Banana cue is a Filipino merienda snack of saba bananas deep-fried in oil with brown sugar that caramelizes into a sticky, glassy coat. The hot bananas are speared two or three to a bamboo skewer and sold from carts and roadside stalls in the afternoon. The name comes from barbecue, for the skewer; the result is sweet, hot, and chewy, with a crackly sugar shell over soft fruit. It is a close cousin of camote cue, the sweet-potato version.
Banana cue is built on the saba banana, a starchy cooking banana central to Filipino cooking, and on the cheap palm sugar and frying oil of street vendors. It belongs to the family of fried-banana snacks alongside maruya and turon, and the suffix cue — clipped from barbecue — marks the skewered street format it shares with camote cue. Its precise origin is undocumented, but it is a long-standing everyday merienda sold across the islands.
Bite through a thin, brittle caramel shell into a hot, soft saba banana that has turned almost custard-like inside. It is intensely sweet, with the brown sugar lending a faint molasses depth and a slight bitterness from the caramelization. The contrast of the crackly glaze and the dense, melting fruit is what makes it; best eaten while the sugar is still warm and shatters cleanly.
Brown sugar is added straight to the frying oil, where it melts and caramelizes, then coats and fuses to the banana as it cooks; on cooling it hardens into a thin glass-like shell. The saba banana is starchy and firm enough to hold its shape and turn soft and creamy rather than fall apart in the heat. Timing matters — pull too early and the sugar stays syrupy and sticky, too late and it scorches bitter. The skewer is added after frying so the hot caramel sets around the fruit.
Variations
Camote cue is the same treatment given to sweet potato. Some cooks dust the bananas with extra sugar at the end for a thicker crust, and a few roll them in sesame. Maruya (battered banana fritters) and turon (banana spring rolls) are related fried-banana snacks made differently.
On the Palate
Where Banana Cue sits in the Filipino flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
8 steps · 15 min
- 13 min
Peel saba bananas and leave them whole or halve the larger ones
- 23 min
Heat oil in a wide pan over medium heat
- 34 min
Add brown sugar to the oil and let it begin to melt and caramelize
Watch outMelt the brown sugar in the oil until it caramelizes before the bananas go in — this is the shell that will set glassy, so build it here.
- 45 min
Slide in the bananas and fry, turning, so the caramel coats them evenly
- 55 min
Cook until the bananas are soft and the sugar shell turns deep amber
Watch outPull them when the sugar turns deep amber — too early and it stays syrupy and sticky, too late and it scorches bitter.
- 62 min
Lift out and let the caramel set for a moment
- 73 min
Spear two or three onto each bamboo skewer
- 81 min
Serve hot while the sugar shell is still crisp
