Even as we were eating lunch, we talked of other food. This time, Luchie was waxing nostalgic about the things she missed back home in Cebu. And then she mentioned the kesong puti from Danao. “Wait,” I said, “you have a carabao center right here!”
And I knew how to get there, which is saying something, since the Buffalo Dairy Nook at the Visayas State University main campus in Baybay, Leyte almost doesn’t want to be found, tucked away in a remote corner. Facing the highway, all right, although from that side you have to go down a steep embankment to the chain-link fence (there’s a gate there, but closed) over which lies a nondescript building with no visible signage.
The store is run by the Baybay Dairy Cooperative (Facebook), an offshoot of the Philippine Carabao Center’s program to promote, propagate, and conserve the water buffalo, our national animal. Fresh milk is pasteurized and bottled, and comes plain or in several flavors. It is also turned into ice candy, white cheese, and pastillas, a popular traditional confection. Luchie was ecstatic, dreaming of the keso on rice.
“Say what?”
“Basta.”
But what caught my attention was the milk-o-gel, a take on panna cotta — the lightest I had tried. It cost ₱15 and tasted like a million. I finished two, clearly favoring regular milk over the pandan-infused. Too bad it does not travel well, at least not at our styro box’s current ambient temperature (it contained bulaló (beef soup)) or I would’ve stocked up on it. Now all I need is a party. “Know where to get dry ice?” I asked Jenny.
“No,” she said. “What party?”
“I dunno, but I’m sure one will come up soon.” Something always does.
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