Bohol Calamay

Calamay is coconut milk, brown sugar and ground glutinous rice cooked down over a low fire and stirred continuously for hours until it becomes a thick, dark, sticky paste - a job done with a wooden paddle in a wide vat, and one that requires more stamina than skill. Jagna on Bohol's southern coast is the town that made it a trade, and the packaging is what distinguishes the Boholano version: the finished paste is spooned into halved coconut shells, sealed together, and wrapped, so it arrives as a polished sphere that has to be prised open. It keeps for weeks unopened, which is the point of the packaging, and it is eaten by the spoonful or spread on bread, sweet enough that a little goes far. Workshops in Jagna can be visited to see the stirring, and the town's church and the Can-umantad and Anda areas are on the same eastern circuit.

What's there

• The stirring vats - the paste worked with wooden paddles.
• The coconut shells - halves sealed around the finished calamay.
• The Jagna workshops - the town's makers at work.
• The dark paste - thick, sticky and very sweet.

When to go

Year-round; weekday working hours to see the stirring at a Jagna workshop. It is sold across Bohol all year.

What to expect

Opening the shell takes effort - a knife and some determination. It is extremely sweet. Unopened it keeps for weeks; opened it should be finished fairly quickly in this climate.

Nearby

Jagna's church and port are in town; Anda and Can-umantad Falls are further east.