Philippine Food Illustrated: balls

May 11, 2014

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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December 18, 2010

ampao

ampaw – /ám-paw/ [n.] puffed rice \pop-rice.

(also spelled as ampaw)

Home-made ampao is made of bahaw rice that is sun-dried and then fried to puff.

Special or commercialized ampao is processed using long-tubular steel with a cover designed like that of a pressurized cooker, installed with a safety device that would prevent the lid from catapulting as soon as it is opened under high pressure. The rice grain and a small amount of cooking oil are put into this cooker, covered tightly, and cooked under heated pressure on a stove. After several minutes of heating and shaking, the lid of the pressurized cooker is loosened at once and the rice would pop aloud as soon as the pressure is released. The sudden release of pressure makes the rice grain pop and become puffy as it enlarges the size of each grain in a snap.

The popped rice is then blended with melted sugar or caramel. The sugar-coated puffed rice is either shaped into ampao balls (the size of a tennis ball) in different colors using food coloring or molded into big rectangular shapes and sliced into blocks or bite-size bars.

In Carcar, Cebu, and in Western Samar, a slice of rectangular ampao is topped with a whole piece of roasted peanut. Unlike the ampaw mentioned above, the ampao Carcar is made of cooked rice that is then dried and fried crisp

A bite of ampao nga may mani from Western Samar.

A similar ampaw na may mani from Carcar, Cebu and it is called ampao Carcar.

Ampao Carcar bought in Cebu City

Unwrapping pinyato (ampao with minced peanut) from Western Samar

A man peddling ampao balls along EDSA in Munoz, Quezon City; An old lady selling ampao balls at the foot of a footbridge along Commonwealth Avenue in Batasan, Quezon City.

Ampao balls sold along the sidewalk under the viaduct in Alabang, Muntinlupa City; Ampao balls sold at Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila by a grandma and her grandson.