Pili-made Pasalubong from Camarines

Whenever I travel from far-away places, it is customary for me to bring home some pasalubong. My trip to Camarines is no different and I also bought some pasalubong items that can be found in the area. Pili nuts are commonly found in the Bicol that is why most of the pasalubong items their made of pili.

In a previous post, I talked about pili tart that is the usual pasalubong of my Bicolano office mate whenever he go back to the office after a vacation in Bicol. I am not a fan of pili tarts that is why I did not bought any of it in Naga City. The pasalubong items that I bought are pili bar, glazed pili, pili coated with linga, and mazapan de pili.

Pili Bar

Daday's pili bar.

Pili bar is a sort of bread made of grounded pili. This is my most favorite pasalubong item that I brought from Camarines. My family and beloved liked it too and it is the pili-made pasalubong that first go missing into their mouths. Pili bar is not too sweet and this is what I liked about it.

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Brown-colore pili bar. Yum yum.

Glazed Pili and Pili with Linga

If Baguio City has peanut brittle, then Bicolandia has glazed pili. This pili-made pasalubong is made by cooking the meat of pili nut with sugar syrup until the mixture became golden brown. The Pili with Linga is cooked similarly but with the taste enhanced with linga seeds (sesame seeds).

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Sweet glazed pili nuts.

Glazed pili and pili with linga can be bought from vendors at the Naga City Bus Terminal. These pasalubong items are usually wrapped with plastic and sold to passengers at the bus terminal. If you want to buy these pili-made pasalubong items, I suggest that you haggle with vendors so you can buy them at cheap prices.

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Pili nut with seasame seeds.

Mazapan de Pili

Mazapan de Pili is a pili-made bread, like the pili bar. The difference is that it is softer and easily broken to pieces as compared with the pili bar.

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Mazapan de Pili.

I don't like the Mazapan the Pili much because it is easily broken and much of it fell to floor. I was forced to use a spoon just to eat Mazapan de Pili from its box.

I bought a lot of pili-made pasalubong during my visit to Camarines. I know that Bicolandia has more to offer when it comes to food. These pili-made sweets are preview to the other sweets and dishes that Bicolanos love. I hope that I can taste more Bicolano dishes when I return to Bicol.

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Do you want to know more about pasalubong? Read about the pasalubong items I brought from Cebu.

Craving for Pili Nuts

When I was a kid, my father always brings home a native “fruit” coming from his home province in Bicolandia.

He boils this fruit until the seed inside is exposed and the meat inside the seed was cooked. After boiling, my father will give each of us a hammer to finally crack the seed open and eat the meat inside.

What is this fruit/seed that I am talking about? It is the PILI NUT. Pili is a native tree in Bicol and my father says that the tree grows quite tall. The nut, which is the seed inside the fruit, is so hard to crack that you need a hammer to pound it open. Once you open the hard shell, what you will get is the tasty white meat inside the pili nut.

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Pili nuts.

These days, I always receive pili from an office mate. Not the hard pili nut but this:

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This is pili tart and it is made from pili nut. The taste of pili tart is just ok, however, I can’t recognize the taste of the pili nut because the tart is stuffed with breading. You might think that I am complaining. No I am not, I actually like the pili tart but I like it more if my office mate give me the glazed pili nut, which is cooked in caramel. Glazed pili nut is my favorite pili nut product.

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Sweet glazed pili nuts.

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Photo of pili nut and glazed pili nut came from Ali Baba.com