Pichi-pichi

01 / ABOUT THE DISH

About the dish

Pichi-pichi is a soft, gelatinous sweet snack made from finely grated cassava root mixed with sugar and lye water. The origins of this sticky treat trace back to Quezon province, where it was a resourceful way to use the abundant cassava crops growing across the area. When refined wheat flour was hard to find, rural farm families relied heavily on this hardy root vegetable, grating and steaming it to invent brand-new sweet snacks. Making this bouncy dessert starts with peeling raw cassava tubers and shredding them down to extract the moist, starchy flesh. This wet mash is thoroughly mixed with granulated white sugar and a few drops of food-grade lye water. Adding the alkaline lye water triggers an essential chemical reaction, turning the cloudy white batter into a clear, golden-yellow dough and giving the final treat its famous chewy, elastic bite. Small cups or shallow pans are filled with this wet slurry and placed inside a steamer over boiling water. The heat solidifies the starch, turning the liquid batter into a firm, sticky jelly. After cooling completely to room temperature, the pieces are popped out of their molds and rolled in a thick coating to prevent them from adhering to hands or the serving tray. These sweet lumps sit piled high on a shared plate and function perfectly as a mid-afternoon snack or a dessert right after a large meal. The traditional topping is freshly grated mature coconut, which adds a slightly crunchy, milky texture. A massively popular variation uses a thick layer of shredded cheddar cheese instead, delivering a sharp, salty punch that cuts right through the sweet jelly. Another popular variant uses fragrant pandan leaf extract in the raw batter, dyeing the pichi-pichi bright green and adding a sweet, floral scent.