Deep-fried pride: binangkal
Popular Filipino pastries are baked like bibingka, or steamed like puto. But I like Filipino pastries that are deep fried in that used cooking oil found inside the old “I can’t believe it’s not butter” container by the kitchen sink. Binangkal should be deep fried in that same oil.
I called lola for her special recipe: “Add mga maybe 2 cups of shukar. Ah no, 3 cups of shukar. Ah nebermind, to taste na lang, to taste.”
Like Yoda to a Jedi knight, she told me to find out by myself. By the time I was done my arms and face were full of hot oil scars and the binangkal came out nasty. I need to make a hundred more batches before I reach the quality of lola’s binangkal. For now i’ll use my binangkal as Filipino scrubbing rocks: those rocks Uncle li-lit uses to scrub himself in the shower.