43 New-to-Me ... #35 Ube Macapuno Candy

I've been browsing the Asian market again. It's a great place to find new-to-me foods, which is actually somewhat surprising to me. I grew up with Chinese and Vietnamese neighbors and close friends, our family hosted 4 Japanese exchange students when I was a kid, I had Chinese and Thai roommates and a Korean boyfriend in college, and I taught for 11 years at a school with predominantly Filipino students. All of the above shared their foods and culture with me on a daily basis. I've tried a lot of different Asian foods. Yet, at least half of the foods at the Asian market are completely unfamiliar to me. The challenge isn't finding a new-to-me food. It's deciding which seems interesting enough to purchase and try.

When I saw the Pastillas de Ube Macapuno, I was interested. The name translates to Purple Yam and Gelatinous Mutant Coconut Candy. How could I not try gelatinous mutant coconut?! I bought it. I'd assumed "gelatinous mutant coconut" was a bad translation, but no! Gelatinous mutant coconut is an actual thing. And it turns out that it is frequently paired with purple yam to make cake, ice cream, salads, drinks and more.

So how was it? Unfortunately, the candy was not as awesome as its name. Kelly described it as "not good, but not horrible" which is pretty much how I felt about it. I gave it a 4. Kelly said 5. Lisa gave it a 2. She didn't finish hers. Trevor and Steve tried some after Trevor got home from school. Neither of them finished theirs either. Trevor agreed with Aunt Lisa, rating it a 2. Steve was mentioning negative numbers, so I put him down as a O.