While some parts of the country were uprising towards the end of the 19th century, another revolution was forming in Jaro, Iloilo. It was a revolution started by flour, eggs, sugar and other ingredients, that gave birth to Iloilo's popular delicacy - BARQUILLOS!
Now who isn’t familiar with barquillos? These crisp wafer rolls are found in almost all pasalubong shops and are often partnered with ice cream. It offers a delicious crunch and willingly melts in the mouth once you start chewing. To kids and kids at heart, taking a bite then blowing out the crumbs on other end, makes and brings back a lot of memories!
The name Deocampo is synonymous with these wafer rolls for their barquillos-making history is famous since 1898. “Actually it should have been 1896” opens up Alicia Deocampo during the interview. She shares how they’ve overlooked this packaging error when her family delved into the pasalubong business decades ago.
She was no more than 12 years when grandparents Jose and Bessie Deocampo involved her in the kitchen works. She recalls them that telling that during their time, you make most of what you eat. They used to experiment with whatever raw ingredients they had. Through this, they stumbled upon something good when adding milk and sugar to the established “ostya” recipe.
“Making barquillos (before) was really hard work” Alicia recalls. She tells how she wakes up as early as 4am to help them and as well as her parents make barquillos. “All the contraptions then needed more than one person to operate thus limiting the output” she shares. Before, they only make barquillos by bulk orders since they lacked capital and manpower to make a whole lot and sell.
To compensate this, during the post war era she augmented barquillos-making with a tin can business. Back then, she used to supply the more established bakeshops with big circular tin cans used as pasalubong packaging. “I was away from my family many times a year to supervise the shipment and delivery”.
Then she finally decided to concentrate on her family’s barquillos-making business. Being the most dedicated among her siblings on this matter, she took the responsibility of continuing the tradition at the same time introduced some new techniques on the process of creating barquillos.Barquillos- making is easy yet it still involves tedious manual work. Concentration is the key and starts with the right consistency of the batter consisting of flour, eggs, butter, milk, sugar, vanilla, cooking oil and water. Too light, it burns easily while too thick, it sticks to the surface. It is poured on a specially designed wafer iron called baquillera made of two flat smooth surfaces on top of a stove. When closed, it is turned upside down so that the batter is not subjected to direct heat.
It takes about 20 seconds for the batter to be cooked to a light brown wafer, while waiting, the same batter poured into another baquillera. Just as the other one is ready, the (first) baquillera is opened and sides of the wafer are cleaned to give the barquillos even lengths. With the aid of a knife, the wafer is rolled into metal rods - this got to be done fast and while hot so that it can take shape. Like clockwork, these steps are repeated to make single, double or multiple rolls of barquillos. Newly cooked barquillos are still soft due to heat and it takes a few seconds for barquillos to become crisp.
Fresh cow’s milk was used in the original barquillos but some prefer coconut or goat’s milks for it gives a different flavour and nicer aroma. While some reinvented barquillos by infusing ube and pandan, Deocampo still uses the original recipe but can make special barquillos when ordered in bulk.
Into the pasalubong business
After barquillos, banana crackers were next in Deocampo’s line of products for it was “in” that time. In the late 80’s, she concocted mamon tostado and was an instant hit giving her competitors another product to emulate. Now among Deocampo’s product line are pinasugbo, biscocho, pasencia, banadas, piaya, butterscotch, kinihad, ugoy-ugoy, pulceras, lubid-lubid, egg crackers, paborita, principe and a lot more. They’ve also introduced their first non-baked product – sio pao, and it is currently among the most popular buys; sold out most of the time.
Their living room became their first pasalubong shop.” But things in the sala kept on disappearing” she said with a laugh. That signaled the need to build a separate pasalubong shop in the mid 90s to display their products. And just last year, her daughter Rowena decided to build a new pasalubong shop as a fitting tribute to her mother’s contribution to the gastronomy of Iloilo.
Deocampo’s pasalubong shop along Sta. Isabel Street in Jaro is the trendiest in town and it beckons inside out. Aside from their baked goodies, one can find dried seafood and touristy t-shirts on display. It also has an attractive al fresco dining area where short orders will soon be served. Aside from this shop, they also have branches all throughout the city bringing their products a lot closer to the tourists as well as locals.
Alicia recalls that they did not get a loan to get the business going. It was a slow but sure venture into the pasalubong business. The family was not that rich and that they used to rent the lot where their property stands now. It was by fate that this parcel of land became their property. “The owner, who was migrating, decided to sell it to us” she said. “But we didn’t have such big amount that time”. She continued saying that their good relationship paved way for a settlement that proved beneficial to both parties.
Even with all this success, Alicia is still hands-on and helps in managing the everyday works. At times, you might even find her mixing the ingredients for the barquillos in the factory! “I can’t get it out of my system for I’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s almost part of my daily routine” she closes.
Seeing how barquillos is made up close, makes one appreciate the labour of love and dedication that goes into every wafer roll. And knowing how it came to be and with all the interesting side notes, it seems that every bite is more than just the flavour of flour, milk, eggs and sugar. It comes with the sweet taste of success involving utmost dedication and perfected through more than a century of hard work!
Now who isn’t familiar with barquillos? These crisp wafer rolls are found in almost all pasalubong shops and are often partnered with ice cream. It offers a delicious crunch and willingly melts in the mouth once you start chewing. To kids and kids at heart, taking a bite then blowing out the crumbs on other end, makes and brings back a lot of memories!
The name Deocampo is synonymous with these wafer rolls for their barquillos-making history is famous since 1898. “Actually it should have been 1896” opens up Alicia Deocampo during the interview. She shares how they’ve overlooked this packaging error when her family delved into the pasalubong business decades ago.She was no more than 12 years when grandparents Jose and Bessie Deocampo involved her in the kitchen works. She recalls them that telling that during their time, you make most of what you eat. They used to experiment with whatever raw ingredients they had. Through this, they stumbled upon something good when adding milk and sugar to the established “ostya” recipe.
Beginnings
“Making barquillos (before) was really hard work” Alicia recalls. She tells how she wakes up as early as 4am to help them and as well as her parents make barquillos. “All the contraptions then needed more than one person to operate thus limiting the output” she shares. Before, they only make barquillos by bulk orders since they lacked capital and manpower to make a whole lot and sell.
To compensate this, during the post war era she augmented barquillos-making with a tin can business. Back then, she used to supply the more established bakeshops with big circular tin cans used as pasalubong packaging. “I was away from my family many times a year to supervise the shipment and delivery”.
All about barquillos
Then she finally decided to concentrate on her family’s barquillos-making business. Being the most dedicated among her siblings on this matter, she took the responsibility of continuing the tradition at the same time introduced some new techniques on the process of creating barquillos.Barquillos- making is easy yet it still involves tedious manual work. Concentration is the key and starts with the right consistency of the batter consisting of flour, eggs, butter, milk, sugar, vanilla, cooking oil and water. Too light, it burns easily while too thick, it sticks to the surface. It is poured on a specially designed wafer iron called baquillera made of two flat smooth surfaces on top of a stove. When closed, it is turned upside down so that the batter is not subjected to direct heat.
It takes about 20 seconds for the batter to be cooked to a light brown wafer, while waiting, the same batter poured into another baquillera. Just as the other one is ready, the (first) baquillera is opened and sides of the wafer are cleaned to give the barquillos even lengths. With the aid of a knife, the wafer is rolled into metal rods - this got to be done fast and while hot so that it can take shape. Like clockwork, these steps are repeated to make single, double or multiple rolls of barquillos. Newly cooked barquillos are still soft due to heat and it takes a few seconds for barquillos to become crisp.Fresh cow’s milk was used in the original barquillos but some prefer coconut or goat’s milks for it gives a different flavour and nicer aroma. While some reinvented barquillos by infusing ube and pandan, Deocampo still uses the original recipe but can make special barquillos when ordered in bulk.
Into the pasalubong businessAfter barquillos, banana crackers were next in Deocampo’s line of products for it was “in” that time. In the late 80’s, she concocted mamon tostado and was an instant hit giving her competitors another product to emulate. Now among Deocampo’s product line are pinasugbo, biscocho, pasencia, banadas, piaya, butterscotch, kinihad, ugoy-ugoy, pulceras, lubid-lubid, egg crackers, paborita, principe and a lot more. They’ve also introduced their first non-baked product – sio pao, and it is currently among the most popular buys; sold out most of the time.
Their living room became their first pasalubong shop.” But things in the sala kept on disappearing” she said with a laugh. That signaled the need to build a separate pasalubong shop in the mid 90s to display their products. And just last year, her daughter Rowena decided to build a new pasalubong shop as a fitting tribute to her mother’s contribution to the gastronomy of Iloilo.
Deocampo’s pasalubong shop along Sta. Isabel Street in Jaro is the trendiest in town and it beckons inside out. Aside from their baked goodies, one can find dried seafood and touristy t-shirts on display. It also has an attractive al fresco dining area where short orders will soon be served. Aside from this shop, they also have branches all throughout the city bringing their products a lot closer to the tourists as well as locals.
Looking back
Alicia recalls that they did not get a loan to get the business going. It was a slow but sure venture into the pasalubong business. The family was not that rich and that they used to rent the lot where their property stands now. It was by fate that this parcel of land became their property. “The owner, who was migrating, decided to sell it to us” she said. “But we didn’t have such big amount that time”. She continued saying that their good relationship paved way for a settlement that proved beneficial to both parties.
Even with all this success, Alicia is still hands-on and helps in managing the everyday works. At times, you might even find her mixing the ingredients for the barquillos in the factory! “I can’t get it out of my system for I’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s almost part of my daily routine” she closes.
Seeing how barquillos is made up close, makes one appreciate the labour of love and dedication that goes into every wafer roll. And knowing how it came to be and with all the interesting side notes, it seems that every bite is more than just the flavour of flour, milk, eggs and sugar. It comes with the sweet taste of success involving utmost dedication and perfected through more than a century of hard work!
This feature was published in the Lifestyle section of The News Today last April 28, 2011.
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