Pandoraspace

Central Pilinut Candy

Pili is a soft oily nut that has a mildly woody taste. It has almost the same texture as a pinenut. As Pili is grown in Albay, many pili products like marzipan are sold in the market.

I have tried many pili products but the best are those from the New Albay Central Pilinut Candy (CPC). I first learned about CPC from relatives who returned from Legaspi and brought back for me CPC products such as sugar coated Pili, Mazapan de Pili, Yema de Pili, Pili Butternut and plain Salted Pili.  As I was curious about that store, Boktor and I visited it briefly on our way back to Hotel Venezia. It was then that I discovered the roasted pili coated in butternut and sprinkled with sesame seeds, which is now my CPC favorite.

CPC is located along Rizal Street in the Old Albay District. The store is actually the living room of an old house. As you enter the house, there is a lanai with lounge chairs and a coffee table. Beside the lanai is the living room, the shelves  of which are filed with Pili products. Displayed on the walls are the pictures of the more popular customers of the  store. Of course, Boktor did not recognize Piolo Pascual.  He pointed to Piolo’s picture and asked me who that was. I looked at him strangely and said, “Hello???  That’s Piolo Pascual ‘no.”  Then, with a bewildered tone of voice, Boktor said, “Oh, ya.”  Obviously, Boktor does not know who Piolo is as he is not jologs like me.  (Read this and this to get a sense of  what jologs means.)

According to the store’s pamphlet, Don Antonio Regidor, a Spaniard who settled in Albay, founded the Central Pilinut Candy in 1936. “In his wandering, he reached Bicol wherein he saw many pili trees. Using the nuts of these trees, instead of the imported ones, as the main ingredients, he tried following his mother’s candy recipes.” “Then in 1963, together with a former Moroccan foreign legionnaire, he pioneered Bicol Region’s thriving pilinut industry by founding a Candy factory, which he called Central Pilinut Candy.” CPC is now being operated by Don Regidor’s grandchildren.

I would recommend that you visit CPC to get a sense of the Albay pili industry history and to sample the many delicious pili products sold there.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 12:08 am and is filed under Palate Pleasers, The Adventures of Boktor and Pandora in Legazpi, Albay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.