Chefie’s World

One of the best food you should buy in Baguio is bottled purple yam or “Ube”, there are three food establishments there who make superior quality ones….I know some people who just love and adore its flavor and some who wouldn’t care to have it. I have an uncle who enjoys every scoop of ube ice cream, an aunt who gives us “ halayang ube “ every November 1, I don’t really know why, same reason why we have certain food on particular occasions in our lives….I love ube macapuno cake of Red Ribbon, there were times that I would finish a whole piece in one sitting then throw up because I was so full.
It has a taste that’s different from all. Anyway, I got three brands of ube jam that’s the modern name for haleyang ube in a bottle, Good Shepherd’s, Tantamco’s and PKNY’s.
The one from PKNY’s is supplied to them by a lady named Saning according to the waitress but I am not really sure. Well, after a week of staying in Manila, here are the results of my tastings, who won? No one! I enjoyed all three, thanks to Apple who I would share each bottle of ube every time I would open one. Ok, PKNY’s has whole pieces of ube still present and the taste was very evident, not too sweet but the texture was gummy, maybe it was overworked from all the mixing that happened. A bit more cream or evaporated milk might have changed this problem. Tantamco’s was very sweet but had a very strong caramelized sugar taste which greatly covered the ube taste, but I could say “parang may arnibal” in the mixture…..would go well with a halo halo with just monggo, kaong and nata de coco and tons of shaved ice. The creamiest one was from Good Shepherd’s and wasn’t as sweet but had a vanilla and floral taste, maybe they added some artificial flavoring in the mixture because it was very evident. Each had a distinct difference which I loved so I can’t give you a winner….I would love though to add some pandan or macapuno into the blend just for a deeper taste profile.
But I only realized that the ube cake of one bakeshop really has such an intense ube flavor since it uses the ice cream as an icing….and I remembered that one of my first, best and honored cooking teachers taught me that one too. Haven’t made ube jam or haleyang ube from scratch but once I make, it will be printed here…..

• Baguio Holiday
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Conti’s Dinner and others…
• Japanese Sweets
• Just a thought

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 8:32 pm and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.