Coconut Milk–Stewed Mochi and Tropical Fruit

Gigil is an almost untranslatable word: the sensation of being giddily overwhelmed by adorableness—“when something is so cute you want to bite it,” as my friend Geena Rocero (see “Siya: Decolonizing the Language,”) explained. That’s what I felt as a kid watching Lola roll up bilo-bilo, little balls of mochi no bigger than Milk Duds, and toss them into a bubbling pot of coconut milk on her electric stove. I couldn’t resist. I’d stand on tiptoe