Buko pie. Have you ever heard of such? Have you ever tasted such?
It sounds synonymous to Laguna, in the Philippines - specifically Los Banos. Whenever tourist or visitors troop to our area, buko pie is the next best thing being looked for aside from hot springs. Array of names will surprise guests of Los Banos – from the most familiar to the most bizarre. The tastes vary as frequents as the brands, mind you.
So what really is buko pie?
Wikipedia defines Buko pie as “a traditional Filipino pastry style, young-coconut (malauhog)-filled pie. It has proven to be a popular dish for Filipinos. It is almost like a coconut cream pie, only it is made with just young coconuts (buko in Tagalog) and has no cream. Instead, the pie utilizes sweetened condensed milk. The pie is made with buko meat. There are also variations of the pie, which are similar but use slightly different ingredients, such as macapuno pie, that uses a special type of coconut which differs from ordinary coconut as it is thick and sticky.”
What fascinates me though is that despite assortments of brands sold, buko is never really a major product of Los Banos or Laguna. It is safe to assume that the next province, which is Quezon, is the major producer of coconuts in the country. It would seem that long ago people of Quezon were too busy tending to their coconuts that Laguna people thought of something novel, thus the buko pie.
So next time you bring one hot buko pie home to your sweetie pie be sure to pick the best-tasting one.
