dugyan

Dugyan (photo credit to The Philippine Star)

dugyan - /dug-yan/ (Palaweño fruit) [n.] red durian (sc.name: Durio graveolens)

Unlike the usually cultivated durians of Mindanao, the fruit of dugyan is smaller in size, weighing less than a kilogram with sharper and longer spikes on its thick coat. It is yellow-green when unripe and turns bright yellow to yellow-orange when ripe. 

The Durio graveolens of Palawan (photo credit to Lindsay Gasik's blog, Year of the Durian)

When fully ripe, it opens while on the tree, showing its distinct bright red lipstick flesh that would eventually fall to the ground. 

With its distinct lipstick-red flesh, the dugyan, an endemic fruit in Palawan, is said to be an entirely different species from the typically-cultivated durian that we see in the market. The smell and taste are not repulsive and nauseating. It is almost creamy, but not so sweet. 

In the Philippines, this rare variety of durian is found only in Palawan though similar other red durian varieties can also be found in Borneo, Malaysia, and Thailand 

Dr. Virgilio Loquias, the durian expert of the Philippine's Bureau of Plant Industries, holding a red durian of Palawan grown in BPI-Davao. Photo taken during Lindsay Gasik's search for durians in the country. (photo credit to Lindsay Gasik's blog, Year of the Durian)

Related readings:

• Philippines Durio Graveolens
  Philippines Durio graveolens - Lindsay Gasik's blog (The Year of the Durian) about the red durian in Palawan with Dr. Virgilio Loquias of the Philippine Bureau of Plant Industries.
• Preserving indigenous fruits - an article from The Philippine Star business section that features dugyan.

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For more about Filipino food, see  this Philippine Food, Cooking, and Dining Dictionary. It is OPEN and FREE.

buti-buti

buti-buti -/bu-tî bu-tî, buti-butî/ (Cuyonon [Palaweño] snack) [n.] Cuyunon puffed rice.

The ampao (puffed rice) of Cuyo island, found in a group of islands in the northeastern seas of Palawan. This ampao is mixed with caramelized sugar and molded into small balls. 

I found these packs of buti-buti peddled by Pastor Abad in the public market of Roxas, Palawan. I thought the balls were crumbled popcorn. But a closer look told me they are puffed big kernels of rice. I am amazed there is such kind of rice in the country with big kernels and grown in that small Cuyo island.

Buti-buti is made with native rice grown only on Cuyo island. The rice is dehulled manually using alho and lusong (wooden pestle and mortar) which produces barely polished native rice grains, with reddish or brown-colored bran intact.

The dehulled grains are pan-roasted until each grain would burst open to become like popcorn. Then muscovado sugar is melted (caramelized) in a pot with a little amount of water and the puffed rice is added in and mixed to combine with the caramelized sugar that served as the sweetener and binder of buti-buti. The caramel-coated puffed rice is then molded by hands into small balls, about the size of a golf ball.

Unlike popcorn, this native puffed rice is quite dense and the outer layer of the kernel is leathery that needs a lot of chewing to fully masticate. Only by chewing it well that you can savor the true taste of buti-buti.

These balls of buti-buti are delicate to handle. It sticks to your finger and easily crumbles when pressed between fingers or even when poked as shown in the next photos.

Due to a very limited supply of the kind of rice used, buti-buti is mostly reserved only to be prepared during festival celebrations on the island or on other special occasions, depending on the availability of the rice.

I got this authentic product of Cuyo, Palawan just an hour after it arrived from Cuyo island. Back then, it would take about two days to transport buti-buti to Roxas, Palawan. Cuyo is a small island off the northeastern sea of mainland Palawan. It's only in Cuyo island that you can find this rice delicacy.

The variety of native rice used in making buti-buti is the heirloom rice of Cuyo island. Growing this rice is seasonal and the grains are scarcely available, mostly only during harvest season or while stock last. This explains why the small pack of buti-buti I bought cost much. 

Rice farming in Cuyo island relies only on rain and sunshine to sustain its production. The rice is grown organically and without using synthetic pesticides.

I still kept on wondering how the rice subsists on that small island.

The name buti-buti is derived from the Ilonggo word butî which means the popping sound of bursting grains or kernels when roasting rice to make puffed rice or roasting maize to make popped corn.

Related posts:

Ampaw



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