Traditional Rice Cakes, Sweets, and Other Treats: Kanen/Kakanen tan Palamis

Kanen/Kakanen tan Palamis: Traditional Rice Cakes, Sweets, and Other Treats

Kanen or kakanen (kakanin) in Pangasinan literally means rice cake, but it actually refers to other cakes made of base ingredients other than rice. Kakanen makers in Bayambang comprise an industry that makes brisk sales in the public market and in those of other towns, meeting a steady demand for sticky sweet treats all year round.

The bulk of kanen makers are concentrated in Brgys. Ligue, Tococ West, Amanperez, etc. and have been at their craft for generations, their knowledge of making an impressive variety of treats passed on from generation to generation, and ever-ready to innovate as the market dictates.

Native residents are discriminating with their kanen. These should be cooked with the best quality of raw materials and cooked perfectly or they would be met with severe criticism.

Rice-based

Biko type

The rice-based ones include a type of sugarless biko called inangit and the sweetened inkiwal.

Inangit vs Inkiwal

Inangit, also called pigar-pigar, is whole (not ground) sticky rice cooked in coconut milk with a little salt -- no sugar added. It is toasted on both sides by manually flipping it from the wok. The wok is lined with banana leaves to prevent the rice cake from burning and to make the flipping easy. Banana leaves are also placed on top of the rice cake. The steaming hot, crunchy, and fragrant galor (tutong in Tagalog; toasted outer layer) is a much coveted part of this simple dish. Brown sugar may be sprinkled on inangit right before eating it.

Inkiwal, on the other hand, is whole glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk, a little salt, and white or brown sugar. It is stirred and stirred (thus the root word kiwal) in the wok until the perfect consistency is reached. Unlike the inangit, inkiwal is not necessarily toasted. Anise seeds may also be added

Inangit and inkiwal are often used as ritual food, offered at the family altar as "atang" (ritual offering) for the dead. Eating the atang is forbidden, or one falls ill of dementia or gets one’s mouth piwis or twisted on one side, or so it is believed.

Patupat or inkaldit is another biko-type of rice cake. It is wrapped in a pyramidal pouch made of a woven coconut leaves. It is cooked in sugarcane juice. The use of coconut leaves and the cooking process both give a different flavor and texture to this rice cake.

Latik generally means coconut-milk-and-mollases reduction, but in Bayambang and other parts of Pangasinan, it means biko topped generously with caramelized sugarcane and coconut milk reduction. This is often called bibingka in other parts of the country, but never referred to like that here, for bibingka means something else.

Latik is a town favorite to this day because of its smoky and toasted banana leaf-tinged flavor. Cooking it with the perfect kulnet (that pleasing chewy quality of rice cakes) requires the best ingredients and a mastery of the process. Locals who make latik make the best latik ever, but they are now quite hard to find.

Pinipig is toasted young rice grains then pounded and formed as candy or used as topping for halo-halo.

Binuburan is an unadorned sweet fermented rice treat. It should be eaten first thing in the morning, it is said, to ward off stomachache. Dr. Clarita Jimenez claims that binuburan was first made in Bayambang.

Champorado is rice chocolate porridge topped with a dash of evaporated milk.

Lilot balatong is sweet rice porridge with cracked and toasted mongo beans, preferably served hot.

Ginataan ya mais (ginataang mais) is glutinous rice porridge with coconut milk and some sweet corn, typically served hot. It may contain little jackfruit strips and tapioca pearls. It often comes off as a cross between rice cake and porridge.

Rice cakes or treats made from deremen -- toasted immature sticky rice that are pounded in some wood charcoal -- are traditionally produced only in October in time for All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Deremen is typically cooked in at least two ways: inlubi and deremen ya ginataan.

Inlubi is rice cake made of deremen traditionally prepared to mark Pista'y Inatey (Undas), reportedly as an offering to one's dearly departed. Today, inlubi is often for sale even when it's not yet November. It is aptly described as having a "toasty" taste and "smelling like fresh morning air."

Ginataan ya deremen is a sweet, cold, soupy dessert made of raw deremen steeped in boiling water, fresh coconut milk, strips of young coconut meat, and sugar until the rice grains become soft and get cooked. It is served cold.

Latik a deremen is inlubi topped with latik or panutsa-sweetened coconut milk reduction.

Gipang is essentially candied puffed pinipig or toasted rice crispies. It is said to be a local specialty that originated in Brgy. Amanperez. It is a hybrid between puff/pop rice, pinipig, and deremen, the result a wonderful combination of flavors and consistency: chewy and crunchy at the same time, and smoky and sweet too.

Gipang is made from deremen, fried in oil and molten sinakob (sugar molasses discs), and then shaped into blocks. Like pinipig but not flattened into flakes, this greenish-gray crunchy sweet treat is often used as topping in halo-halo or eaten as is.

Use of tapong or ground rice

Rice cakes using tapong or ground rice come in many varieties. There is the unday-unday (palitaw), bicho-bicho or bitso-bitso (carioca), buchi or butsi, tikoy, and the kulambo.

Unday-unday is the local term for palitaw, white tongues of boiled galapong topped with grated coconut and white sugar sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.

Bicho-bicho or bitso-bitso (carioca in Tagalog) is sticky rice balls with young coconut strips and rolled in white or brown sugar then fried and pierced in a small bamboo stick.

Butsi or buchi is deep-fried sweet rice cake made into brown flattened balls filled with a sweet monggo paste then rolled in sesame seeds.

Tikoy is known as sticky Chinese rice cake often given away as gift for the Chinese New Year and often comes in various flavors, but in this town, it comes in a brown version (using brown sugar) with the top part made tough through frying. (In neighboring San Carlos City, tikoy is also called pininat.)

Kulambo is white glutinous rice dessert with a lot more gooey consistency compared to tikoy.

Puto is a popular steamed ground rice cake delicacy that is commonly made in the different parts of the Philippines, so it comes in a host of varieties. Malays are also known to make this delicacy, which they call putu.

There is the typical cupcake-shaped puto with a bit of cheese on top that is commonly served in birthday parties and other feasts.

Puton belas or puto lasong is fluffy white puto sold the size of a bilao (bamboo winnowing tray) and then sliced into pieces in rhomboidal shape. It may or may not contain anise seeds or may or may not be slathered with a little margarine and drizzled with freshly grated coconut. (Lasong refers to the large pan-type earthenware it is cooked in.)

Another puton belas version is bibingkan tapong or simply tapong, which is made of ground non-glutinous rice that is toasted on the top, making it a cross between puto and bibingka but without using much of a riser. Essentially a rice bread, its smoky bland taste is its own appeal.

Puto Calasiao is small white puto variety made in Calasiao which is particularly popular for its petite size and chewiness. Since Calasiao is near Bayambang, this type of bite-size puto is everyday fare in town, a sweet and delicious snack eaten as is or as accompaniment to savory dishes such as dinuguan or pancit and other common Filipino dishes. Often referred to as "white gold" with a sliver of cheese on top, it is sticky, soft, and moist in consistency at the same time. The secret to achieving this particular consistency lies in the use of the Maharlika or Corazon rice variety.

Today, puto Calasiao comes in plain, ube, pandan, strawberry, and mango flavors.

Kutsinta, cuchinta, or puto kutsinta is round reddish-brown "unleavened cake textured like a stiff and chewy pudding, and is prepared from wet-milled rice flour with sugar and lye, the lye giving a stiff, chewy texture." It is topped with fresh grated coconut and comes in bite size like Calasiao puto.

A purple, red, and brown unleavened version of rice cake is also called puto. Both are often sold by ambulant vendors together with the usual puto and kutsinta. Food color is apparently used in these varieties, and these are topped with freshly grated coconut.

Bibingka is grilled rice pancake that may or may not contain coconut strips inside. It is cooked in a clay stove using a pan that is topped with a tin plate containing hot embers. The cake is covered with banana leaf, which imparts aroma to the toasted cake. Often topped with butter and freshly grated coconut, it is traditionally sold only during the Christmas season, particularly after the ‘Simbang Gabi’ or dawn masses.

Suman is glutinous rice, either whole grains or as flour, cooked in coconut milk and wrapped in banana or coconut leaves. It mostly comes as suman sa lihiya wrapped either conically in green banana leaves (balisongsong style) or in coiled coconut leaves. Suman sa lihiya is dipped in granulated sugar and often eaten while sipping coffee.

Tupig is a kind of suman in which wet sticky rice flour with strips of young coconut meat and sugar is steamed as a small flat strip, rolled in banana leaf, then grilled over embers, giving off an addictive smoky-banana leafy aroma.

Tambo-tambong or kineler is a soupy dessert of diced taro (yam) or camote (sweet potato) and saba, globules of galapong (rice dough), and sago and/or tapioca pearls cooked in coconut milk and sugar. Jackfruit strips are sometimes added. The use of diced ube gives it a purple color.

Masikoy is a version of palitaw swimming in sweet coconut sauce with a generous amount of pulverized toasted sesame seeds.

It may not be traditional fare, but sapin-sapin has been sold for years in bulk order by Lydia Calicdan of Brgy. Amanperez.

Corn-based

The corn-based ones include the jiggly tibok-tibok (made of cornstarch and carabao's milk then topped with coconut milk curds) and corn polvoron.

Tibok-tibok is a thin, silky version of maja blanca which resembles the consistency of jello. Also known as carabao's milk pudding, its name comes from the Kapampangan word for heartbeat, referring to how the pudding starts to bubble and heave as a signal of doneness.

Corn polvoron is a local shortbread that uses toasted coarse corn flour in place of fine wheat flour, together with butter, powdered milk, and sugar.

Mais con hielo is sweet corn bits in shredded ice and sweetened milk.

Traditional non-sweet corn treats include binatog, boiled corn kernels drizzled with salt and grated coconut; corn puffs; cornick; inkalot a mais or grilled white corn (Silangan variety, glutinous and non-glutinous, with a unique flavor); etc.

Cassava-based

Cassava is called kamoten kahoy or kahoy for short, and it is prepared in different ways.

Inlambong a kahoy is blocks of cassava simply boiled in water or in coconut milk with a little salt and then dipped in sugar or katiba. It may also be eaten hot with margarine or butter, then sprinkled white or brown sugar and grated coconut.

Cassava fritters are made from grated cassava that are formed into patties then deep-fried.

Kundandit (also called dinekdek) is boiled then pounded kamoteng kahoy (cassava) mixed with toasted finely ground corn and brown sugar.

Nilupak is cassava that is boiled and then pounded with shredded coconut and white sugar. Boiled unripe (gubal or manibalang in Tagalog) saba may be added in, pounded together into the mix.

According to Iluminada J. Mabanglo, topping both cakes with a dab of margarine is a recent modification.

Notably, Manaoag's version of kundandit described elsewhere appears to be different. Today, Bayambang's versions of commercial kundandit and nilupak are also dusted with white sugar and toasted and crushed sesame seeds.

At home, people made cassava cake that is a lot finer in quality compared to its commercial version.

Ambulant peddlers used to sell cassava pudding, which is a fat stick of pudding wrapped in transparent plastic wrapper.

Suman a kahoy or pinais is suman made of steamed finely ground cassava wrapped in banana leaf. A variant is called kutitem, which is described online as "rice cake made with cassava or sticky rice flour wrapped in banana leaves, perhaps with sugar but without salt."

Kinuskos a kahoy is cassava that is grated instead of pounded and mixed with young coconut strips and sugar, then steamed, so it has a rough, stringy consistency.

Versions of pichi-pichi (translucent cassava balls rolled in grated coconut) are sold in the public market. There are bite-size pieces that are less translucent than the usual pichi-pichi. There is a version formed into a floral shape.

Latik ya kahoy (or latik a kahoy) is cassava cake in sugarcane syrup-and-coconut reduction. It is cooked like a bibingka, i.e., grilled with glowing charcoals placed on top of a tin pan, thus explaining the epidermal caramelization, so it may be called bibingkang (kamoteng) kahoy as well. It is delicious and soft, almost like cassava pudding, which is presumably oven-baked, but a tad harder than cassava cake, which is steamed.

Sugarcane-based

The sugarcane-based ones included sinakob (with or without peanuts) and the ultra-sweet and super-viscous pulitipot. But there used to be a tradition here of panagpangos or panag-us-os or biting off sugarcane bits per se from a foot-long cane and chewing it to extract the raw juice and spitting out what remains of the pulp.

Sinakob (panocha or panutsa in Tagalog) is solidified (and thus brown-colored) sugarcane molasses.

Pulitipot is a very sweet and viscous form of unrefined sugar that easily solidifies into glass-like consistency when heated.

Coconut-based

Katiba is the local name for coco jam, coconut extract cooked in molasses.

Coconut candy is candied coconut extract, a solidified version of katiba. When sold in stores, it is wrapped in rolled white bond paper.

Ginuyor, according to professor Perfecto Beltran, was “a variety of coconut candy in the olden days. It was yellowish in color because it had butter, was much longer and bigger than the ordinary coconut candy, also wrapped in paper but twisted like a rope and the outer part was flaky. One had to pull one end from the other to get a piece -- thus 'ginuyor' or pulled."

When oil is extracted from coconut, all that is left is the reduction called ganusal, and this is used as topping or garnishing for the different kakanen.

Bocayo or bukayo is candied coconut meat strips, which comes in two varieties, one using brown sugar and another using white sugar, and shaped into balls or blocks with a chewy consistency. Bocarillo is its flat, hard candy version that also comes in both varieties whose consistency is on the crunchy side.

Others

Pakasyat is like the panutsa or muscovado from the silag or buri palm tree but quite different. It could easily be mistaken for a smallish tablea. Its sweetness is blunted by a bitter edge. Pakasyat is even made more interesting by its delicate melt-in-your-mouth quality.

The sweet sap of silag is drunk as sinamit.

Halo-halo is the ever-popular summer treat of mixed sweets in shredded ice, evaporated milk and white sugar -- the more ingredients, the better: sago pearls or tapioca pearls, nata de coco, red, white, and green kaong, cubes of camote and saba preserve, sweet red monggo, garbanzos, langka strips, macapuno strips, with pinipig or gipang, leche flan, and ube jam as toppings. Other options include melon strips and avocado.

Guinomis is a sweet, cold, and refreshing drink that’s made of gulaman cubes (agar jelly), sago pearls, and pinipig in coconut milk, syrup, evaporated milk, and crushed ice. There are many variations of guinomis – vanilla, pandan leaves for flavor, and melon strips may also be used. A current reincarnation of this treat is the very popular buko pandan, pandan-flavored gelatin cubes and buko strips in sweetened heavy cream.

Gulaman from red agar is a popular jelly dessert. This is also made into iced drinks with plain gulaman or as sago’t gulaman (gulaman with sago pearls).

Halaya is, of course, ube haleya or ube jam.

Leche flan is Filipino-style egg custard, a favorite during fiesta and other special occasions.

References: Prof. Perfecto Beltran, Iluminada J. Mabanglo, Dr. Leticia B. Ursua, Resty S. Odon, John Quinto, Clarita F. Tagab, Luz Cayabyab, and other members of the Bayambang Culture Mapping Facebook page