World's Biggest Bibingka

THERE’S bibingka and there’s Bibingka Mandaue, a delicacy that has become synonymous to this modest city in Metro Cebu.

“You have not been to Mandaue if you haven’t tasted the city’s bibingka,” said Adolf Hoerson, a German national who has lived in the city for more than 30 years.

Eating bibingka is one thing, preparing it is another. Mandauehanons, though, are so used to preparing the coconut rice cake that they’ve decided to make a 182-square-meter version. That’s roughly half the size of a basketball court.

To pull off the record-breaking task, some 300 public school students and teachers had to lend a hand, from squeezing milk from fresh coconut meat to preparing the bibingka mixture and pouring it into pans lined with banana leaves.

A panting Jenelyn Choi, a teacher of the Bakilid Elementary School, had to massage her arms after six hours of preparing the caramelized sugar and coconut milk mix, which would be combined with the sticky rice later.

Tiresome

“Kapoy ang pagmix uy (Mixing is tiresome),” Choi exclaimed, as she and about 28 teachers mixed all of the ingredients to make the bibingka batter.

The participants had to mix about 61 sacks of rice, 61 sacks of sugar, 10 cans of yeast and milk from about 13,500 coconuts to make the batter.

Exhausted after the feat, Choi said she’s unsure if she could eat the bibingka she helped bake.

“Lami unta ikaun ani, pero ambot lang kung matulon pa kaha nako sa akong kakapoy (I’d
love to eat, but I doubt if I can still swallow from this exhaustion),” Choi said in jest.

Compared to Choi’s efforts, however, those who prepared the stoves for the fire had it worse.

Sweating from the searing heat, Marty, one of the students working on the stoves, had difficulty breathing as smoke rose from the charred coconut husk.

He will find consolation, though, in eating the hot bibingka along with fellow students.

“Kung makakaun lang ko aning bingka, bahala na ang kakapoy (If I can eat some of the bibingka, I wouldn’t mind the fatigue),” Marty said.

Baffling

The mere thought of chewing on a slice of bibingka three inches thick baffled onlookers.

“Naglibog gyud ko kung unsaun namo pagkaon ana (I’m really confused how we’d manage to eat that),” said Tessa Abapo, 45, yesterday. Abapo added she will be returning today to taste the humongous delicacy.

For Christine Mayol-Cortes, who belongs to the sixth generation in a family of bibingka makers, cooking rice cake that big is no laughing matter.

Cortes, who is assisting teachers in making the batter, said the bibingka they are making is a tough challenge.

“It’s really a challenge, especially since we have to meet a specific size and thickness,” said Cortes, who has been helping her family in the delicacy business for years.

To set the record, the giant bibingka should be more than 182 square meters, have a 50-foot diameter, and be three inches thick.

Cortes is confident they will break the record, as not only her family’s reputation hangs on the line, but that of the city as well.

“If we break the record, history will never forget that Mandaue made the best bibingka in the world,” Cortes adds.