I was a bit frustrated by recent blogging about the $20,000 Le Cirque dinner, so I decided to eat something that is definitely in my Top 5 list of personal comfort foods. Banana turon. In this case, made with the stunningly thin lumpia wrappers I saw cooked right in front of my eyes on a recent Bacolod trip, and which we brought back to Manila and stored in the freezer for emergencies like today. And inside were perfectly fry-able saba bananas, bus-ok or robust/healthy/substantial, just on the cusp of ripeness, still a little starchy but already characteristically saba sweet. These were cut to relatively thin slivers, say the size of your little finger, but longer perhaps. Then rolled in the thin lumpia wrapper and fried in hot vegetable oil…
With a little more planning (but I don’t plan that far ahead for frustration snacking), I could have made some dulce de leche… But that’s okay, these hot crisp, sweet, soft turon were perfect as is. I had way too many of these to mention. And then I felt compelled to briskly walk 4 kilometers to work up a sweat and feel a little less guilty. But the combination of turon and exercise has resulted in a rapid return to Marketman equilibrium, and hopefully, a really good night’s rest. How can something so simple be so extravagant? Particularly when they cost just a couple of pesos (roughly 5 US cents) each to make? Start with the thinnest lumpia wrapper (PHP1 each at the Bacolod market), place a finger sized piece of sliced saba banana within, roll tightly and seal with a bit of eggwhite or water, then fry in vegetable oil over medium flames. Drain vertically over paper towels and serve while still hot. Absolutely delicious. Positively addictive.
All of these terrific photos were taken by The Teen. :)
66 Responses
yummmmm …. one of my favourite merienda, just have to make do with ordinary banana for now, don’t have any saba here :(
You got it right by the horn – the best snacking and dessert so simple and easy to make. I love it with a sliver of langka rolled in with the sliced banana. Like them much when just got off the frying pan and oil drained. The Teen has an excellent photographic skills.
Hi MM – can you please recommend 2 or 3 restaurants in Manila(or Cavite/Tagaytay)that I definitely should visit the next time I go home? Aside from Mamou, I am already planning of going to La Cocina de Tita Moning and Antonio’s in Tagaytay.
Le Cirque sana eh but I live in the West Coast… LOL!!
Thanks much….
MM–were the turon made at a private home, or did you buy them at a retail outlet?
I may get stuck in BCD for Christmas, so I need to look for places to eat and snack on! I’m still very jealous of your carioca experience. I love carioca, and it’s getting harder and harder to find!
In Manila, this is served in some private homes with a sliver of langka inserted with the saba.In Australia you can buy them frozen, to fry, as “turron de Manila”.
another experiment i had w/ turon was rolling it on brown sugar w/ cinnamon … n like what they said, it also had langka in it : ) my indian classmate paired it w/ chai tea … it was a big hit in school selling for 150 yen a piece ! a successful fundraising indeed : )
PS, forget about GMA & cronies, nakakakulo lang sila ng dugo !
wow i really love turon, w/ langka inside….
Our all time favorite! We wash it down with a cup of mint tea. One time I topped it with scoops of vanilla ice cream and it vanished in a flash.
MM,
You don’t roll the bananas in sugar?
one of my favorites too…. and my nieces will attest to that! Thank you MM.
MM, your post on turon brought back many fond memories. When I was a student in UP Diliman many years ago, turon was our comfort food. With a sliver of langka inside, the turon was almost like our daily fare. It was sold by vendors at the base of the UP Main Library and it cost only 10 centavos then. Well, that was a time when the ikot jeepney was only 5 centavos. Thanks MM.
BTW, on an off-topic … our Bangkok santol trees in Ormoc have been bearing a lot of huge, sweet fruits and I’m reminded of your santol juice.
yum! am so craving this right now! i’m 5 mnths on the way and craving pinoy food once in a while. too bad we only have plantains here and i have not quite figured out yet how to handle them, it’s either they are too unripe or too ripe and texture is weird. thanks for the post!
ooooohhhh!! i could eat many of those! CCccrunch!!!
moni, make santol preserves, in MM archives! Lorraine, if the bananas are perfectly ready for frying, not too ripe, they don’t need sugar. But out of curiousity, I did once experiment with white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, chocolate and other things but decided the purest unadulterated version was my favorite! It’s nice with langka too, but sometimes I crave the pure banana flavor, untainted by the stronger, more cloying langka. Rona, these were definitely made at home. Eaten minutes later. :) netoy you already have a good list to start with. In Cavite, try hole in the wall LZM Restaurant and have their bangus, see my archives. And in Manila try Milky Way on Pasay Road for more pinoy food.
gave me memories..the best cheap chicken sandwich was sold in the ladies room by Arts and Sciences in UP. My wife makes the best turon, in fact some CEOS and CIOS in the Silicon Valley have asked me to tell my wife to make some for our team meetings.
Thanks, MM. I live in San Diego and turon is always available in the Filipino turo-turo restaurants here. They contain a sliver of langka as mentioned plus they are coated with caramelized brown sugar. Turons are big hits with non-Filipinos as well, bring them to any pot luck and they will be gone in a hurry.
Reminds me of those days in elementary and high school where I buy turon outside school and mom would ask me not to buy it. We happened to have some saba banana harvested yesterday. :)
Definitely one of our favorite meriendas. In Manila we used to serve it with Mantecado ice cream. Have you ever tried making Turon with regular bananas? The result is similar to Bananas Foster with a crunch!
quiapo, that turron de manila that you find in oriental stores is actually made in a factory here in davao. the production line is impressive.
i love turon with jackfruit inside.. i love the sound of the crunch of the wrapper… wish i could have turon here. but hard to find good saba.. the ones we have here have mapakla taste.. chemically ripened unlike the sweet ones we have back home..
netoy, where can you buy really good turon in san diego?
i like turon myself with brown sugar inside…
One of my favorite snacks! So simple…so hard to beat in satisfaction factor :) (I like them with langka too…then again, I love langka and will have it solo or with anything…)
Teen, I love the photos! :)
masarap po ang turon na may langka sa loob tapos ipartner niyo pa ng mantekado ice cream hmm hmm
A Filipino classic! Damn… this is making me hungry!!!
Teen: nice pictures
Mr. MM, turon is always a comfort food for me, aside from being the best source for fundraising events in our school. I sell them at 50 cents a piece and they were always sold out together with my cantaloupe juice. Thanks again and more power.
OMG, I want turon NOW!!!!!
MM, what can I substitute for saba? I am in Arkansas and they only have 1 kind of banana. Big, mushy, not so sweet. I sorely miss my sweet lakatan and pan-grilled saba.
Isn’t this an apt contrast? From a roughly PHP35,000 per person meal to a PHP5.00-10.00 per person turon? I go for the simple and humble turon. I prefer to sleep soundly at night.
Diday, the amount spent on that dinner could pay for roughly 400,000 – 450,000 of these stunningly good turons. Yes even in aggravated snacking, I do the numbers. :) zena, you have to look for plantains or cooking bananas. Not sure where in Arkansas, but try Puerto Rican or Central American food shops. turon and mantecado/vanilla. Turon and coffee ice cream. OMG, all yum. joey, it’s the hot fat, the hot fat! :)
Kick it up a notch — roll up the saba with pieces of Chocnut. Hmm, I think I know what I’m going to have for dessert later.
try sprinkling the turon with sesame seeds when newly cooked… :)
I gotta make this! And soon!
we have the little turons in our office canteen.. may sprinkling pa ng sesame seeds… nakaka-addict… :)
hmmm..turon…masarap din yung may brown sugar pati wrapper :D
my friend and i were just talking about turon, maruya and banana que. i tried to have my fill of these “comfort food” when i was in manila last month. we dont usually get saba here.
i love turon and coffee!
A few years back while visiting Manila, a cousin served turon as dessert. The turon was cooked plain like MM’s, then topped with warm brown sauce (I was told combo of matamis na bao + gata) and served with buko salad ice cream (or halo-halo?). Unforgettable it was……I think because everything was served seconds after cooking them.
Netoy, how do you make a caramelized turon? Thanks.
yumyumyum. nice too with vanilla ice cream but that would be punishing the waistline.
we put a slice of nangka or jackfruit inside the banana and the taste is more heavenly than those meals at le cirque…LOL!
The Teen takes really great pictures! It looks delicious! Hope you feature more of her pictures here :)
A crispy, lightly sweet turon, hot tea and a rainy day.
I dipped a homemade turon last month in a puddle of Nutella, ayayay, mind blowing!
turon is available from the office food provider from mondays to wednesdays. needless to say, parating may naka reserve na para sa akin sa mga araw na yun, heheh. they do it with brown sugar and a sliver of langka… simple, yet heavenly.
Best turon for me is the one sold at UST Hospital.. 12pesos each (current price hehe), and according to their delivery truck, they’re the best turon since 1989 (or 1991, can’t really remember), the turons there are long and hard, with langka. Sobrang mabili to dun, alam ng mga taga hospital..hehe
this is one of the more popular turons in Iloilo–small, crispy and addictive…
https://flavoursofiloilo.blogspot.com/search/label/turon
To Thelma – i buy my turons from Dessert Plus in National City, near Seafodd City. But you can easily buy them everywhere from Conching’s to Tita’s.
To Nina – I wish I knew how to make Turon with caramelized brown sugar. We tried it once pero it was not the same. I think doing it this way adds depth to the flavor – there’s a hint of bitterness from the caramelization plus the sweetness of both the brown sugar and the banana. And I agree with you – serving it with ice cream (has to be Magnolia) is soooo good (except for the double calories )-:
Thanks,MM. I see plantains occasionally in Walmart and Kroger. I must visit the mexican store and see what they got.
Netoy to get the caramelized brown sugar on your turon, you would fully drench the banana in white sugar, not brown sugar fully coating them BEFORE you wrap them in lumpia wrapper, then deep fry it. You need a really thin lumpia wrapper for this to work really well. Once the sugar starts to caramelize, it will coat the outside of the banana wrapper…that’s the secret now revealed ;-)
Isn’t mantecado=vanilla?
ted, yes, mantecado is vanilla, sorry, I keep thinking it is the cheesey flavor, literally, not figuratively. :)
hi netoy! i was just at the dessert plus about two weeks
ago and bought some kakanin. i didn’t even bother to
check on their turons. i will next time i go there again.
i’ve also gone to conching’s restaurant for lunch and
didn’t even pay attention to their turons. i like all the food that they serve there. i feel like i am in pampanga when i eat there because most of their cooks and servers are
speaking my dialect.
Those are the perfect size for turon, love them!
zena: when at the mexican market, ask for burro bananas. that’s the closest thing to saba bananas there. i’ve had a lot of luck using those when i was craving for a simple merienda of fried banana.
good luck with the hunt!
haaay, turon… its the best banana treat for me
sarappppp
I love turon made with overripe saba and minatamis na langka. Just add a small amount of sugar on the outside before you fry. The ripeness of the saba and the langka will take care of the rest. Best server while the wrapper is still crunchy, with softdrinks of juice on the side.
Strangely enough, I prefer turon with a bit of cheese inside because I love the contrast between the sweet and salty flavors.. :D
At PF Chang, they serve it as a banana spring roll dessert drizzled with caramel syrup and coconut ice cream on the side. Yummy!
MM, I prefer my turon on the thick side. As you would say, with more “heft”…
myra_p: Chocnut? Consider it done! Tumutulonalawayko…
Hey MC: your TURON de HALO HALO has become a household favorite. But I go all the way with coconut tikoy, a few macapuno strings and the rest of what you told me to put. I only do this right after Chinese New Year. Next year, I shall try making my own tikoy with LANGKA…hit 2 birds with 1 stone as they say!
last week we ate at Theresa’s garden in Silang, near Ilog ni MAria… their food is very delicious at a reasonable price and they serve the most amazing turon i ever tasted…
Marketman, mouthwatering, i, too, love turon (with langka). interesting seque from a $20,000 dinner to a P2 turon :)
quiapo: thanks for that piece of info about frozen turon, i’m going to drop by the local asian shop after work…
banana turon plus a scoop of real vanilla bean ice cream….. dessert heaven
i always have turon for breakfast. made a variation today with peanut butter.
hi marketman! i was just wondering, what drink would you pair with turon?
my class will celebrate diversity day and our group decided to serve turon samples but i really can’t help wanting to serve drinks too.
thanks.
I reallylove babanaturon w/ube and langka inside very mouth watering it was my lolas favorite recipe very vacation i went tomy lolas house to eat banana turon hopeyou can try eat!!!