Pampanga's Tibuk Tibuk

Pampanga is a region in the Philippines that is known for its culinary heritage and brilliant recipes that have been passed down through many generations.

We prepared a great Pampangan holiday dessert called Tibuk Tibuk, and devoured it.

It's a milk pudding topped with fried coconut milk solids called latik. It is a specialty in the region of Pampanga, and it's also better known as maja blanca to the rest of the Philippines.  

Tibuk Tibuk which literally means "heartbeat", describes how you can tell when the pudding is done; the bubbles just barely touch the surface so it looks like a beating heart.

Here's the recipe for your enjoyment:

Ingredients

    • 2 cans of coconut milk

    • 2½  cans evaporated milk

    • 1 can coconut milk

    • 1 cup cornstarch 

    • 1 teaspoon sugar

    • 2 teaspoons of coconut Macapuno syrup.

Pour 2 cans of coconut milk in saucepan and divide the lump of coconut into ¼ parts.

Allow to simmer on medium heat without stirring at all.

It's done when you see the oil appear.

Take the oil and pour it into the baking dish, cover the inside completely.

Continue to allow the coconut to brown in the saucepan.

You'll be using the coconut on top of the dessert.

In a saucepan pour the evaporated milk, the coconut milk, and while still cold blend in the cornstarch.

Now stir until there are no lumps.

Turn heat up to medium and add the Macapuno syrup and sugar.

Continue to stir until thickens.

When it thickens, pour the mixture into your baking dish.

Let it sit until it cools down.

We know there are variations, but this is our favorite recipe.

The Philippine’s Waterfall Restaurant

 

The Labassin Waterfall Restaurant is located in Villa Escudero in San Pablo, Quezon Province, and there's nothing else like it.

Here you can enjoy wonderful Filipino food while while sitting at the base of the large man-made waterfall. 

Located in the Quezon province of the Philippines, Villa Escudero is a nice hacienda-style resort with comfy rooms and an beautiful atmosphere. 

But it's the waterfall restaurant that is the main attraction, here you can enjoy a great meal right at the foot of a waterfall.

Customers  are actually encouraged to take off their shoes and get as close to the falls as possible. Set right at the foot of Labasin Falls and taste popular Filipino dishes, while fresh spring water from the falls flows under and over their feet.

Customers who don’t mind getting their clothes wet can sit right under the rushing waterfall and get their pictures taken. 

We want one!

KFC has a "Cheese Top" sandwich

It has finally happened, KFC has a "Cheese Top" sandwich in the Philippines that is literally, topped with cheese, on top of the bun.

 

The fried chicken sandwich has a garlic-parmesan sauce and a layer of  American cheese melting over the top of the bun.

KFC has described the dish as "the first and only cheese topped bun burger, which means, you have to touch the cheese also when trying to eat the sandwich.

What cheese is doing outside of the bun anyway, is something that is way beyond us.

The Philippine Floods

MANILA, Philippines, rescuers are trying to deliver food and water to hundreds of stranded villagers because of flooding in the northern Philippines, where back-to-back typhoons have left at least 59 people dead.

Seven towns north of Manila are still flooded, including Calumpit in rice-growing Bulacan province, where hundreds of residents remained trapped on rooftops in four villages for the fourth day.



In the last four months, prolonged monsoon flooding, typhoons and storms across Southeast Asia, China, Japan and South Asia have left more than 600 people dead or missing. In India alone, the damage is estimated to be worth $1 billion.



The damage on agriculture and infrastructure from the earlier typhoon in the Philippines was estimated at $200 million. Rice and vegetables can only be obtained from the country's south in case of supply shortfalls due to damaged farms and blocked roads in the north.