Milo Polvoron

I bought a large tin of "Original Version" Milo made in Singapore. The previous tin of Milo I bought years ago was made in Malaysia. I remember it was grainy and crunchy just like the Milo I grew up eating, sometimes by the spoonful. It's perfect to top Milo shake - you scoop up the crunchy Milo on top before drinking the rest.

This new tin of Milo is powdery, tastes very little of malted powder, and not as chocolaty either. It's a huge disappointment. I cannot return it so I might as well use it but I always add at least 2 tablespoons each of malted milk powder and homemade chocolate sauce in shaved ice treat called Milo Scramble in the Philippines. I recommend the small tins from Colombia which has more chocolate and malt flavor although a tad sweeter. In other words, not all Milo are the same. Ovaltine is out because I find it too medicine-y and tastes even worse. Maybe I'll try Horlicks next time when I finish this tin of Milo.

The polvorones I made today is similar to the Spanish polvorones because I used fine almond flour instead of all wheat flour although I didn't bake them. Filipino polvorones are never baked.

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Polvorones

One of the many many sweets and snacks that Filipinos inherited (and made a better version of) from the Spanish is polvorones. The Spanish polvorones are baked after shaping by hand, they're not quite cookies nor shortbread, somewhere in between. The candy-like Filipino polvoron is never baked but the flour is also toasted before mixing with sugar, powdered milk and butter, then shaped using either a round or oval mold that are made in the Philippines and nowhere else (they can be purchased from Filipino groceries or eBay). I grew up eating plain polvorones and sometimes the ones with crushed peanuts or toasted sesame seeds but recently various flavors and add-ins have been popping up in the Filipino grocery: the ubiquitous buco-pandan, ube, langka, crispy rice or pinipig, crushed oreo cookies, and the latest, graham crackers. Well, why not join the crowd and here is my contribution: raw cacao nibs. They are so addicting! What's not to love: sugar, butter, milk, and raw crunchy bitter chocolate. Mmmmmm.

Peruvian raw organic cacao nibs

The package says they are nutritious and I think these are highly recommended by vegans who advocate eating raw food. I bought the cacao nibs to add to candies, baked goods, and to eat with cereals but I also love munching on them like peanuts. They are a teeny bit bitter, they are pure chocolate after all, but I love extremely dark chocolate anyway. Cacao nibs, a guilt-free and healthy super yummy snack.

Polvorones

4 cups flour

3/4 cup powdered milk

1½ cups super-fine sugar

1 cup very soft butter

• Toast flour in a skillet or in a 300°F oven for about 10 minutes until light brown.
• Into a bowl, sift toasted flour, milk, and sugar. Add the butter and mix thoroughly.
• Fill mold and press lightly, unmold onto individual pieces of rectangular or square (depending on the mold) multi-colored or white tissue paper, twist ends of paper.
• Tip: To prevent crumbling, refrigerate unwrapped molded polvoron for a few minutes or until set.

"
with cacao nibs, graham crackers, buco-pandan, and toasted sesame seeds

Chichiria (Snacks)

Last Saturday my daughter and I brought some of her things to the townhouse. We used my car for the trunk space. She drives a 2 door mustang which has a fairly large trunk but not tall enough for bulky items. She asked me to help her with the heavy items so I went with her. On the way back she asked me to show her the Philasia Filipino grocery which is halfway between our houses. I ended up buying $20.00 worth of chichiria and sweets. Hoo, that's expensive, 1 can of dalandan (Philippine orange with vivid green rind and vivid orange pulp) soda is $1 each but I haven't had dalandan in over 25 years, and it was worth it.

Dalandan photo courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/santos/. We opened a bag of adobo flavor Boy Bawang (garlic) cornicks (crispy corn kernels) while sipping our dalandan soda and almost finished the whole bag, yum, yum, yum. I declare this Boy Bawang the best munchies ever! Other chichiria we bought in addition to Boy Bawang cornicks: Potato rings, Boy chili corn, Prima toast (tiny toasted bread with lots of butter and sugar) and Jacobina biscuits. The sweets: rice paper wrapped turrones de casuy (cashew nuts), buco pandan polvorones, Ovalteenies (yep, the orange wrapped sweets are candied ovaltines), and tamarind candies. One of our favorite sweets that's already in the pantry is ChocNut, a chocolate and peanut candy.