Donate to the Cause
Thank you so much for your interest in donating to our advocacy! Your donation will be used for food heritage research, field work expenses, website hosting and maintenance, and the like so that I can continue sharing our different local food cultures and ingredients.
Donate to the Cause
Thank you so much for your interest in donating to our advocacy! Your donation will be used for food heritage research, field work expenses, website hosting and maintenance, and the like so that I can continue sharing our different local food cultures and ingredients.
Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur
Balikutsa
Balikutsa is a palmier-shaped candy that can be eaten as it is or used as a sweetener for tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. In addition, it can also be used to sweeten dishes.
Balikutsa is an artisanal product. All of the pieces are hand-pulled.
Balikutsa requires two to three days of drying. No production of balikutsa during the rainy season.
Cooked sugarcane solid before the hand-pulling process.
The balikutsa makers can produce 2,000 to 6,000 pieces of balikutsa per day.
Dadapilan or dapilan is the machinery used for extracting juice from sugarcane. Traditionally, a carabao pulls the machinery in a circular motion.
The extracted sugarcane juice is cooked for two to three hours. The huge cooking pot is called sinublan.
They use the dried (and already extracted) sugarcane for the fire.
After the cooking process, the hot sugarcane liquid is transferred to karamba, pots used for cooling.
Sugarcane field
