in search of...

Bicolano Gulgoria Recipe

unlike the common pinoy version, the bicolano gulgoria counterpart use rice flour, coconut milk & sugar. unfortunately i have yet to come-up with the regional recipe. searched the web to no avail, relatives & friends don't remember either. i probably have to take a trip back to bicol and check with the older generation to get the authentic recipe.

flash back decades ago, my great grand aunt modesta (she's standing & her elder sister dominga is seated), would either prepare "bayukbok" or "gurguria" - my favorite munchies whenever i visit her in the barrio. "lang modes", as i fondly call her, would be in her backyard making her own rice flour. rice soaked in water overnight, drained and then pounded in a large wooden mortar & pestle. sifted in layers of finely woven sinamay (abaca fabric). result is finer than that of packaged corn meal - but courser than processed flour. almost like WONDRA texture.

this mortar & pestle is not the kitchen variety "dikdikan", when i say large...i mean LARGE! in bicol we call the wooden mortar GALPONG-AN. (the pounded rice flour is called GINALPONG/GALPONG or GALAPONG in tagalog region). averagely, the mortar's mouth is about a foot wide & more than a foot deep. the wood pestle is called ÅLO, varies in length & weight. perhaps a meter long to 3-5 kilos heavy, imagine it as a stretched elongated dumbbell. sometimes a pair of pestle is used. these days we call this process "working out in the gym".

(similar to picture from answers.com)

during rice harvest season, young men would line up several large mortars & pound fresh rice to peel off the husk or make "pinipigs" (rice flakes). the sounds of the pounding similar to rythmic jungle drums except these are wooden mortar & pestle. children my age always had the front row, seated in squat positions. giggling whenever a pounder missed a beat. our jaws drop when one shows off by twirling the pestle. watching a native performance of broadway's STOMP generations back.

oops...i got carried away. we're on the topic of gulgoria aren't we?

now back to "lang modes" and her gurguria. she kneads the dough from a mixture of rice flour, fresh squeezed coconut milk with grated "panucha" & dash of salt. rolls into a log & slice thinly to about 1/8". her "kawali" ready with hot coconut oil and carefully slide each slice in. fried til golden brown.

after the gurguria crackers had been drained & cooled, in a separate pot she'd make "arnibal" from "panucha" and at the right moment pour the gurguria crackers in, making sure every cracker is coated then take them all out fast. as it cools shiny frosting forms on the crackers.

to this day, i could not duplicate lang modes' gurguria. i have been experimenting & trying hard to recreate that flavor and guess what? NADA! it's so funny that i ended up with the rice gulguria (see top picture) in odd sizes, because i could not cut the log to keep a round shape cracker. i had to pat each slice as if i was making palitaw - thus the odd shapes.

anyway...i'm still in pursuit of that original bicol "gulgoria" or "gurguria" (we even say it differently in bicol).

to be continued.....