FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

This is my final installment of my bingka galore post in time for the Lenten season and for Black Saturday, not one nor two but four different kinds of bingka to choose from. Looking closely at photo above reveals four different bingkas which at first glance may just look like a pile of bingka . The batch above includes the bingka I bought from Leling's (right) and a nameless stall beside the church. Bingkas below come from Didays (left) and Tib's. Ranking this batch is an easy task with the one beside the church being the best not only for this round but for the whole season. Maybe being beside the church has it's blessings. They are not puto like and is reminiscent of the bingkas in the city which are chewy and moist. Next would be Tib's for being a breadlike bingka (lol). It may be dry but it did taste good even without those coconut strips. I almost finished 5 under a minute! Diday's is next but is not actually a good one except that it has geneours c...

Today, I woke up with what probably was the heaviest rainfall for the year, to date. A good thirst quencher for the dry spell brought by the El Nino phenomenon. But this didn't stop me from quenching my own thirst, literal of course, for bingka. It's not actually a craving but a desire to try and blog them all. So here's another batch of the the local bingka in our town which to some looks and tastes like toasted puto with margarine and sugar toppings. RJ's to the left (and bottom two) and Luis' at right - but it doesn't actually matter since they almost taste and look the same. Just refer to my header for these brands - lol.

Bingka is very much synonymous with Holy Week here in the heritage town of Sta. Barbara, Iloilo.Unlike in the plazas of Iloilo City, where bingka stalls are a staple year round, it is only during Lenten season that these bingkas in our town make their presence felt - bigtime. Eversince I was a kid, rows and rows of bingka stalls dot the town plaza during this time of the year. Townsfolk would feast on these native delicacies after participating in the Holy Week rites creating a fiesta like atmosphere in the plaza. This bingka tradition in our town remained almost the same with the exception of new players coming in while the old ones fade out. So today, Holy Monday, I started my local bingka feast as I bought from two different stalls. The first thing I've noticed is that bingkas sold here in our town are very much different from the ones I've tried in the city. While the latter are thin, chewy and moist, bingkas here were much thicker, spongy (and air-filled) and sort of d...