The theme for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge on the Daily Post is the color Purple.
I thought about food again…specifically Filipino food, as I was already working on a purple food post.
Indian Eggplant at Moss Landing, California Market Stall
There are many food in shades of purple. There is the eggplant of course, and grapes, purple potatoes, purple cabbage, purple basil, onions — which we call red, but really is often the same shade as purple cabbages.
Boy behind “red” onions at his family’s vegetable market stall, Philippines
Purple shade foods — beets and onions — for sale at the Old Monterey Farmers Market
However, when it comes to purple foods, I think Filipino food wins in the “most” category. This is all thanks to the ube — pronounced “ou-beh” — a type of purple yam from the Philippines.
Filipinos are accustomed to purple food from the flavor and coloring of ube — and it must be ingrained in us. Ube flavored food varies from a light shade of lavender to a deep, dark purple. It does not matter the shade as I think I can speak for most Filipinos and Filipino-Americans here, that when we see purple or an ube-shade of food, we immediately think…oh look, purple…yes, it’s ube…its good….get it….eat it!
The purple ube by itself is a health food, with anti-oxidant properties. But perhaps how we prepare it in the Philippines — whipped with milk and sugars, or stuffed in breads, cooked with biko or other rice flour based desserts — takes away its health benefits. Or maybe there is still enough ube in there to count for something…
Here are some of my ube food photos. It is common to see these at San Francisco Bay Area Filipino grocery stores and eateries.
Pan de ube — bread stuffed with the purple yam jam!
Philippine sticky rice with coconut dessert “Biko” plain (brown) and purple ube flavored.
Philippine “kakanin” or snack food called Puto, in plain white, or purple, ube flavored.
“Sapin-sapin” a type of layered, sticky, rice flour based snack food and dessert, ube flavored
It is also common to find ube flavored drinks, ice creams and ube snacks at Filipino eateries, and even fast-food restaurants. This is from Chow-King, advertising halo-halo (an icy treat that translates to “mix-mix”). Click on the photo for Lolako’s Halo-Halo post.
Woman selling snacks contained in banana leaves, at the market, Philippines. The tube shaped items are filled with sticky rice cooked in coconut milk, then steamed. The cupcake looking items are “puto”, a fermented rice flour sweet snack, also cooked inside a banana leaf. You can see purple, or ube flavored ones along with the yellow and pink putos. Click on photo for more on the Philippine banana-wrapped snack foods.
Ube flavored snack contained in banana leaves
The food snack and Chinese style pastry “Hopia” typically has yellow mung beans, but lately I have seen these with ube flavored filling, too!
Purple Yam is available in a powdered format, if you want to add a natural food coloring (and some ube flavors) to your food.
Jeff made pan de sal — a traditional breakfast bread in the Philippines — with ube, using this brand of powdered ube.
The recipe is from Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan’s cookbook, Memories of Philippine Kitchens. They are owners of the restaurant Purple Yam, in Brooklyn, New York.
Homemade ube pan de sal with store-bought ube spread.
Booth at Pistahan Festival in San Francisco – August 2012
Ube Waffles with caramelized macapuno (coconut) syrup by Pinx (www.PinxCatering.com)
Philippine ube “flower bread”
Picture is a small dish of super purple, ube “halaya”…sweet favorite of grated and mashed ube, cooked with milk (cooked by stirring, then stir, stir and then more stirring). It is usually topped with bits of coconut curd.
What do you think? Way too strange or…I’ll try that!
Related links:
Purple yam, Dioscorea alata (in cross-section above courtesy Deepugn – via blog In the Company of Plants and Rocks)
Blog post “Will the real yam please stand up”, from the blog, In the Company of Plants and Rocks.
Excerpt…Plants of the genus Dioscorea, the true yams, are perennial vines. The yams themselves are root tubers…
Ube Flavor Ice Cream from Magnolia – Ramar Foods Intl.
Lolako’s Purple yam…or corn and cheese ice cream…anyone? On the unique, ice cream flavors from the Philippines.
Yummmmmmm — and I can’t wait to eat all these delicious goodies.
Me too, Wally!
Ube! What could be more perfect?
– Jean
That is what I thought too, Jean. Purple = UBE!
really interesting food for sure
It is different, isn’t it…I think first time visitors to the Philippines are kind of surprised to see all our purple foods, Jo.
This is a wonderful interpretation!!! Love the purple foods. They look so unique and delicious. I have never tried Filipino food but would love to!
Thank you…I do think we have a lock on the most purple food category. I hope you get to try Filipino food soon!
For those in NYC area, or if you are ever in New York, a well-known Filipino restaurant is Purple Yam. Visit their website’s dinner menu section here, to get an idea of the food.
Hopia and Ube look amazing – really nice post – thanks for all of the insight as well.
Thank you, David. Your photos of lavender fields at Manzanita Creek Winery are lovely!
Wow! That was one wonderful piece of purple collections! Purple Ice cream i have seen and eaten, but the other Filipino foods were new to me! Gr8 post!
You are one of the few non-Filipinos to have ube ice cream. I hope you liked it! Thanks for visiting and the comment.
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interesting purple food!
Thank you for visiting
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Fascinating, I’ve never seen some of these before. Great entry, and thanks for sharing
Thank you for visiting. You have some fun blogs, and I will check them out.
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how fun! my take on the challenge was another kind of filipino food too.
glad to discover your blog!
Thank you for visiting and the comment. I enjoyed seeing the photo of the delicious looking guinatan — in a lovely ube infused purple — for your take on the challenge.
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That’s a lot of purple food!!
Yes, I think Filipinos just love this purple yam, and the fact that it is available in a powder format makes it easy to add to other foods…for even more purple food!
Very purple
Thank you for the visit. I liked your Melbourne “purple rain” photo.
simply, nakakagutom!!! I love the way you interpreted purple, yummy!!!
O’ sige, kain na! Thank you — I have lavender field photos too, but could not resist posting on “ube”…quintessential purple known to all Filipinos.
bibingka my favorite, tsarap tsarap
Thank you Ponky…basta may dahon nang saging (banana leaf wrap), mas masarap, diba?
Ube is on my list of the next things I must try. Thanks for letting me discover its existence
Wow…so you are willing to try our purple foods! Good to hear that
I’d never heard of ube before. What an interesting post, and lovely purple food pics.
Lola Jane and her ube awareness campaign, right? It is a fun food color. Thank you for visiting, adinparadise.
Yum, yum! Nagutom ako…
Kailangan na lang, coffee and tea.
Purple yam is new to me, thanks its great to learn !
You are welcome, Gilly.
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Fantastic post. We have purple yam back in my dad’s village in Nigeria. It is just referred to as colored yam. However, we also have a fruit called Ube that is purple outside and green inside… When I read your Ube, I was shocked to find a common name we share but for two different food items. Amazing!
Wow, until your comment, I did not know that there is another “UBE” from another country. Is it pronounced like the Filipino version, “ou-beh”? How interesting that it is purple in color, too!
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