Cab-Cab or Kab-Kab are a Boholano (and Leyte and Camiguin island) delicacy made from mashed cassava pulp that is dried into thin wafers. These crackers were definitely on my “to find” list on a recent visit to Bohol.
This version, purchased not at the market (where I couldn’t find any) but at one of the snazzy outlets of the Bohol Bee Farm on Alona Beach, are definitely the more upscale and refined take on cab-cab. Usually they are a bit rougher in shape, thicker and less uniform.
Also referred to as kiping on Camiguin, they are typically deep-fried and drizzled with latik, a sweet coconut milk and sugar syrup. Oddly, as a kid, I spent several weeks in Duero, Bohol every summer and rather than come across these crackers, we used to eat fried breadfruit dipped in latik instead. At any rate, these packaged cab-cab were PHP200 for 50 sheets or PHP4 each.
We fried them up in hot oil and they puffed up almost instantaneously. They were similar to kropek or other southeast asian crackers.
On their own, they are delicious, albeit lacking in any specific flavor. But accompanied by some salsa, they were utterly wonderful… light, crisp and the perfect foil for the tomatoes and chilies and basil. This would be great drizzled with a tamarind dip, or any of many salsas or dips you desire. I really, really liked these wafers and I hope to find a good supplier of them so we can serve them at home and in the restaurants as well. I gather they are gluten free as well, so a potential chi-chi food for the health nuts as well!
21 Responses
What a great idea! This looks like a winner – a Pinoy version of nachos.
Was searching for a recipe for this about nine years ago and found it at egullet. In fact, that’s also how I found egullet and in turn a handful of Filipino food bloggers, one of them, Karen lead me to Market Manila.
Anyway, the fellow who submitted the recipe included black and white sesame and poppy seeds into his cooked casava paste and that made the resulting kropec decorative and eye-catching. He flavoured his with shrimp paste which I immediately changed to ground hibe for a sharper shrimp flavour and it worked. Experimented adding wasabi powder too. Turned it that familiar green but without the accompanying wasabi explosion. Only made it once.
Btw, I read a co-founder of egullet, Steven Shaw’s NYT obit a few days ago. He was forty-four.
love spreading ube jam or any jam
Cafe Mary Grace serves these as an appetizer with a French Onion dip The kids love them and yes, salsa does sound good with it! Good to know of its origins!
*Ps We love Bohol!
MM we call this koping in Cabucgayan Biliran. Labor intensive to prepare but definitely worth the effort.
Nanay prepared this by grating cassava manually. Next, spread it thinly on a piece of banana leaf (using your fingertips) and blanched it in simmering water (until the cassava changes its color, like the picture above). after the blanch, dry it under the sun, dry enough to be peeled from the banana leaf. koping is now ready for frying.
For the sauce, boil water in a pan and dissolve bao ng kalamay, mix until thick and add kalamansi juice at the last minute. Set aside.
Fry koping in hot oil, drain. Drizzle syrup on koping.
This is also common in Butuan, we ate this last year.
thank you MM! na remember ko to nung elementary years ko! i so miss this! thanks also Resagirl for more hints!
is it any different from the wrapper we use for lumpia? it seems to look the same when fried.
chichay, this fries up CRISP. But if you just soak it in hot water, it can be used as a fresh lumpia wrapper, and the restaurants of Bohol Bee Farm do indeed use it that way. Resagirl, thanks for that, now of course I will want to experiment and make our own… :) Footloose, that’s unfortunate re: Steven Shaw. I am sure I have gained 20-30 pounds because of this blog, but at least I am just month’s shy of 50. And hopefully have at least another decade after that. I read recently that 5-10,000 years ago, our average lifespan was just 33 years of age. By 1900 or so, it had risen ONLY 12 years to 45 years old. Then in the past 113 years, it has risen another 30+ years. Of course part of that improvement is vast improvements in infant mortality, but essentially the article was going on and on about how we were really only designed to last till 40 or 50 at most. And anything after that is a real bonus… It also said marriages were originally only meant to cover a period of say 15-20 years at most, and now that people readily make it to 80, they should essentially have “renewal” contracts every 20 years or less… :)
I love kiping with latik :-) but the kiping na nilalako in my hometown(Northern Mindanao) is round. MM, is kiping the same with the ones used in Quezon during Pahiyas?
Looks like papadum.
Kab-Kab is Pinoy’s version of India’s Papadum…though, the latter is a bit salty in taste and it is round shape :)
…Kab-Kab is also abound in Cebu which they bathe it with latik after frying…i remember when I was in grade school, this is one of my favorite snacks :)
kiping…my favorite snack during my elementary days…hehehe.thanks for this MM, now I add it to my ‘to eat list’ now that i am home..
A better or healthier alternative for corn or corn chips as cassava has a lower glycemic index and likely not genetically modified yet like corn which is what we get off the grocery shelves and market. Wonder how cab cab would taste with a healthy hummus dip?
https://www.livestrong.com/article/314844-cassava-as-diet-alternative-for-diabetics/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Glycemic_index_and_glycemic_load_for_100_foods.htm
https://www.responsibletechnology.org/gmo-dangers
that’s a beautiful pack of kabkab, MM! i’ve never seen it that way. i know bohol bee farm also uses kabkab for their ice cream cones, right?
millet, I didn’t notice the kabkab ice cream cones, but I would be a bit worried about their getting soft and soggy as these crackers above did after 20 seconds under the tomato salsa… Perhaps the ice cream cones are thicker than these ones.
yes, i think they’re thicker, but yes, they do tend to get soggy so you have to finish the ice cream really fast. the ice creams are yummy, by the way.
Would these puff up if microwaved? A friend of ours who is from Pakistan showed us that papadums can be puffed up in the microwave quite easily–they turn out very crisp, taste great, and don’t have any added oil.
kurzhaar, it WORKS! I just microwaved a couple of homemade cab-cab crackers. They cook a bit unevenly (because of varying thickness of the cassava) but they took only 10 seconds and must be SERIOUSLY HEALTHY without any fat at all. But they do taste fatless. :)
One of us at home actually prefers papadums microwaved, as when fried they can get a bit greasy, and in any case we usually eat them with chutneys and curries and such. Lovely with curried dal. And yes, they’re probably a great replacement for potato crisps/chips for those watching calories.
Does anyone knows where i can buy kiping here in manila? I want it raw.. ‘Cause i want to cook it myself
Hello there: ) please give tips on how to make a kabkab for the icecream cones. Please,.,,i really love kab-kab when i had tried it in Bohol. Thanks