pacombo - /pa-kom-bô/ (Batangueño sweet) [n.] coconut sweetmeat.
also spelled as pakumbo in Batangueño
A variation of bukayo (coconut sweetmeat) can be found in the towns of the southern coastal side of Batangas province. It is served and packed in dried banana bark.
The process of making pacombo starts by scraping the tender meat of young coconut fruit into strands making the tender nut look like thick miki noodles. These strands are then boiled in buco juice (coco water) with sugar and cooked until the nuts turn translucent and the sauce is thick. Pacombo is done when it is almost dry.
A spoonful of pacombo is served by placing it on a rectangular or square cut of dried banana bark. A bunch of these servings is wrapped in a box that is also made of dried banana bark. The rectangular box, a little bigger than the box of family-size toothpaste, is made of tuyong balat ng puno ng saging (the brown or dried banana bark) that same bark called bani in Cebuano. It is not the dried petiole of banana or what is called palapa in Tagalog (or palwa in Cebuano) as mistaken by other food writers and bloggers.
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About a dozen of these square banana barks with pacombo is stacked into a pile and then packed in a long, rectangular box of dried banana bark and tied around with string to secure it. |
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Pakumbo is sold hanging as a bunch of dried banana bark boxes, like what is being peddled here in the beaches of Brgy. Laiya Aplaya, San Juan, Batangas.
All photos by Edgie Polistico are copyrighted. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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