This steamer is made from a large piece of bamboo with sisal string wrapped around padded fabric.

No Filipino Christmas is ever without the celebratory foods bibingka and puto bumbong. They are associated with misa de gallo, the dawn mass nine days before Christmas. While they are most common as street food, they are so popular (including among tourists) that even five-star hotels serve them using the traditional cookware during the holiday season.

Puto bumbong is a delicious dish made from purple-coloured ground rice cooked in bamboo tubes that are placed in a special steamer-cooker. When cooked, the rice is removed from the bamboo tubes, spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar and grated coconut. The mixture is then wrapped in wilted banana leaves to keep warm and moist until it is ready to be eaten.

The tubes are wrapped in the padded fabric to avoid burning the vendor’s hands when he or she takes them out of the steamer.