I bet 99% of Marketmanila’s readers have no clue what the hard reddish/purplish balls in the photo above are. I certainly couldn’t have guessed. My closest thought was that they were dehydrated sago, which is pretty close, but I only arrived at that answer in the context of a binignit or guinataan being prepared by the cook. I was so intrigued that I immediately snapped a photo before they were plunged into the binignit then set about to identify them properly and do this post. These hard pearls of whatever were brought the other day from Toledo, Cebu, on the Western coast of Cebu. The cook described them as coming from a buli tree, a type of palm and that the process to make the landing was a difficult one.
A bit of research yielded this editorial from the Cebu SunStar newspaper that accurately describes the manufacturing process and our cook kept nodding as I tried to translate the article to her: First, a buli palm is felled. The hard core is reached after breaking open the trunk. The hard core is chopped into shards that are dried very well and pulverized by hand into a flour, a process that requires several rounds of pounding. This is then mixed with water and the product is formed into landang… a jelly like textured ingredient that, when dried, is the stuff in the photo above. The color is natural, according to the cook. It is a critical ingredient in binignit in their part of Cebu…
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Wow, learn something new everyday…How does it taste? Like sago? Am intrigued…
Hi Danney, my spam filters have just removed four consecutive comments from your email address. I am not sure if you sent the emails or your address has been hijacked… at any rate, just so you know. I did briefly read some of the messages… I do have a post on tanglad in my archives, fyi. As for drinking hot liquids vs. cold, it’s an interesting concept, but I would be wary as any liquid you drink will rapidly turn to your body temperature in your stomach as your body warms it up…so the thought of “sebo” hitting your intestines seems a bit incredible…and as for Coke vs. Water, I suppose it makes sense that the latter is better for you but I am a die-hard Diet Coke lover… This site is not a billboard for medical related articles, particularly since the information on the internet is so often filled with inaccuracies, so let’s keep the comments relevant, okay? Thanks.
Truly a laborious process before they hit the market pursuant to your link. Must have that distinct taste and flavor from palm tree. Not have had the chance to read your link, I would think they were manufactured – just put everything in the hopper and out they are done in the assembly line. They even have to tend to them while drying them up with our mercurial weather. I have never seen landang in this phase of my life – but thanks to your blog I now know what landang is and the entailed process in their production. Enjoy your binignit and have some for me will you!
i didn’t know the name until this post but im familiar with this ingridient. at my province (aklan) we also put this in guinataan. aside from this, i am not aware of any other use for the landang
Great! Another new something is named, described and cooked. Himababau a few posts ago and now landang. Keep em coming. :)
Oooh, I remember eating this in my lola’s binignit. Even on sweltering summer afternoons binignit was always a welcome treat! Grabe, I never knew how tedious producing it was.
Thank you very much for the 2 new postings on landang. It brought back fond food memories of our childhood. When we were younger and didn’t know any better, one of our family members called landang “plywood”, perhaps in reference to its color.
My cousins and I had a discussion a few months ago about kinugay, something my lola used to make for us afternoon snack. We remembered that landang was an ingredient of kinugay, although we enjoyed both the sab-a (or was it cardaba) kinugay/linuyang as well as the landang versions. BTW, do you have a recipe for kinugay (or perhaps your cook)?
In our family food discussion, here’s what my cousin says about adding landang to binignit:
“Mas lami gyud ang landang sa binignit no kaysa sago ang imong isagol? “
i watched the same process being done in nat geo last month. some indigenous tribe in a presumably south american rainforest do almost the very same thing! as in! they cut down a tree (i don’t remember if its palm though) then they split the trunk open in half and start carving away at the insides. i honestly thought they were making a canoe up until they showed more interest in the carvings. then everything follows pretty much as mm describes above. amazing the similarities if you consider the impossibility of any of the tribesmen and the toledons actually meeting! at this point, i wouldn’t be surprised if it’s actually the same palm tree, and both people, thousands of miles apart, come up with the same way of making food from it.
Hi MM, just wondering are those available here in the Metro? The Binignit looks delicious, I wonder if there’s a place here in Metro where I could have a taste of it hehehehe :)
is binignit the same as the guinataang halo-halo which am more familiar eating while growing up in manila? is that the same as bilo-bilo?
kaye, yes binignit is very similar to guinataang halo-halo, the ingredients differ slightly by availability and region…
used to spend time around toledo area and i do remember tasting this one…imagine I used i live in Naga and to be on that side of Cebu just over an hour from us I used to think the area is so different food wise…
This is interesting. I’ve never had a pink guinatan before, and I don’t think I’ve had Landang before. In Ilocos we add a root called “karot” (sp?) and it’s only available around September and has to be washed under running water multiple times to rid the poison. Anyone know about Karot?
MasPinaSarap,
Found this on https://www.da.gov.ph/tips/Cassava.pdf
“Asiatic bitter yam or intoxicating yam known as “Nami†in Tagalog, “Gayos†in Bisaya, and “Karot†in Iloko is the chief famine food or tropical Asia. Its tuber is poisonous, having a high content alkaloid dioscorine. In fact, a piece of “Nami†as big as an apple is sufficient to kill a man.
The poison in “Nami†is often extracted and used as bait for animals or for eliminating unwanted fish from fishponds. The poison, however, may be removed by soaking the slices of granulated boiled tubers in running water for an extended period or repeated changes of salt water. These are the methods used in tropical Asia.â€
As a cebuano, I have had the pleasure of eating landang cooked my my lola and mother. It was always mixed in the ginataan or what we call binignit in Cebu. It’s taste is not so distinctive but it adds an exciting texture to the binignit. And the color of the binignit turns light violet when you add the landang. It’s chewy and it complements the taste of the binignit. The landang evokes such fond memories. i wish it is available in Manila
To all interested parties that want to distribute Landang in Metro Manila please to email me : bisoy77@yahoo.com . Landang is our Prime produce here in Mindanao.Thanks for the blogs… Hoping that we can serve Manileños Landang in the cming year.. Happy New Year….
Hi MM,
Please do help in promoting Landang.. It’s our prime produce here in Davao del Sur.. and We are very proud that this is indeed organic no added preservative .
Thanks for the info. Actually i was just trying to google if landang is availble in the net.Can anybody post images of this particular palm? Again tnx a lot u made my day.