Binungey- Rice meal-to-go Pangasinan style

Aside from bangus (milkfish), I am not so familiar with Pangasinan cuisine. And I absolutely love it  when I am introduced to traditional cooking.  So in a recent work trip, when  I was brought to the house of one old couple who was one of the few remaining people who knew how to cook Binungey, it was a moment I tried to  record in my mind... in case I needed some winning cooking skills when I get trapped in an island (which nearly happened the next day, by the way-- see my entry entitled "The Kindness Of Strangers 2"). 

My inner culinary geek just took over as I started to record the cooking process. So here it is...

Saw off an 8-inch piece of bamboo with the node in the middle. 

Wash the sticky rice, mix in some rock salt and fill the bamboo with it.

Make sure to leave some space for the coconut cream

Pour in coconut cream (kakang gata)

Cover with banana cut up banana leaf

Make sure to overlap the leaves

Place the bamboo pieces in an open oven

Make sure to be wearing your slipper when putting in the bamboo filled with rice

Heat up the oven with more firewood and the extra pieces of bamboo you're not using

Make sure the bamboo pieces remain standing

Tap down the leaves that are cracking up because of the bubbling coconut cream

When the bamboo turns brown that means it's ready for eating!

Take the Binungey out

Let it settle for a while

Scrape off the burnt bits off the bamboo

Wipe

Cut in half with a machete

And here is what you'll get

The Binungey is not a dessert as I had thought at first. It's more like rice-to-go but cooked inside a  bamboo stalk. Eating it on its own is not such a joy but i am guessing it will go well with fried dried fish or steamed vegetables or pork- deep fried or grilled.