Butuan's Palagsing is not complete without knowing the basic preparation of its main ingredient, Unaw. In this study we will also witness the making of our very own Unaw.
The Making of Unaw
One main ingredient that makes our palagsing more chewy and delicious is the “Unaw”. A term given to Sago starch which is taken from the Sago Palm Metroxylon sagu, Rottb. This Sago Palm is popularly known in our locality as Lumbia.
The Lumbia tree, is similar to that of the coconut tree. All its structure from roots to trunk can be utilize. The trunk pulp which is called “labobo” in the Butuanon dialect is then scraped using a tool called “hapos”. As illustrated in the video, "hapos" is used to scrape the pulp of the trunk of the lumbia tree.
Our teammates Vinca and Imi, was able to experienced the handling of “hapos”. They say it was very heavy, especially when you have to lift the tool back and forth just to remove the pulp.
After scraping the “labobo” it was then transferred to the “tagik” a platform strainer. Below this platform strainer is the “baroto” or boat. This will be used as basin for the extracted water when washing the “labobo”.
Here our teammate Vinca was able to experienced washing the “labobo” with water. All of us wanted to do the same but according to the experts; it's not good to have plenty of hands to work on the mixture for it might spoil easily.
The extracted water is allowed to settle for a few hours to separate from the starch. When this was done, the water was then discarded and then the starch was scraped.
This has been the very exciting part of our adventure. We felt that we were just scraping ice cream. The mixture was slimy to look at, smooth to touch but sticky. If it to dries in your hand it feels like a face powder. We were almost tempted to play around, but our coach and moderator reminded us not to play with it, since the "Unaw" that we used was almost 10 to 11 years older than us, and that according to stories this tree is “makagaba” a visayan term causing curse to anyone who abuses it. So we refrain ourselves from playing around but instead show our respect for it.
After scraping the starch, and washing the labobo with water, it will then be drained and the sticky residue will be placed in a bakid. Manong Ruben, then made a “bakid” for us for this purpose. A "bakid" is a primitive container for “Unaw”, it is a conical sieves made from the base of the leaf of the lumbia tree where it came from.
During our visit we were able to capture the steps of how a "bakid" was made. When we heard of the term "bakid" we thought that this is a sack of unaw, the same one used for rice, but its not at all, this "bakid' is taken from the base of the leaf of the lumbia tree. The part were it is still soft. Manong Ruben and Manong Romeo demonstrated to us the primitive way of drying "unaw" with the use of a "bakid.
Manong form a cone like structure and stitch the side with a strip from the lumbia tree, a primitive way for binding the bakid. He then placed the “unaw” starch inside the bakid to let it dry. It takes about 1 or two days to fully dry the unaw. The bakid will serve as its drainer, the dried unaw will be powdered. This will then be used as an ingredient in our Palagsing.
Manong form a cone like structure and stitch the side with a strip from the lumbia tree, a primitive way for binding the bakid. He then placed the “unaw” starch inside the bakid to let it dry. It takes about 1 or two days to fully dry the unaw. The bakid will serve as its drainer, the dried unaw will be powdered. This will then be used as an ingredient in our Palagsing.
Paraphernalia used in Unaw Making
1. Baroto - dug-out boat used as a receptacle for the labobo (sago pulp is sap).
- Hapos - an L-shaped instrument made of baklaw wood used to scrape sago pulp off the trunk.
- Suo - posterior covering for the hapos.
- Sisil - metal end of suo.
- Tagik - platform for strainer.
- Agahan - a piece of sinamay or pinukpok cloth used as strainer.
- Kawot - a coconut-shell dish ladle.
- Bakid - cone-like containers for the sap.
- Taphin - dried sap-ong bark used as a protective covering while removing wet flour from the trunk.
- Tusok - sago midrib used to fasten the agahan over the tagik.
- Palwa - foot and tagik support.
