Pinasugbo

Pinasugbo is the popular term for bananas that are thinly sliced, deep fried to a crisp, and coated in really thick caramel before enjoying a light sprinkling of sesame seeds. The banana slices are then bunched together and wrapped in the bottom part wrapped in paper to make eating it a little less messy. Depending on the paper used for wrapping, the pinasugbo can be prove to be a tough ordeal as you spend lots of time trying to undo the paper from the sticky surface of the dessert. It’s a popular dessert down south, and can be seen being produced by almost every province there is.

Pinasugbo is also one of the desserts of a nostalgic Filipino childhood. No homecoming to the province is complete without children sampling pinasugbo. It was my dessert of choice as a child whenever we would visit relatives in Antique and Iloilo. I remember those three-hour bus rides from Iloilo to Antique, when peddlers would hop in and out of the bus, selling pinasugbo wrapped in clear plastic, the glimmer of caramel glistening against the banana, making it difficult for other sweets to compete. I begged my mother to buy as many bags we can afford, and I would eat all of them in the bus. I remember caramel sticking in my fingers, shards of bananas trapped between my teeth, and my tongue licking off the last traces of caramel from the paper as I watch the local scenery breeze through the windows of the bus.