Gabi (Tagalog) or
Wahig (Aklanon) or Gutaw (Aklanon) is known as taro in English.
It's one of the main sources of starch in
Polynesia. It's a root crop. I've seen varieties of it here in the U.S. used as an
ornamental (elephant ears?). Back home, there are many varieties and in the province,
these varieties have different names. It's a versatile plant - its leaves and stalk
are cooked as vegetables and the tuber is cooked as sweets or desserts or can
be used in vegetable dishes as well.
In Tagalog the generic name for this vegetable is gabi. In Aklan province,
the variety whose leaves and stalks are edible is called gutaw.
The leaves are generally used in ginataan (simmered in coconut milk) in itself
or as a wrapper
for tinumkan, the insides of which are pounded freshwater shrimps or freshwater
crabs mixed with young coconut meat and then simmered in coconut milk - similar taste to
the Middle Eastern dolmas. When the leaves are cooked alone in coconut milk,
the
dish is called laing which is a generic term for gabi leaves strictly speaking
(Tagalog). In the Bicol region, they have a specialty called pinangat in which
about five leaves are bundled together and packed in another leaf. Three of the
five leaves are actually shredded to make a filling which may also include pork, dried
fish or anchovies and spices (especially red hot pepper!). Then they pour in coconut
milk. The secret is the wrapper should not have any holes so that the coconut milk will
not leak out. The the packets are then boiled in coconut milk.
The tuber or the root of gabi is also eaten, as vegetable
or sweet snack. The best variety in Aklan, at least, is the wahig (right). The
tuber of gutaw
is also eaten but mostly used as a vegetable included in dishes in which the leaves are
used. In desserts gutaw can be mixed with other fruits and root crops like camote
(sweet potatoes) and sab-a (cooking bananas similar to plantain) and sweet rice
and coconut milk to make eangkoga. The wahig however is solely
cultivated for its tuber. The leaves and stalks are not eaten. The tuber is brown
skinned and hairy and the flesh is white or have a little bit of purple tinge to it.
The best wahigs are those that when the flesh after being boiled is smooth (mapihit).
Many a
tuber are
sometimes coarse (maeagadlad) or brittle.
The tuber is used as ingredient for sinigang (in Luzon)
or for desserts - boiled and then eaten with butter or Star margarine and sugar. The
best preparation of taro I have eaten is in New Zealand where the Maori (actually
my Samoan friends) bake them underground under hot coals in a hangi. There
is another variety called palawan or pueawan which is a gigantic
plant and the tuber is sweeter.
Note: Some gabi leaves/tuber when not properly prepared will make your throat itch.
Drying the leaves in the sun before cooking will kill the substance.
Gabi plants in their full growing glory in my cousin's garden in Hayward, California.
The plant is also occasionally planted as an ornamental.
