The Childhood Delights of Irosin

Bicolanos, like most Filipinos, are prodigious consumers of native desserts. These snacks are creative variations of basic ingredients: starch (rice, banana, or cassava), sugar (white, brown, muscovado, or panocha), and coconut (buko meat or milk from mature coconuts). In my interviews with many Filipinos, food memories always recall desserts. These local sweets and kakanin are not easily replicated and invariably have to be enjoyed in their locality. Furthermore, it is now more difficult to find people who have the skills to keep these traditions alive. In Romy’s large family (Romy is the eighth of thirteen children), the age gap between the older group of siblings and the younger ones is so wide that they represent different generations of food memories. By the time the youngest, José (Ping), was born, children were eating different treats than his older siblings had.