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Bitso-bitso

What is bitso-bitso? Also spelled/called bichu-bichu or bitsu-bitsu, this native delicacy is made with fried rice flour dough then coated with coconut cream and muscovado sugar syrup. Its like a combination of making palitaw and banacue.



The rice flour based "dough" is usually twisted and deep fried. Then it is placed/cooked in a mix of muscovado sugar then dried out. The sugar then "re-crystallize" making a crisp coating for the fried rice flour. The result is a local delicacy that crisp and sweet in the outside yet chewy inside. 
Cooking bitso-bitso is done many different ways and with different mixes of ingredients. These particular ones in Santa Barbara, Iloilo are still crisp even after being exposed - they are peddled every afternoon around town for 5 pesos a piece.

I particularly like the fact that the sugar coating crumbles in every bite, though messy at times, but its alway a treat to have these bitso-bitso.


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