The ‘uraro’ question

The Good Life with Eli F.J. Tajanlangit

Can I eliminate the uraro from the ingredients of ice-cream? I’ve always suspected this was the one thing that gave “dirty ice cream” its starchy, almost floury flavor. I want it all creamy and smooth, I told the intermediary who searched my old town for the sorbetero who’ll do ice-cream at home, like it was done when we were small.

The first sorbetero balked at the thought that I was going to ban uraro from the ingredients. It just could not be done, he said, and after a day of negotiations over the phone he just retreated and disappeared.

Now this teen-aged sorbetero who came next seemed open to new ideas. Can we add more milk? Yes. Can we use cream as well? Check. What about blueberries? Sure, I’ve already done that.

But when it turned to the uraro question, his eyebrows crossed and the smile disappeared from his face “No, you cannot not use uraro,” he said.

‘Uraro’ is arrow root, white elongated tubers that are slightly ribbed. I remember the old folks used to plant this beside the canal to prevent erosion, besides serving as decors because its leaves were nice-looking and there were variegated versions which were a combination of white and green. Every so often, I remember the help pulling up these plants for their tubers, which were usually boiled. It was eaten plain or dipped in salt, and I remember it was so fibrous, there were threads left after you eat or sucked on the flesh. I’m not sure of this, but I can’t remember them calling it ‘uraro’ at that time. I think they called it “sago.”

Now, I understand, ‘uraro’ is billed as the flour of the future, something that will fill our wheat requirements on the industrial level and our carbohydrates requirements on the personal level. It is easy to grow – I saw it was something that was left to grow on its own by the roadsides – and could eventually be developed into flour.

Can you imagine how much of our dollars we can save if we can reduce our wheat exports? Offhand, I recall reading somewhere that the country spends something like $200M a year on wheat exports. If we could lessen that by just 10 percent, we could very well save $20M a year, not to mention the boost we will give our farmers who’ll produce arrowroot and the jobs they will create not just in the farms, but in factories, bakeries, and even confectioneries as well. And there is the added benefit of a ‘green’ environment – when large tracts of land are planted to arrowroot, I’m sure there will be ecological benefits there.

As it is now, ‘uraro’ is made into starch used for cookies that have a distinctively dainty, milky edge to them. Another use for it, of course, is in ice-cream which I now want to do away with.

To finally settle my mind, I called up Good Friend F from one of the biggest ice-cream makers in the country.

“Sure you can do away with the uraro,” F said, knowing how bullheaded I can get with food ideas that cross my mind. “Just be prepared to have dripping ice-cream all over you.”

You see, he added, “uraro” is your stabilizer. Without it, your ice-cream won’t harden and freeze beautifully, it will drip from your cone or cup and your tongue will have plenty of work to do.*

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