My maternal grandparents were from Cebu and Bohol, and they had a summer ancestral home on the shores of a small town roughly 30+ minutes away from the Clarin ancestral home in Loay, that I featured here. We were sitting in the garden of Cafe Olegario, set up by members of the Clarin family, to have merienda and we ordered some bubud with latik, and some puto maya. The budbud was freshly made, and superb. It had just the right amount of sugar, and a hint of ginger. The latik was flavorful but not overly sweet. The rice was light, not weighty, yet redolent with coconut milk/fat. Delicious. The puto maya was also amazing. Obviously just made/delivered to the Cafe, it was heavily flavored with ginger, but the rhizome was almost sweet and fragrant, not sharp and aggressive. We were so happy we decided to sit for a while and enjoy this simple merienda. It would have paired well with hot chocolate, but since it was so warm outdoors, we opted for cold drinks instead.
My mother was from this neck of the woods. Her family had a summer home some 30+ minutes away from the Clarin residence (using today’s roads, but probably 2-3 hours by horse drawn carriage a century ago) and she always related fond memories of a bygone era in highly rural Bohol. She would have appreciated this merienda very much, and I realized just now that it would have been her 84th birthday today if she were still around. I didn’t specifically schedule this post for today, but isn’t it funny how some things fit just right? Happy Birthday Mom! I hope they have good budbud, broas and hot chocolate where you are! Will drop by your four-urn, high-rise crypt nearby very shortly. :)
29 Responses
Hi MM…happy birthday to your mom!
umm…which one is budbud and which is puto maya? didn’t know puto maya was a real food!
ang alam ko lang yung lagi naming sinasabi nung bata pa kami “gaya gaya puto maya”
budbud is the suman like long thing. Puto maya I suppose refers to the blob of rice… :)
Finally, this is how puto maya looks like :) I wonder how it got its name…
happy birthday to your mom mm! i know wherever she is, you have made her proud. really proud.
Puto Maya is traditionally served as a triangle and wrapped in a banana leaf.
Where’s the mango? That’s what Mom would say…
By the way, Mom was born in Cebuand had many maternal relatives in the city. Bohol was a summer get away to visit the paternal side.
But unlike the suman or bodbod, the puto Maya is first steamed with coconut milk and Ginger in a double layer clay pot (we still have ours from a bygone era!). When the rice is cooked, the puto Maya is spooned into a strip of banana leaf that has been formed into a triangle.
With budbud, the rice, coconut mixture is rolled in banana leaves then steamed until cooked.
Yes, where is the chocolate e..? I am dying to have it now with the budbud!
But I would have preferred the budbud to be presented differently, sliced diagonally perhaps and not curled or bent in a semicircular fashion. I am having scatological thoughts, sorry.
my two favorite merienda of all time. yes, homemade hot tsokolate (made of tableya) would be the only choice for beverage. God bless your mom’s soul. wherever she is now, she is one proud mama of her kids.
In Negros Oriental, there’s a variety of budbud called ‘budbud kabug’. It’s made using millet (or kabug), which is a rare type of grain harvested in the province. It’s slightly more expensive than the regular budbud but it has a wonderful, delicate flavor and finer texture than malagkit rice.
Hi MM. Sorry to post this here but my location keeps popping up as ‘China’ even if I’m in the Philippines. Can’t figure out how to fix it.
MM, now I know how puto maya looks like. :-)
The puto maya brings back fond memories of my Dad who used to cook this treat for us when we were growing up, with tsokolate from tableya. Nadia, I used to get my budbud kabug from Dumaguete, there’s a vendor who sells it at the airport. Thanks for the post MM!
My kids never acquired the taste for sticky rice desserts. I wish they had. *sigh* So I’d have an excuse to make them all the time. But my waistline probably is better off this way :-).
I will have to check your links to see if you have any sticky rice dessert recipes.
i love gingery puto maya. a canadian guest once said he couldn’t understand how we could eat rice for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and all snacks in between!
Naughty ConnieC
thank you, MM, for the recent posts – that triggers memories of ‘long ago and far away’ as the song goes. our connnection to the land and family. (the budbud kabog from Dumaguete is also very delicious)
I thought budbud was something you put around your neck when you had a cold.
Puto maya goes well with sikwate and ripe mangoes. I make puto maya once in a while here in the US using the traditional steamer.Now a days short cut na ang ginagawa ng iba,they cook the puto maya using rice cooker.
Happy birthday to your mom, MM.
Hmmm…..I always thought that puto maya was something like puto seko.Interesting that “puto” can look and taste different—Puto calasiao, puto binan,etc.
thanks mm, never did realize what a puto maya really looked like. happy bday to your mom.
i must add that the first pic looks like a phallic symbol….. =) lol like connie c i wish they changed the presentation
you can try the puto maya sold hot at market! Market! supermart together with hot choco. It may not be as delicious just like the original in Bohol, but they are also good.
Thanks, MM. I just remembered I still have some puto maya in the fridge. Made it myself the other day. Got to eat it now, with the ripe mango. Nah, it is not Guadalupe mango. It is just past midnight here, but who cares I am hungry just reading your blog.
@ ConnieC, funneee.
thanks MM! I think the puto maya is similar to what my grandma would call “sinaing” na suman and also to that Thai dessert of sticky rice and mango
Eating puto maya at the market and sikwate is my bonding moment with my father. Is it a Visayas/Mindanao thing? Coz I can’t find it here in Manila and a lot of them don’t know what puto maya is.
I love the budbud photo! Just posted my own blog post about puto maya and budbod and felt like checking out other posts about budbud and stumbled on this blog! yes, we Bisayans love our puto maya and budbud in chocolate. Mangoes are great too. I cannot believe they do not know what puto maya is in Manila…:/