Holiday Season 2021: Bibingka — a Baked Rice Cake 🇵🇭

The holiday season is already over! It was a good two weeks of vacation for me because I was able to go home to my province —Tarlac. What surprised me is that our hometown seems so normal despite the on going pandemic. Health protocols are still observed but it's livelier than last year's Christmas season. A street was even converted into a bazaar where food stalls open in the afternoon until late evening. A lot of food were being sold in the street like shawarma, buko juice and shake, siomai, egg sandwich, calamares, puto bumbong, and BIBINGKA!

Bibingka or baked rice cake is a signature delicacy during the Christmas season. Although in our province, it's available all year long. Whenever people would know that I live in Tarlac, they would always say that the rice cake delicacies from our province are really delicious. It was only when I left our hometown, when I realized that the Bibingka from our hometown taste best among the ones I've tasted. There are variety of Bibingka in the different provinces of the Philippines. Some are small, some have cheese, some are moist, and some have salted egg toppings.

The one from our province are quite big and flat compared to the other variants which resembles a muffin. In our hometown, it is usual that people know each other. My parents buy this rice cake from the same vendor. In the onset of the pandemic, street vendors were not allowed to sell in their usual spot. They were forced to set up their stall near their house where there will be lack of customers. My parents went to the vendor's house, which was 7km away from us, just to buy from her! 😅

Now that we're now quite back to normal in our hometown, the vendors are now back to their usual selling spots. What I like about the vendors in our hometown is that you can get the Bibingka customized to your own liking. You can ask them to add egg and/or salted egg. We usually just add an egg because it get's so stuffy when there's also an added salted egg.

I am even quite familiar how it's cooked, not just because I usually watch them cook it, but we also tried cooking this at home. My mother bought a cooking set: a claypot and coal pot tray and cover.

The white mixture is made of ground soaked and fermented glutinous rice, sugar and salt are added to add taste. The normal Bibingka does not have egg on its ingredients, just like what eggs do to baked cakes, Bibingka becomes fluffier when there's an egg added. A banana leaf is used as lining on the claypot where the mixture is poured.

Burning coals are put below and above the claypot. From time to time, the coal pot tray is lifted to check if the Bibingka is already cooked. When the top turns a little burnt, it is placed above the coal pot cover to cook it further. The baked rice cake is usually topped with margarine and grated coconut.

Bibingka is best to eat when it's freshly baked, when it's still hot and the weather is quite cold. It is also best paired with coffee! We usually eat this for dinner or breakfast, especially during Christmas. Although it has been a normal snack for us, the holiday season for us becomes merrier when have this for a snack or meal.

The holiday season is already over, I'm back to the city now and work resumed too. The two weeks of staying at home, feeling a bit of normalcy, was really short. But here's to a new year, I haven't done my yearly tradition of listing down the things I am grateful and hopeful of, maybe it hasn't sank in to me yet that a new year has come already. One thing I am sure of, I am grateful for all the food I have tried last year and I am looking forward to a variety of dishes I'll have this year! ✨😋