Napoleones

Napoleones is a pastry that’s always associated with the city of Bacolod, which is considered to be the ‘Napoleones capital’ of the Philippines. Well, nobody ever says ‘Napoleones capital’, I just thought it sounds cool like that. What I’m trying to say is the Napoleones in Bacolod is like no other.

Unfortunately, this Napoleones isn’t from Bacolod, but right here in Iloilo, from the always-reliable Tinapayan bakeshop. However, it doesn’t mean that this Napoleones wasn’t good, because it was amazeballs. Speaking of Tinapayan, I took this picture while we were in line at the bakeshop and I had to take a quick shot because it was our turn to pay. So sorry for the absence of close up pictures.

Napoleones is a layered puff pastry with a custard filling and glazed with sugar (in this case it was also topped with chocolate). I’ve researched about this and it seems that Napoleones is very similar to the French pastry mille-feuille, and might even possibly be adapted from it, as mille-feuille outside of France is called napoleon.

If you’re in Bacolod, please do not, under any circumstance, miss out on Napoleones. The recommended shops that sell Napoleones are Virgie’s and Roli’s. In Tinapayan, Napoleones costs only P16.00, so there really is no excuse why you can’t buy one (or five) of this piece of heaven.

Later tater!
Patricia 

4 October 6 Permalink

Halo-halo!

This is, to my reckoning, the Philippines’ most widely recognised dessert (thanks to ChowKing branches all over the world). This, my friends, is called halo-halo. ‘Halo’ in Tagalog means ‘mix’ so basically halo-halo means something like…a mixture? Wow I am bad at this. Erm so anyways, halo-halo isn’t anything fancy, really. It’s just shaved ice topped with milk and a wide variety of fruits and beans, sometimes with cornflakes as well. But it is just so good, especially during the summer. Like this summer, there was a whole week I went to ChowKing everyday just to eat halo-halo.

By the way, ChowKing is a Chinese fast food restaurant from the Philippines and their halo-halo is one of the best in the entire country. Their halo-halo is consistently mind-blowingly delicious and has never once disappointed me. So what makes a ChowKing halo-halo? Or, specifically, what makes a ChowKing halo-halo that I can remember? :D

• shaved ice
• milk
• sugar (I’m not actually sure if ChowKing uses milk and sugar or if they use already sweetened milk, but in other places, they serve the sugar separately. I actually like that because you can control how sweet your halo-halo would be.)
• ice cream (The ice cream is actually not part of the halo-halo. You order it separately as an additional topping.)
• leche flan (also known as flan or créme caramel)
• ube (Purple yam. This is my favourite topping!)
• pinipig (Sort of like…rice flakes?)
• mung beans
• kidney beans
• kaong (sugar palm fruit)
• garbanzos
• jack fruit
• banana
• nata de coco

Would you look at that, I just gave you a recipe. Anyways, halo-halo is similar to Malaysia’s ais kacang, Indonesia’s es cendol, Korea’s patbingsu, Japan’s kakigori and Vietnam’s che sam bo luong. Anyways, you eat halo-halo by “halo-ing” all the ingredients. Just…get in there and mix everything together. But the way I eat it is first I eat the flan, then I mix everything together BUT the ice cream. That’s how I roll.

As far as I know, ChowKing has branches in the USA, the Middle East and Indonesia. So if you live in these countries/areas, uh, just ask around if there’s a ChowKing near you. (But I am sure that there are several ChowKing branches in California, just not sure about the East Coast.)

So, there you go! Later tater! :D

Patricia

P.S. This has been a ChowKing appreciation post. LOL

P.P.S. Oh and thanks to my Tito Sam for ‘sponsoring’ this article. Hahaha :D

NOTE: hollvn reblogged this and corrected me regarding the che sam bo luong:

Sam bo luong is the sea weed & lotus seed mixed drink. Halo-halo is more similar to che ba mau, which contains mung bean, kidney bean, jelly, shaved ice, and coconut milk.

Thanks, hollvn!

9 July 7 Permalink

Kutsinta!

It took me oh so long to write about this. So anyways this here is a Filipino delicacy called kutsinta. It’s basically a brown rice cake, usually topped/covered in shredded coconut. And it’s delicious! Well, usually, kutsinta is a hit-and-miss sort of food. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bland, sometimes it plain sucks. But this one was just…I don’t know. I think this is the best kutsinta I’ve ever had.

As you can see, it’s sort of sticky. The rice cake is sweet, and coupled with the not-so-sweetness of the coconut, it’s just…perfect! They balance each other juuust right.

This kutsinta was made by my aunt. One package of the kutsinta costs P25.00 (more or less around $0.50!), and it’s so so so worth it! If you’re in Iloilo and you want to buy from her, just email us (likipediaplusz@gmail.com) for more information. She also makes other stuff but this kutsinta is extremely highly recommended.

I would like to thank my dad for the pictures. :D

Later tater!

23 June 7 Permalink

Nang Palang’s Buko Pie

So for a while now there’s been this vendor lady that roams around selling pies, and we finally decided to buy a box a few days ago. No, this isn’t a random woman who sells random pies. This is a random woman selling Nang Palang’s Pies. :)

Nang Palang’s is actually quite well-known, at least as far as I know. People drive all the way to Oton (a town here in Iloilo) just to buy their buko (coconut) pie. They have other sorts of pie, too, but I guess this one is their bestseller. I prefer Nang Palang’s over other buko pies because…it’s just better! It’s not too sweet and it has more actual coconut ‘meat’.

One box has ten pies, and the whole box costs only P120. Their store is located in Brgy. Trapiche, Oton and if you’re planning to go there, it’s easy enough to ask around for directions because Nang Palang’s is quite famous. :) If you want to call ahead, their number is (033) 336-0954.
Later tater!

12 June 3 Permalink