Buko salad, usually anglicized as young coconut salad, is a Filipino

fruit salad Fruit salad is a dish consisting of various kinds of fruit, sometimes served in a liquid, either their juices or a syrup. In different forms, fruit salad can be served as an appetizer or a side salad. When served as an appetizer, a fruit salad ...

dessert Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and most parts ...

made from strips of fresh young

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or th ...

(''buko'') with sweetened

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modul ...

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...

and various other ingredients. It is one of the most popular and ubiquitous Filipino desserts served during celebrations and '' fiestas''. By changing the ratio of milk, ''buko salad'' desserts can also become beverages (usually chilled or with shaved ice), known generally as ''

samalamig Samalamig, also known as palamig, is a collective term for various Filipino sweet chilled beverages that usually include jelly-like ingredients. They come in various flavors, and are commonly sold by street vendors as refreshments. Typical in ...

''. A frozen dessert version of the dish is known as

ice buko Ice buko, also known as buko ice candy or coconut popsicle, is a Filipino frozen dessert made from condensed milk, young coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only livi ...

Variants

Buko salad can have many variations as it can incorporate numerous other ingredients ranging from fruits, ''

gulaman ''Gulaman'', in Filipino cuisine, is a bar, or powdered form, of dried agar or carrageenan used to make jelly-like desserts. In common usage, it also usually refers to the refreshment ''sago't gulaman'', sometimes referred to as ''samalamig'' ...

'' (agar) jellies,

sago Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of '' Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is ...

, kaong, tapioca pearls, ''

nata de coco ''Nata de coco'', also marketed as coconut gel, is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food produced by the fermentation of coconut water, which gels through the production of microbial cellulose by '' Komagataeibacter xylinus''. Originating i ...

'',

macapuno Macapuno or coconut sport is a naturally occurring coconut cultivar which has an abnormal development of the endosperm. The result of this abnormal development is a soft translucent jelly-like flesh that fills almost the entire central cavity o ...

, and others. Some versions however are popular enough to be considered as distinct subtypes. They include:

Buko halo

Buko halo or buko halo-halo is a combination of buko salad and

halo-halo Halo-halo, correctly spelled ''haluhalo'', Tagalog for "mixed" (the more common spelling instead literally equating to "mix-mix") is a popular cold dessert in the Philippines made up of crushed ice, evaporated milk or coconut milk, and various ...

desserts, usually served directly on a coconut shell. It differs from halo-halo in the larger amount of coconut used.

Buko melon

A variant of buko salad with chunks of

cantaloupe The cantaloupe, rockmelon (Australia and New Zealand, although cantaloupe is used in some states of Australia), sweet melon, or spanspek (Southern Africa) is a melon that is a variety of the muskmelon species (''Cucumis melo'') from the fam ...

s and various jelly desserts.

Buko pandan

A popular variant of buko salad whose secondary ingredient are green ''

'' (agar) cubes flavored with pandan leaf extracts.

Buko lychee

Buko

lychee Lychee (US: ; UK: ; ''Litchi chinensis''; ) is a monotypic taxon and the sole member in the genus ''Litchi'' in the soapberry family, ''Sapindaceae''. It is a tropical tree native to Southeast and Southwest China (the Guangdong, Fujian, Y ...

is a combination of buko and lychee, a variant of buko salad.

Lamaw

A popular snack in farming regions because it can be made easily with readily-available ingredients. Made with young coconut meat, milk and sugar (or

condensed milk Condensed milk is cow's milk from which water has been removed (roughly 60% of it). It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of ''sweetened condensed milk'' (SCM), to the extent that the terms "condensed milk" and "sweetened condens ...

), and

saltine A saltine or soda cracker is a thin, usually square cracker usually made from white flour, sometimes yeast (although many are yeast free), and baking soda, with most varieties lightly sprinkled with coarse salt. It has perforations over its s ...

s or

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be sa ...

s (also graham crackers). It can also include orange-flavored

softdrink A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains water (often carbonated), a sweetener, and a natural and/or artificial flavoring. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a sug ...

s. Usually served on halved coconut shells.

Ube macapuno

A salad made with another common traditional pairing, that of

ube halaya ''Ube halaya'' or ''halayang ube'' (variant spellings ''halea'', ''haleya''; from the Spanish ''jalea'', "jam") is a Philippine dessert made from boiled and mashed purple yam ('' Dioscorea alata'', locally known as ''ube''). Ube halaya is the ...

(mashed

purple yam ''Dioscorea alata'', also known as purple yam, ube (, ), or greater yam, among many other names, is a species of yam (a tuber). The tubers are usually a vivid violet-purple to bright lavender in color (hence the common name), but some range i ...

) and

References

{{Filipino food Philippine desserts Foods containing coconut