Filipino Sweet Beat: Hilda's Mart and Bake Shop

By Tamara Palmer Wed., Dec. 2 2009 at 9:00 AM

Categories: Palmer, Sweet Beat

T. Palmer

Ube puto: Steamed purple yam and rice cakes.

We had barely come down from our dizzying sugar high from checking out Filipino sweets at House of Silvanas in Daly City when we discovered Hilda's Mart and Bake Shop (145 Persia at Paris) in the Excelsior, which bakes completely different sweets from the same nation. Soon after, we were keeping the buzz going with servings of ube puto (steamed rice cake sweetened with purple yam), pitsi pitsi (a cassava cake similar to tapioca), suman (sweet sticky rice), hopia (bean pastry), and maja (coconut pudding).

While the hopia seems to be the hit amongst Yelpers, it was too much on the dry and bland side for us. Ditto for the suman, but that's only because we're spoiled from the Thai version served with condensed coconut milk and fresh mango. We ordered small, individual treats ($1.15-$3) but noticed that Hilda's specializes in family-size portions of these and a few other creations, no doubt a special gift to the Pinoy population craving a taste of home during the holidays. We could have eaten a posse platter of the maja all by ourselves.

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