Sorry, I wasn't able to post for Weekend Eating last Monday because I was in La Union and I didn't bring my net book and I wasn't able to go to an Internet Cafe because we were busy preparing for my cousin's wedding. My apologies, too, for not commenting on the other week's posts - I will do that within this day.
Anyway... my weekend was a blah. With heat shooting up to 35 - 36 degrees C, it was just way too difficult to enjoy the day as I tend to get tired even if I am not doing anything. We planned to go out and beat the summer heat with a glass of Halo Halo yesterday, but mom attended some events, so I basically just stayed at home. Hopefully this coming week will be a much better week for me.
What I am about to share was something from last Thursday. Right after eating our meals at Bar-B-King (please see previous post), we were also given some food products from Bibingkinitan - a quaint little shop known for its mini bibingka. Well, the name of the store pretty much tell what their product is, and I assume they got the name from the Filipino word "Balingkinitan," meaning small or slender. Since their main product is the bibingka, I think they just coined the term to Bibingkinitan.
It wasn't a new store for me, as we already got to taste their Bibingka back then. It was my sister who introduced the product to me when she wanted to buy something to take home to mom.
Baked Mini Bibingka. When I first saw their store and saw how they prepare the bibingkas, I wasn't raving much about it because I grew up eating the kind one can buy on the streets - using charcoals to cook the bibingka. That time, too, I found their products a little pricey for 20 pesos each (as the street kind is slightly bigger at 35 - 50 pesos)... but when I finally got to taste it, all qualms and hesitations were erased. Even if it's baked, it still had the smokey banana leaf smell and flavor I loved in my bibingka, and that the taste and the quality make up for its price.
Tasting it again last Thursday renewed my love for this bibingka. The previous weekend, sister and I got to buy a big bibingka (maybe 2 to 3 times the size of these little babies) for 90 pesos at a restaurant in La Union... and now I appreciated Bibingkinitan's price - it was really cheaper because x2 of this would cost 40, x3 would be 60... still much cheaper than the 90-peso bibingka we had.
It may be small, but I guess that was another good thing about it... it doesn't overwhelm the one eating the product, and if one is enough, then you can have another one, right? Personally, I ate two bibingkas (one after the other) because it was just so good.
If you're wondering, these native bibingkas are made from rice flour batter with milk topped with slices of salted egg, cheese, and margarine.
Iced Barako Coffee. As with most native delicacies, a perfect pair would be a cup of hot coffee, but since it's summer, Bibingkinitan came up with the iced variety of the well-loved Filipino Kapeng Barako. I still haven't tasted the hot variety, but this iced one was one of the best iced coffee I have tasted. It had everything I wanted in coffee - strong, rich coffee flavor combined with creaminess and sweetness. My brother thought it was a little too sweet for his liking, which is slightly true, but I do love my coffee sweet, so I loved it instantly. As I was sipping my Iced Barako, I was telling my brother and co-blogger Aylin that I would try to sip as little as possible so the drink will last longer, but as the ice melts away, I noticed that it made the coffee flavor a little mild and the milky flavor was the one overpowering the drink. Lesson learned: drink it as quick as possible, and maybe take out the ice once it reaches your preferred temperature.
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So... what did you have last weekend? If you're new to the Weekend Eating meme, you can read the rules and get the badge codes HERE. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined last last week.
I come from a family who loves cooking and eating. I never had any formal training in cooking and that I taught myself how to cook based on the handed down recipes, but I could say that I can cook good food. In 2008, I started documenting my food trips for my