Nilupak


Nilupak is a class of traditional Filipino delicacies made from mashed or pounded starchy foods mixed with coconut milk and sugar. They are molded into various shapes and traditionally served on banana leaves with toppings of grated young coconut, various nuts, cheese, butter, or margarine. It is also known as nilusak, linusak, niyubak, linupak, or lubi-lubi, among many other names, in the various languages of the Philippines.

Names

The term nilupak means "mashed" or "pounded", from the Tagalog verb lupak, "to pound ". It is also known as nilusak in Visayan regions with the same meaning. They were traditionally pounded in large stone or wood mortar and pestle.
In Philippine Spanish, nilupak was known as jalea, which became spelled as halaya, haleya, or halea in the native languages. This term is especially used for nilupak na ube, which is now more commonly known as ube halaya. Generally, however, the term nilupak is reserved for the variants made with mashed cassava or saba bananas. While the variants made from ube is known as halaya. Variants made from sweet potato and taro can be known as either halaya or nilupak. Regardless, nilupak and halaya are prepared identically, varying only in their main ingredients.

Types

Types of nilupak include the following: