Project Icarus Journal #2: Essay: Data and Information Gathering

For my Project Icarus, I wanted to learn how to make Filipino desserts to get in touch with my roots.  In the past I have only baked through recipes of common American desserts like cupcakes, cakes, and pies.  Whenever we have parties with the Filipino side of the family my aunty is the only one that makes the Filipino desserts that I love to eat but never had the time to learn.  My aunty has agreed to be my mentor and she has decided to teach me how to make these desserts and help me compose the recipes for the desserts I learn into a cookbook so I am able to pass it down to keep my family culture from dieing out.

            The first thing I had to do was figure out which desserts I was going to learn.  So I talked to my aunty and dad about the desserts I love so I could figure out the name of the dessert.  We decided to make banana fritters, banana lumpia, halo halo, suman, bibingka, cascaron, and puto.  My aunty lives in Moanalua, so I have been staying after school and weekends to learn all how to make the Filipino desserts that I love to eat.  At first it was easy to make the ones that I was sort of familiar in making since I have seen it be done before and it is sort of easy to make like the banana fritters, banana lumpia, halo halo, and the suman.  I had kind of a hard time with learning how to make the bibingka, cascaron, and puto because it is a complex process and I had no directions to follow with the exact measurements and you have to determine if it is good by feel and your eye.  I also had a hard time of trying to multi-task by trying to learn how to make the dessert and trying to type out the recipe at the same time.  However, I still got the whole experience because my aunty would make me do a whole batch by myself from start to finish do I could fully immerse myself into the dessert and the process of making it.

            This project not only allowed for me to learn how to make these incredible Filipino desserts.  It allowed me to learn a little bit more about my roots and culture since I am not really close to that side of the family.  I learned stories about my father and about the cultural background behind the desserts and cooking of the Filipinos.  When I was learning how to make these desserts, it really brought my family together.  My dad will always help out in making the desserts so he could have a taste of it afterwards and I got to spend time with my aunty.  Then when we are finished we all (my mom, dad, brother, aunty, and uncle) sit on the table and taste the dessert I have made, which is the best part.