The Purple Patch strikes again.

I am delighted to report that fellow Purple Patcher Romel Oribe is a runner-up in the 2006 Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Contest. His piece on pudding is indeed true to its title,“A Concoction of Lip-Smackin’ Goodness”.

Here’s an excerpt:

I liked my pudding fresh from the mould, but only because I liked watching Iya Inggin fish one from a large planggana and trace the shape of the circular mould with the handle of a plastic fork before flipping the pudding into the cellophane with the caramelized side facing up. Then from a bowl using a golden spoon, she would scoop the arnibal—a deep brown syrupy topping made from the purest coconut milk and brown sugar—and twirl it into a small cellophane with an amazing sleight of wrinkly but dirt-free hand.

Read the whole essay here.