What's Your Favorite Kakanin or
Native Delicacies?

Bibingka, Puto, Carioca, Kalamay,Maja Blanca, Pitsi-pitsi, Suman, Biko, Halayang Ube, Cassava Cake, Butsi, Kalamay-Kapit,Palitaw, Kutsinta, Sapin-sapin, Palitaw with Yema Filling

Kakanin or Native Delicacies are integral part of the Filipino food culture.

Uniquely Filipino, these are sweet munchies or sometimes desserts made from rice, sweet rice or root vegetables that are slow cooked and usually made with coconut or coconut milk.

Ask your kid to choose between a Biko or a Cake to take to school, and I bet he chooses the latter.

It is not one that kids tend to bring to school as baon or packed snack, as there is a connotation that it is 'too native' and not cool.

On the other hand, grown-ups, especially those living outside the Philippines, crave for these delicacies.

Quite laborious to make, not all households make their own Kalamay or Halayang Ube.

Most would rather buy than say, stir a sticky sweet rice for an hour until it gets chewy.

What qualifies a sweet delicacy as Ka kanin?

  • It could be made from rice or sweet rice, or any of the root vegetables like ube, cassava, taro.
  • It could use coconut, and coconut by-products.
  • It could be cooked in banana leaf or flavored with pandan leaf.
  • It usually is sticky, chewy and takes hours to make - a real labor of love...
  • And they're Filipino originals!

All these make them really special and worth all the work!

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Kalamay
Sweet Rice Dessert with Coconut Cream Topping

Palitaw
Sticky Rice with Shredded Coconut, Sugar and Sesame Seeds

Kutsinta
Sticky Rice Cake

Cassava Cake
Cassava Pudding Made with Coconut Milk, Eggs and Butter

Puto
Steamed Rice Cake

Biko
Sweet Sticky Rice With Latik Topping

Carioca
Fried Sweet Rice Balls Dipped in Sweet Coconut Syrup

Halayang Ube
Purple Yam Dessert

Suman sa Lihiya
Sticky Rice with Lye Water Wrapped in Banana Leaves

Maja Blanca
Creamy Coconut Corn Cake

Bibingka
Rice Cake Cooked in Banana Leaves

Kalamay-Kapit
Sweet Rice Dessert with Latik Topping

Kalamay-Kapit with Arnibal
Sweet Rice Cake in Sugar Syrup

Sapin-sapin
Multi-colored Sweet Rice Cake

Palitaw with Yema Filling
Sticky Rice with Custard Candy Filling


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