Buko Pie of Laguna

Buko pie is young coconut - buko, the soft immature flesh scraped from the shell in strips rather than the mature grated kind - set in a thickened sweet custard and baked in a double crust. It is a Laguna invention, generally credited to the Pahud sisters of Los Baños, who began selling it in the 1960s; the road through Los Baños is now lined with bakeries selling little else, and buying pies on the way back to Manila is a fixed habit for anyone who has been south for the weekend. The rival shops - Colette's, Orient, Lety's and others - each have their partisans, and the debate over whose crust and filling ratio is correct is conducted with the seriousness Filipinos bring to food arguments. Pies are sold whole in boxes, still warm if the timing is right, and they do not keep long, which is the reason nobody buys just one. Los Baños also has hot springs and the university campus.

What you actually see

• The buko strips - young coconut flesh in a sweet custard.
• The double crust - pastry top and bottom, baked pale.
• The roadside bakeries - the strip of rival shops at Los Baños.
• The boxed pies - bought whole, often several at a time.

When to go

Year-round; time it for the afternoon batches if you want a warm pie. Weekends bring queues at the best-known shops.

Honest expectations

Pies do not keep - a couple of days refrigerated at best, and they are meant to be eaten warm. The famous shops queue at weekends. Everyone has a favourite and will tell you the others are wrong.

Nearby

Los Baños' hot springs and the UP campus are close; Pila, Nagcarlan and the Laguna heritage towns are further round the lake.