sari sari store (mom and pop shop) to serve the yuppies and blue collar workers near by.

More on Pinoy vegan street food to come in later posts!