I can’t remember a Garcia family gathering in the Philippines without some sort of biko. Birthdays, holidays, fiestas, reunions. Always a flurry of movement around the dining table, hands darting in and out to grab a plate or spoon or mug. At the Garcias, there’s always coffee, fried chicken, sometimes pato (duck), sometimes coconut sherbet, but always biko.
Biko is a sweetened rice cake, made with sticky rice, coconut milk, and sugar. My dad’s family is from Pampanga, most often dubbed as the culinary region as the Philippines, and whenever we are there, I am in food heaven. They make biko with kalabasa (pumpkin) and it is insanely delicious. I’ll often cut a little (big) square for myself, and then minutes after finishing it will go back for seconds.
Biko is often served as merienda (snack) but it is also common as breakfast or dessert. It’s sometimes topped with latik, a coconut caramel. I love the consistency of the sticky rice, so dense that it’s sliced instead of scooped. I love the creaminess of coconut milk, which pairs so nicely with mellow pumpkin. I love that biko reminds me of family, always.
I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making biko at home but kept putting it off, thinking it was going to be a complicated process and that it will not live up to the biko I’ve been eating since childhood. But after watching ULAM the movie the other night, my craving for Filipino food was INTENSE, so I finally attempted...