The Secret to Frying Ukoy

One of Romy’s enduring food memories is the sinapot of Irosin, Sorsogon, which is a layer of five saba [plantain] slices, coated with rice batter and set on a cacao leaf, and then lowered into hot frying oil. Romy remembered that this method of using the cacao leaf ensured that the layers of bananas would not disperse in the hot oil, and the sinapot would come out as one beautiful piece with intricate leaf markings on the batter.

Romy applied this principle to ukoy. Customers often tell me that when they cook ukoy at home, the fritter always disintegrates when lowered into the hot oil. I tell them to anchor the batter on a banana leaf (cacao leaves are not available here), and it always works.