Chokey and chalky

This is what they call “araro” cookie in Bataan. All along, I thought it’s called uraro.

In Marinduque, they have an interesting variety called arrowroot cookie, which is brownish, sandy, and flavored differently. Arrowroot? I wondered what it's made of, and reading the ingredients list, I saw "arrowroot flour." I suppose arrowroot is a plant, and this Wikipedia entry convinces me it's something that's indeed edible.

Once upon a time, there was only puto seko as the definitive extra-crumbly cookie in this side of town.

I've tried the simple round milky uraro of Laguna and the pure-white sampaguita uraro of Pampanga. They are smaller versions of the puto-seko.

Eating this type of cookie is like eating hardened unsifted flour -- raw. The cookie is sweet, chalky, chokey, even cough-inducing. When masticated, it turns pasty. It is dangerous fun. One needs to have a bottle of water on standby.

What captures my attention, though, is that the cookie can be made into a wonderful shape as in the above photo. It can be made into an art. If marketed in the right packaging, this cookie could easily be a global product.