BUWA: The Forgotten Snack of Estancia's Coconut Groves

If you grew up in Estancia, you know this isn't just a white spongy thing inside a coconut. This is buwa.

In other places they call it tumbong ng niyog, tubo ng niyog, or in English, coconut apple or coconut embryo. But for us in Northern Iloilo, it's simply buwa - the childhood snack you didn't buy in a store, you found.

What Exactly is Buwa?

Buwa is not coconut meat. It's the coconut's heart.

When a mature coconut falls and starts to sprout - like the one in your photo with the green tubo growing out - it grows a soft, white, cotton-like ball inside to feed the new shoot. That ball is the haustorium, or buwa.

When it's young, like the one you are holding in your photos, it's:

• Snow-white and fluffy • Juicy and slightly sweet • Soft like cotton candy but melts like fresh coconut cream 

When it gets older and bigger, it becomes more dry and spongy, less sweet.

Why Estancia Natives Love It

Estancia is known as the Alaska of the Philippines because of our fishing industry, but inland, we are also a town of coconuts.

Before, after copra harvest, farmers would pile the sprouted coconuts in one corner. For us kids, that pile was a treasure hunt. We would crack them open with a bolo just to get the buwa inside. No need for sugar, no need to cook - eat it straight from the bao, sometimes still warm from the sun.

It's the taste of the payag, the uma, and slow afternoons in the barrio. That's why natives like us still look for it, even if the younger generation doesn't know it anymore.

More Than Just a Snack

Buwa is actually nutritious. It's rich in healthy fats, fiber, and natural sugars for quick energy. Our grandparents used to say it's good for digestion and gives strength to farmers working in the field. It's nature's own energy bar, grown for free.

How we eat it in Estancia:

1. Fresh - straight from the shell, the best way

2. Chilled - put it in the fridge for 30 minutes, more refreshing

3. With a dip - a little muscovado sugar or condensed milk

4. As memory - best shared with family while telling stories

A Snack Worth Saving

Today, buwa is getting rare. Sprouted coconuts are often thrown away or fed to animals because people don't know what's inside. But for us natives, it should be documented and remembered.

If you see a sprouted coconut with a green shoot in your yard in Estancia, don't throw it. Open it. Inside might be a soft, white buwa waiting - the same snack our lolos and lolas ate.

It's more than food. It's a piece of Estancia's identity.

Have you tried buwa? Do you still remember the first time you ate it? Share your story in the comments.

Photos by: Mark Morales, Estancia, Iloilo