Malunggay Pastel Bread

What a lazy week that was, really... I think I lost enthusiasm in many things last week, but I hope to pick myself up and make this week a great one for me. :)

My brother's girlfriend was in NCR last weekend attending a seminar, and while she didn't visit us here anymore (due to schedule constraints), she did give us a present:



A box of Malunggay Pastel Bread!

Before, when one speaks of Cagayan de Oro, it's quite automatic that the food "Pastel" is associated with it. I haven't been to Cagayan de Oro, but my brother told me almost everyone boarding the plane from Cagayan de Oro to Manila would have at least one box of Pastel to take home. It is quite funny, though, that the famous Pastel actually originated from Camiguin.

In 2010, a group of students from Xavier University came up with a feasibility study of adding bits of Malunggay leaves into the soft bun and now it is considered Cagayan de Oro's own delicacy.



I love it more than the more popular brand, really. The filling wasn't overly sweet and the bits of the malunggay leaves did give it a nice interesting twist to the taste. Priced at 60 to 70 pesos per box (6 buns inside), it sure is a great pasalubong that everyone will enjoy.

Brother said the Malunggay Pastel Bread is available at Limketkai Mall, Divisioria (CDO's Divisoria, not the one in Manila), and at the Cagayan de Oro Airport.

Lami Jud Kaayo!
Thanks for the gift, Ms. Emmy.

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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 week.

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Vjandep Pastel (Chocolate)

My share for letter V this week is the Vjandep Pastel, a very well known product from Camiguin. With many branches in Cagayan de Oro, brother always take home boxes of these filled buns, and the last time he traveled there, I was so happy that he took home a box of the chocolate flavored pastel, because it was the one I really wanted to taste.

The buns were so soft that it really melts in the mouth. The chocolate filling wasn't really sweet and it was like eating bread and cake, so delicious! Although this one was quite expensive, I think I would always request for this flavor whenever brother travels to Cagayan de Oro again.

{To know more about Vjandep Pastel, you can read my old post HERE}

*** Jenn ***

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Yummy Sunday | From Laguna and Cebu

I told last week that I would start sharing food trip stories on Sunday, but this week, I received regional food products that I wanted to share here on my blog, too, so please let me share this first.

From Laguna. Cousin Jayson went for a job interview at a telecoms company in Calamba, Laguna and I sent him a text message asking if he could buy me some Shing-a-Ling, but when we got home (I went to the Max's Restaurant event with sis that night), he gave me a paper bag with other foods, too. Thanks, couz!

From Cebu. Cindy's husband is from Cebu, and since he would be flying back to Saudi Arabia anytime this month, it was but natural for him to travel home and be with his family. The other day, we just received these bags of chicharon, and it was just delicious. Sinfully delicious!

It's really great to taste different foods from different regions... hopefully we could also taste foods from other provinces in the near future.

*** Jenn ***

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Foodie 365 | Week 23

This week, I hit the breaking point. I missed not one... but three pictures this week. How did it happen? Even I couldn't understand it, but my guess was that - maybe foods this week have been so ordinary that lunch time I decided I will just take my picture come dinner time, but come dinner time I have already forgotten about it. This week, my third attempt to Project 365 is officially a failure.

Still, here are the four pictures from last week.


155. Fish Sarciado

I wasn't able to photograph any food I ate while on the road, so I was really thankful that brother cooked something for sister and I thinking we still haven't eaten dinner yet. Thanks, bro.

156. No Picture

157. Max's Fried Chicken

I received an invitation from Max's Restaurant, and today they launched their upcoming promo, Chicken-All-You-Can to some bloggers. Us invitees got to eat as much chicken as we can, but I only managed to eat two chicken quarters. Whole story about the bloggers' night will be shared in the days to come.

158. No Picture

159. Butter Cookies

My sister is a hoarder. She would keep things as long as she can, but the thing was that, most of the times, the foods she tries to hide will either be eaten by someone else or gets expired. It was 15th of May when she and I traveled to Quezon Province, and that day we bought food products from the province to take home and share to family. The foods I bought were all consumed, and she told us she has no more food left... until mom saw her bayong (bag made from woven coconut leaves) with one pack of food left - the butter cookies. The cookies are still edible (thank heavens), but my sister really has to stop hoarding! :)

159. Pulvoron in Cone

My cousin Jayson went to a job interview in Calamba, Laguna and I sent him a text message asking him to buy me some Shing-a-Ling. He did buy me what I wanted, but he also gave some extras, like this one. Yum yum!

{Also linking this picture to Colorful Weekend}

160. No Picture

It irritates me that I failed the project halfway through it, but even if I have already failed this round, I would still continue taking pictures and will just try my luck again next year.

....hmmm, should I just go back to number 1 next week?

*** Jenn ***

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Uraro Cookies

My share for this week is the Uraro Cookies, one of the very famous cookies in the South Luzon region. These cookies are made from Arrowroot (Marantha Arundinacea). I don't exactly know why the cookies are called "Uraro," but checking something about the arrowroot, the plant is also called araru and ararao, so I guess it was somewhat derived from that.

Many years back, the Uraro Cookies I know are shaped like elongated flowers and wrapped in very thin paper (called here as Japanese paper). The cookies were very fragile and crumbles very easily, so when I traveled to Quezon Province (one of the provinces in South Luzon), I was quite surprised seeing the cookies like this. Not only were the cookies shaped differently, it also didn't crumble easy.

I'd say I like the way things changed for this cookie because it was just the appearance that changed. The flavor that we (the Filipinos) all have come to love about this cookie is still there.

*** Jenn ***

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Pasalubong From Quezon Province, p2

Continuing the foods we bought from Quezon last month.


Lucban Longganisa. It's my favorite longganisa, so it's just right that I take home some. At p140/dozen, I just bought one dozen.

Ka Popoy's Chicharon. Chicharon is one of my favorite foods ever, so when I saw this at a store, I bought a pack since it was only p35 per pack. This one is actually from Laguna (based on the label), but because I bought this in Quezon, I consider this one part of the set. I like this chicharon - very crunchy and not too salty.

Panganan. I am not sure if I got the name right, among the foods we took home, this was the only one I didn't buy, these were made by Ria's cousin for her to take home. It tasted like buchi, but it lacked sugar for my taste.


Tikoy. Every New Year's Day, Ria's family would give us a bowl of their homemade tikoy with caramel sauce. Stores in Quezon sells the tikoy without the sauce, and it's already ready to eat. This taste like the tikoy we eat during Chinese New Year.

Polvoron de Mani. The least favorite food in the bunch, the peanut flavor was too powerful we couldn't appreciate the polvoron anymore.

One lesson learned about this shopping (and the blog posts that came from it) is that I had to list down the manufacturers of the foods. Next time, I will do that.

Anyway, this would probably be the last post about the food themes, I realized the food trips I had were piling up, so starting this coming week, I will be posting food trip stories twice a week - one every Thursdays, and one every Sundays.

*** Jenn ***

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