Continuing with personal favorites — this time, the glutinous rice series.

Puto Maya

Puto Maya is glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk and ginger juice until lightly sweet, then sold wrapped in banana leaves. Unwrap one and you’ll find a small triangular rice cake — like a sweet onigiri. Some are made with white rice only; others use black rice and come out a soft purple. Ginger intensity and sweetness vary by vendor, which makes trying different makers genuinely fun.

Sold from early morning, three pieces is roughly the filling equivalent of one Japanese onigiri. At 10 pesos each, it’s easy to buy too many. The sweetness is gentle enough that you can keep going.

Bud-bud

Bud-bud (pronounced something like “bood-bood” — the “boo” slightly elongated helps Filipinos understand you) is a close relative of puto maya. The difference: puto maya is cooked first and then wrapped; bud-bud is wrapped in banana leaf and then steamed. To eat it, you peel back the leaf like a banana skin — the Filipino way.

The black rice version shown here is from one of my favorite vendors and is harder to find. Slightly sweeter than puto maya, and excellent with coffee. Usually sold in packs of 4 or 5, though roadside vendors often sell them individually. About 10 pesos each. Same over-buying warning applies.

Biko

Third in the glutinous rice lineup: biko. Available in square or round form (in my personal experience, the round ones tend to be slightly softer and moister). Biko is glutinous rice cooked with palm sugar (muscovado), sometimes topped with latik — the crunchy browned solids left behind when coconut milk is cooked down to separate the oil. That slightly darker patch in the center of the photo is the latik.

The sweetest and most filling of the three — one piece is genuinely satisfying. Priced around 15–20 pesos.

Continued in Street Snacks Part 3…