MANILA – The simple Filipino appetizer ukoy gets the spotlight as it is featured in a video released by the American food magazine Bon Appetit.

Bon Appetit tapped chef Tom Cunanan of the Filipino restaurant Bad Saint in Washington DC to demonstrate how to prepare ukoy in a video posted on the magazine’s YouTube page last September 19.

Bon Appetit recently included Bad Saint in its America’s Best New Restaurants list.

“It’s salty, it’s sour, it’s spicy, it’s savory. You get a nice sweetness from the shrimp here, especially the heads. Delicious,” Cunanan said in the video. “I mean, what more can you want?”

For his version of ukoy, Cunanan used shrimp, thinly sliced sweet potatoes and carrots, cornstarch, cilantro and a batter consisting of fish sauce, cornstarch and club soda.

The resulting dish is a huge fritter that is crisp around the edges. “You use your hands, you take a big piece and you just dip it in there,” Cunanan said, referring to the vinegar served on the side.