The Bingka of Mohon

Along the border of Villa-Arevalo and the town of Oton, Iloilo is a bustling community named Mohon. Nowadays, it is synonymous with the busy passenger terminal serving the southern towns of the province. But there’s more to Mohon than this congregation of jeepneys and passengers - it’s their famous “bingkahan”.

FAMILY LEGACY

“Bingkahan sa Mohon” started in the early fifties when Mrs. Felicidad C. Animas concocted a recipe for bingka that eventually made their little stall tantamount with the place. She was then able to support her family – from the daily needs to sending all her children to school, with this business.

Her children are now in charge of the business and they are contented with its performance even though it does not generate that much profit. “It’s more of the social responsibility of continuing the family legacy of making this special bingka for the 50-year old Mohon is already an icon” they echo.



The bingkahan makes rice cakes four days a week according to one of the workers I casually talked with. Starting on a Friday they make a limited batch each day until Monday for it is only during these days that they have enough manpower to do it.

UNIQUELY MOHON

It starts with the bingka mixture of pilit (glutinous rice), bugas (regular rice), white sugar, margarine and buko (shredded young coconut). Surprisingly, it does not even contain gata (coconut milk), a basic ingredient of all other bingkas.
What makes it uniquely “Mohon” is the ratio of the shredded coconut with the other ingredients unlike other bingkas which have barely signs of coconut strips. It looks like as if they were making bucayo instead of bingka because of the very generous coconut strips one can bite into.
The mixture is then poured in individual bingka molds made with halved tins cans with banana leaves at the bottom. One worker constantly cuts banana leaves then place them inside these tin cans for the next batch of bingkas.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Then it is off to the big pugon where already cooked bingkas can be seen with the newly placed ones. The heat comes from above as it is constantly monitored and filled with wood. That explains why these bingkas have a slightly browned top while a gummy and chewy underside.
Using makeshift tools – I think I saw a pair of pliers, the cooked bingkas are then removed from the heat to cool and ready them for packaging. It’s easy to tell which ones are ready to be taken out from the oven as they are brown and differ (like night and day) to the ones still uncooked or newly placed. There are left to cool a bit on the table until such time that it one doesn’t get burned taking them out of those tin cans.

ROUND OR RECTANGLULAR

Round bingkas are packed into fours and sold at 10 pesos. The rectangular ones are wrapped in wax paper and placed in cardboard boxes and sold for 50 pesos. Both of these are good buys and competitive with the other bingkas around in price and especially in taste.

They usually start making them in the morning around nine and even before they are cooked, orders come in droves. So these bingkas barely stay on display as they are bought literally off the oven. Only the “remains of the day”, so to speak, are finally displayed in their street side stall.
There’s no secret about Bingkahan sa Mohon’s success - no overly special ingredients, just simple preparation methods and use of traditional cooking gadgets and equipment.

But it stood the test (and taste) of time mainly because it still tastes like the ones people loved then – back in the days when people really made time for cooking and never compromised on quality.

Bingkahan sa Mohon is along the national highway going to Oton and a few meters after the Mohon (Iloilo South) transport terminal. You can contact them through 0919-572-2581.

Acknowledgment: Some information were sourced from an article written by Helen Grace Fernandez as posted in www.iloveiloilo.com blog.