Anything more exciting than Pearl Balls (Sago)

Soft, Chewy, Yummy these are some of the things you can tell when you have tasted Pearl Balls or what we locally call as Sago. I don’t know where it originated actually but what I can say is that it is one of delectable ingredients for desserts such as Halo-halo, Mais con yelo, saging con yelo, ginataang halo-halo and more of what you can think of.
Pearl balls are just easy to find in the Philippines. It is readily available on local markets and stores at a very cheap price. You can’t go wrong on sago or pearl balls because it is just easy to prepare. In fact most packs don’t include instructions on how to cook it. But as for what I have researched online, sago should be soaked in water first for about an hour or so before cooking. If you did cook it straight away, chances of cracking and taking so long before it gets gooey will be forever especially if your sago is big in size.
You can put along brown sugar and vanilla while cooking it to give it a sweet taste. I don’t seem to enjoy sago so bland, meaning you need to have it sweetened not unless if you needed that pearl ball to be included in your recipe such as Ginataang halo halo, were bland or tasteless sago should be included. The one that I mentioned which needs to be sweetened first before including in the mixture were those pearl balls used for mais con yelo or saging con yelo recipes.
You can also add pearl balls or sago in your fruity drinks, anything slurpee or protein shakes if you like. It blends well with these delicious drinks. Personally I cooked pearl balls because I wanted to create my own concoction of a drink. My tongue feels so fluid or maybe it was due to my pregnancy and that is why I feel a bit awkward if I don’t seem to eat something sweet or salty.
Nutritional values of sago?? Hmm, gee let me think! I guess there’s nothing nutritional from there actually. It was just a play toy for the tongue or something that you may consider a pass time to eat. Well, this is just my opinion about pearl balls. But for sure most of us would really like it because it’s easy to digest and never can someone be constipated eating this.
If you ask me how to cook it here’s how:
1.Soak the pearl balls or sago for one to two hours till you see it increase in size.
2.Put water, enough to make the balls swim like a soup else it would stick at the bottom of the pan. Make sure the flame is in medium heat only and stir occasionally to make sure it does not stick together.
Keep it on a Slow flame once you added sugar into it

3.Once your pearl ball is gooey and chewy enough, meaning without any hard and thick coating at the core or middle portion, that is the time you need to put the brown sugar in and stir well. You can now put the flame to low. You don’t want to burn your sugar along with it so make sure you stir it well too.
Soft and Chewy in consistency

4.Once it is ready, cool it down for some time. You can now add your pearl balls to any favorite drinks or snacks you wanted.