The Puto Bumbong, a traditional Filipino Christmas Treat
A purpled-colored sweet cooked in tubes that are placed on a special steamer-cooker. When cooked, they are removed from the bamboo tubes, spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar and niyog (grated coconut). They are then wrapped in wilted banana leaves which keeps them warm and moist until they are ready to be eaten. Like Bibingka, Puto Bumbong is inexorably linked with Simbang Gabi–the dawn mass on the nine days
Being a Cebuana, I only got to taste Puto Bumbomg when I moved to Manila as a college student. I’ve heard so much about it from friends and relatives. Passing by one of the Puto Bumbong stalls, I was fascinated by the cooking method.
Now that Christmas season is in the air, I crave for some. On my way to the south, I passed by the Shell Magallanes station because I knew there was a stall there that sells Puto Bumbong. For 25 pesos, I got 4 pieces of puto bumbong. It could be cheaper elsewhere but it was definitely good.
More photos on the process of making Puto Bumbong
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