PrintSago Palm: The Tree of Life is Full of Carbs and Fat
Last month on a visit to Butuan City in the Philippines, writer Robyn Eckhardt and photographer David Hagerman of Eating Asia witnessed the traditional processing of the sago palm, a plant mostly used for its tapioca-like sago flour. They thoroughly document the breakdown of the "Tree of Life" in three parts: extracting starch from the hack-out trunk shreds, using the flour in sweet coconut-flavored sago flatcakes, and frying up the fat-rich sago worms that hatch in the sago palm's trunk.
Never before have I wanted to try something made of sago so badly. But I think I'll save the fried worms for later, even if they tasted "crispy, salty, and greasy, with a lick of smoke."
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7 Comments:
Holy cheese, I thought the drinkpeedrinkpee post was nutty. I love sago in drinks, but I saw that sago worm post on Eating Asia (I love that blog!!!), and I nearly fainted. Sago Worm Kinilaw! I'd try just about anything, but I can't bend my brain to think eating worms is all right even though I know it's not that big a deal to a lot of other cultures. =( "... sago worms are nothing but head and gooey fat." Egads. Even if they do taste like the yummy chicharron ...
OneWallKitchen at 3:36PM on 03/13/08
Oh yes, GOOEY FAT...had so much potential...until I saw that it came in the form of a little white grub-thing. I wish I weren't conditioned to be so grossed out by bugs. :\
roboppy at 4:39PM on 03/13/08
There was a tv show on the travel channel...Living with something (the new one is the mek, this was the previous tribe) and the two guys, Mark and Olly eat these, as well as everything else sago. They make is sound pretty miserable to eat all sago all the time.
Interesting how different perspectives view the same food...
dagoose at 4:47PM on 03/13/08
Wait, so right now you're telling me that sago is NOT tapioca? Damn those confusing Chinese menu translations!
Vincci at 5:04PM on 03/13/08
Thanks for the pub Robyn! The fried worms were pretty tasty - honest. Bet if you closed your eyes and I put one in your mouth you'd be all, like, 'mmmmmmm....salty fat' ;-)
Robyn at 12:43AM on 03/14/08
@Robyn: Okay, I will eat "fat grubs of awesomeness" if I'm blindfolded. And possibly drunk. ;)
roboppy at 9:59AM on 03/14/08
Last night, I remembered that I'd eaten snails in red sauce on a couple of occasions and enjoyed them and that I grew up eating sea snails ... Maybe if I can make an equivalent ... maybe ...
OneWallKitchen at 11:20AM on 03/14/08