I’m half-Filipino (mom’s side). I was born in Manila, Philippines, but was raised in the Las Vegas area. I had a mostly traditional American upbringing, except that we would occasionally eat Filipino food. Either my mom made it or we would get something from local Filipino restaurants or Asian markets that are fairly abundant in the Vegas area.
This is probably speaks to me being a someone oblivious child, but even though I enjoyed most of the Filipino food we would be served, I didn’t really know what the food was called. I knew some of the basic foods like adobo, pancit, lumpia, and flan. But other things I just knew by description: red chicken, the purple soupy stuff, etc.
I eventually got married and had a bunch of kids. We moved from Vegas to Idaho Falls, Idaho. While Idaho Falls had at least some variety of restaurants (some of which were very good), we did not have an option for Filipino food. And any new food places that opened seemed to be burger or steak places, soda shops, or cookie bakeries. I missed Filipino food more than I thought I would.
We recently relocated to the Seattle area for work.
Imposter Syndrome for Eating Food?
I’ve been intending to get out and try some of the Filipino restaurants out there.
But I will say one barrier I have is that I don’t know what the food is, how to pronounce the food on the menu, or what the names of the food means. It makes me feel like I’m an imposter half-Filipino.
In fact, one time I went to a Filipino restaurant by my work. They had a menu outside and I looked it over. I didn’t know what food was and felt embarrassed to go in and ask. So I left.
So I’d like to get to know the food better.
Last week, my wife and I went to a local Filipino grocery store. I wanted to get some candy and treats to start this very project.
They didn’t have that great of a selection. I was looking for some treats and candies that I knew, such as Chocnut or Haw Flakes. Candidly, I was not all that familiar with Pastillas. I didn’t even recognize the look of them, but I thought they looked pretty good.
What are Pastillas?
A “pastillas” is a milk-based confection. It is traditionally made with carabao milk. In case you didn’t know (like me), carabao is water buffalo. There are different varieties: soft, hard, toasted, filled, and, apparently, chewy. I did not know this at the time.
I bought the chewy variety. The assorted flavors in this pack included carrot, ube (purple sweet potato), Buko-Pandan (Buko is coconut and Pandan is a plant that has a vanilla/coconut flavor), Ube Macapuno (macapuno is a type of coconut that has been developed to have softer white innards), and Langka (jackfruit).
I’m also assuming that these were not made with the authentic carabao milk because I think they would have otherwise advertised that as a selling point.
Rating the Assorted Pastillas
To judge the Pastillas, I developed my proprietary Food Rater Form, which uses the following haptic scale:
I hate to be overly critical or whiny, but I did not particularly like this iteration of Pastillas. I gave the Assorted Pastillas a total score of 4.83. I would not round this up to a 5. I’m keeping it as a score of “Not that Good.”
If you want to keep up to date on my tastings and reviews, subscribe to my YouTube channel.
