Market Manila

Banana cake is another one of my childhood comfort foods. I like this even more than eating bananas. In the same way I like lechon paksiw more than lechon (except that crisp lechon skin is simply heaven in epidermis). I buy lots of lakatan bananas at the market on Saturdays, and hope that at least 4 or 5 large ones get overripe by the following friday… and there is nothing else to use them for except banana cake! I have featured two recipes for banana cake before, both from cookbooks I love, and that earlier post is here. But a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make some “mini” banana cakes using these disposable foil 3 x 5 inch tins (actually, I recycle and use them several times) that turned out really well. Just use the Payard recipe I describe in the earlier banana cake post and place them in smaller tins. Reduce the cooking time a bit and bake until just done.

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I will be away from my desk and computer for a few days over the long weekend (Friday, Nov. 30 is Bonifacio Day/Heroes Day in the Philippines). I will be checking the website occasionally but will not respond to any emails until I get back. I will also probably be unable to sort through comments under moderation. That means that first time commenters will NOT see their comments moderated for some days. Meanwhile, enjoy the posts I have left to keep you amused, or if you are bored, check out some of the 1,400+ posts in the archives. I hope you all have a great weekend!

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Fishpan alert. Skip this post if you are offended by single-use silver implements. You were forewarned.

I lived and worked in Indonesia for several years in the early 1990’s and continued to visit the country frequently until a few years ago. Based in Jakarta during the week, we (Mrs. MM and I, no kid yet) headed out of the city on weekends, either back home to our permanent residence in Singapore, or fairly frequently, to the enchanting island of Bali. Mrs. MM and I loved our brief stays on the island, and we must have visited nearly two dozen times in all. We had our favorite haunts back then, but really it was more about getting away from a very hectic job and simply relaxing in some over-the-top hotel for a couple of nights at a time. And the Balinese are such wonderful people, so gentle, so spiritual, so accommodating to tourists. On one of our visits, we picked up this gorgeous sterling silver magnifying glass. I am blind as a bat without my eyeglasses, so that seemed like a good enough reason to buy a magnifying glass… but no, what really attracted us to this piece is that it was handcrafted by local artisans, using a traditional method of hammering silver discs.

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Roshan is a home-based baker with spectacular cakes, desserts, and sweets. I featured some of her cakes last year. And I have since ordered her chocolate cupcakes (photographed above and below, delicious and fairly priced!) and have tasted several of her other baked goodies. In the past, her contact details were often difficult to find, she didn’t even put them on her boxes when you got a cake from her. But finally, she has listened to her friends and regular customers and has now put a list of her products on the net, complete with beautiful photos, some of them by Lori of Dessertcomesfirst.com. Here is the link. Check out her Christmas hampers and other nicely packaged goodies. But be warned, her site has hoilday music which you may not want to play if you are surfing from an office environment. At any rate, get your orders in early as the holiday months are CRAZED for all home bakers, I gather. And no, I am not related to Roshan at all… I usually bake most of my own stuff, but for some of those occasions when I need something new, or crave something I can’t or don’t want to bake, Roshan is one of the nice folks I call… After all, with this priceless quote she once relayed to me, how can I not?? — “I don’t bake if I am in a bad mood, it affects the finished product…” I have said something similar in one of my posts on baking, and I completely agree… :)

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There are still lots of shirts and a few totes left over for the Marketmanila.com Public School Feeding Program that I have been sponsoring/facilitating for the last few weeks!!! I realize we have had so few pick-up points so far, (the longest at S&R, last Nov 17) so I have decided to add at least two more pick-up points this Saturday Dec 1 and next Saturday Dec 8, 2007 as well. For the less regular visitors to marketmanila.com, allow me to refresh your memories… I first broached the subject of a potential charitable effort on this blog with a post on t-shirts for donations to benefit malnourished public school kids about two months ago. Reader response was incredible, and folks put their names in for roughly 400+ shirts and totes, here. I failed to set up reasonable and legal means to accept donations from foreign based readers (60% of the visitors here), and asked that folks who had access to family or friends in Manila be possibly asked to help with the effort. To date, we have collected a stunning PHP170,000+ and there are still 190 shirts and 30 totes left!! So if you missed the earlier pick-up points and want to help, please drop by this Saturday or next at the address below.

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Mrs. Marketman is a huge fan of puto bumbong. But like, a HUGE FAN. I like puto bumbong, but would rather have a nice bibingka instead, if given a choice. Puto bumbong seems like one of those things that are better purchased from a specialist vendor, or at least one that appears to know what they are doing. Cooking this misa de gallo favorite requires this specialized puto bumbong steamer/cooking contraption. Made out of thin steel or is it tin(?), this modified steamer has several holes on top that channel the hot steam to narrow bamboo cooking utensils that have a small hole on one end, and a wider hole on top. A mixture of glutinous rice is placed inside the bamboo and it cooks from the somewhat pressurized steam. Frankly, the unique and often makeshift looking contraption scares the daylights out of me…in the same way i always thought boiling condensed milk in a can would eventually lead to a massive explosion of hot syrup. Nevertheless, for Mrs. MM sake and marketmanila’s readers around the world, I wanted to see if I could make this delicacy from scratch, at home.

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I know the Christmas holidays are near when my suki Michael, at the FTI AANI Saturday Market, has new stock of extremely fresh pirurutong (purple upland glutinous rice) and really creamy/milky looking tapol or malagkit, both from Mindoro. At PHP80 a kilo, these are wickedly expensive in comparison to everyday rice, but they are so worth it. They aren’t available most of the year. You can see from the grains themselves that these are incredibly fresh. They look right, they feel young and they possess a color that screams “I just came from my mommy!”… if you know what I mean. We usually mix the two grains and make a beautiful purplish suman or budbud for the holidays. It is beautiful to look at, fragrant and delicious. However, it is a bit tricky as the purple rice usually takes longer to cook than the white rice so you have to be careful when making it. I also once had a delicious biko made with pirurutong flavored with kalamansi. But I bought the two types of rice last Saturday because I have been wanting to experiment with a puto bumbong (I have never made it before) for several years now…

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Please read my previous post on an article on budbud kabog in the November issue of the Mabuhay Magazine of Philippine Airlines before you continue reading this post.

I received this very prompt response from Ms. Ira Inquimboy to an email I sent her this morning and the previous post that I wrote on the same matter, and I quote:

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