Turrones de Casoy : Eat Me With My Wrapper

Have you had Turrones de Casoy? It's a wrapped caramelized cashew nuts. It's a local delicacy here in Ph that has been around like ever since the Spanish era. And I had it only last month during my shortest visit in my hometown! My friend who handed me a pack of it was totally like_ "where have you been sister??" and added_ "eat it with the wrapper".
 Whaat??!!
I went_ " are you sure? why?".
Cos it's edible!
The wrapper is actually made of rice paper.

But still.. the wrapper looks like white parchment paper, so inedible to me. I took my first bite so unsure while my daughters were watching me with "eew mom- you forgot to unwrap it-eyes".






I finished a piece followed immediately by 3 pcs. more, all with the wrappers and I wasn't poisoned, haha. It was delicious. The wrapper complimented the sweetness of the cashew nougat. It actually tasted like the "ostia" or the paper thin-bread Catholics take during communion. Same thing, it sticks on mouth palate just like the ostia.
I finished the whole pack the following day.

Now, this makes me crave for it.

Cabalen

My (balikbayan) bb bff was salivating on Filipino food. We were in a mall and there was only one resto I was sure was very pinoy.




On buffet were all time favorite Filipino dishes like kare-kare, dinuguan, adobo , sinigang , bulalo. . .etc , daily dishes we usually have on our table at home and that my bbbff was longing for.




And there were some exotic specialties like ginataang kuhol and some native salads using indigenous ingredients. These were my must try.





My girls hardly ate. I saw their plates with one dish & rice. They only got back to the buffet table for halo-halo , which they found it amusing cos it was "make your own" thingy.




They were not that crazy about Filipino food since they eat them everyday at home. Kyla whispered something in my ears. .



The real reason why they showed not much appetite was minutes before Cabalen, Myka and her, stuffed themselves with Mcdo junks. They took advantage of the time I was with bbbff and indulged which they couldn't do with their mother around.

While bbbff enjoyed her plates of dinuguan/karekare/adobo . . .

I nibbled on these healthy bits : ensaladang mustasa , kalabasang ukoy , kangkong fritter , lumpiang hubad , atsarang labanos . They were all good and easy to prepare at home.

It was a happy lunch !

ps :


Hey, so there were free icecream. We didn't know that ! I only saw it now in this pic. Can we go back to claim them ? hehe!

Palitaw Ni Nanay B

Nanay B, my aunt, is the only surviving elder on my mother's side of family. Everytime we visit her, there's always palitaw on the table, (especially on New Year's Eve). It's a favorite, maybe because it's so easy to prepare/cook :

Ingredients:

-500 gram glutinous rice flour
-3/4 cup water
-coconut flakes-white sugar
-sesame seeds (toasted)

Directions :

- Mix rice flour with water to make dough
- Make little balls then flatten, shape like tounge
- Boil water in a saucepan
- Drop flattened dough balls into boiling water
- They are cooked when they float
- Remove from water, let cool a little bit
- Roll in combined sugar and toasted sesame seeds and coconut flakes

Yummy yum!!!