I
wonder how many were lured here by the promise of a potentially new and
exciting Transformer, a robot in disguise? Only my Spanish and my Filipino
associates knew what this post really was about by the title alone…It does
sound like a robot though right? No? Anyway..
As
a man with an incredibly sweet tooth I’ve always loved cakes, pastries,
biscuits, sweets – all the heavenly tasting things that are bad for you. To
help satisfy this perpetual craving I’m lucky to be a European. Europe is the
home of; Belgian Waffles, Italian Tiramisu, French Chocolate éclairs, English
Apple Pie, Dutch Oliebollen, German Black Forest Gateau to name but a few.. a whole plethora of sweet delights. Since I moved to Asia however I have been heavily disappointed by Asian desserts with the exception of Cendol (A Malaysian ice brown sugar dessert).
In
my office in Singapore I have many Filipino colleagues, one in particular
introduced me to an originally Spanish delight still popular across all of
Spain and the ex-Spanish colonies in particular very popular in The
Philippines. This delight is known as Polvorón from the Spanish word Polvo
meaning Dust. Made from dried powdered milk, butter and flour it has a strong
sandstone / cakey texture which causes unbelievable dry mouth but the taste and
texture I adore; and now probably class it as my favourite Asian sweet food.
They
are so popular in the Philippines there are lots of different variants;
original, cookies and cream, coffee and pinipig (which is kind of like
polvoróron with rice crispies inside) and the most famous are those under the
Goldilocks branding.
 |
| The Classic 'Original' Polvorón |
Polvorón
will never take the place of a bowl of steaming hot apple pie with custard from
my heart but while I’m here in Asia surrounded by nasty Chinese bean paste abominations
and Diabetes inducing Indian desserts they will surely quench my sweet tooth
without the need for additional trips to the dentist.
Until next time.
