The Biko Disaster

Lately, I have been dealing with these food cravings: fried rice with egg, lechon, and sweet, sticky rice, also known as Biko. This is in addition to just being hungry all the time. While I prefer to eat any of the foods that I crave, sometimes, pizza will have to do as I am more impatient than picky.

While fried rice is easy to get, lechon is almost impossible to come by. One time, though, a Thai restaurant actually refused to add egg to their fried rice even when we offered to pay extra for the egg(but scrapped the prawns... not fair!). We have to go to Union City to get lechon, but its not really worth it because it is not as good as lechon from Cebu. Thankfully, one of my friends here had a specially-made lechon for her birthday.

The one other thing that I am craving is Biko. My friend Kim makes really good Biko, so I asked her for the recipe. It sounded simple enough so I tried to make some myself. It was harder than I thought.

First, I added everything together: sugar, coconut milk and rice. Oops. I wasn't supposed to do that. Then it was getting dry while the rice was not cooking at all. It was too late to call Kim, so I called my Auntie Chiel in the Philippines for help. My Biko was drying up fast, and not cooking. Worse, there was a big ugly glop of burnt rice and sugar smack in the bottom of my pan.

My cousin, IC answered the phone. I needed to convince him that my Biko problem is more urgent than his Christmas present, and that I needed to talk to his mom ASAP. After a few minutes of "Ate can't cook... I can't believe Ate can't make Biko ... and Ate, I want a _____ for Christmas", I finally got to talk to Auntie Chiel. the solution was pretty darn simple: turn the heat down. Doy! Why didn't I think of that?

It was a little too late, though. I had added another can of coconut milk to the concoction in an effort to save the whole thing from drying out. Burnt bits of rice were all over the whole thing, and my arm are tired from stirring to whole thing so it doesn't become one big giant lump of burnt rice and sugar.

When the smoke cleared, my biko, burnt and overcooked, was ready. Not the greatest first attempt. But I was really really happy to eat some Biko that night. That had to be one of the most expensive(ingredients bought at USA prices + international phone call to save it), exhaustive Biko ever made. It wasn't the best, but I certainly thought it tasted good.

And I can always try again tonight.