The problem is how to feed the plenty of starving people, victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda. The answer is on the ground… the many felled coconut trees… inside is the pith, the “ubod” which can temporarily feed the millions of starving typhoon victims. Get the word out people, just give the people a couple of machetes so they can get all the ubod they need from the felled coconut trees.
Read below a blog post on “ubod”. From: http://seventeeneightyfour.blogspot.de/2011/06/ubod.html
“Sometimes, for whatever reason, we would have one or two felled coconut trees. When we were building, we had to clear some areas and there were a couple of trees, especially coconuts that were in the way.
Now I’m not sure if many people know where the úbod in fresh lumpiâ comes from. I somehow knew before that it’s a coconut by-product and figured that, I guess it comes from the coconut itself (which, by the way, is not a nut but that’s a totally different story altogether).
It turns out that ubod is Tagalog for pith, the young core of the trunk of the coconut tree (or the banana, whose ubod can be eaten too). On the right, we chopped off the top part of the felled tree (background) and skinned the bark to get the pith (lower part/foreground).
It’s very nutritious to eat, fibrous (since this is what will become coco lumber in time), and filling. Imagine: from the roots underground, the tree absorbs water and nutrients, goes up the pith, and into the leaves, the flowers, and into the coconuts. Amazing.
Traditionally, we cook it as lumpiâ filling, sauteed and mixed with some kincháy (something like flat parsley) and small shrimps, to flavor. Anyone out there who has some new recipe to share?”
Thank you Alex San Celestino!