Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Ulkoy
Golden fritters of grated squash and small shrimp bound with a little flour and fried crisp, a favorite Palauan snack-lunch.
Palauan · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 15 min
~402 cal · 21g protein · 51g carbs · 13g fat · 5g fiber · 9g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Ulkoy is one of Palau's most-loved everyday foods, the kind of thing sold from roadside stands and made in home kitchens for a quick, satisfying lunch. It marries two things the archipelago has in abundance: the small sweet shrimp of its lagoons and mangroves, and squash and pumpkin from the garden.
The squash is grated, tossed with whole tiny shrimp, and bound with just enough flour and egg to hold, then dropped in spoonfuls into hot oil and fried until the edges go lacy and brown. The result is somewhere between a fritter and a pancake, sweet from the squash and savory from the shrimp, crisp outside and tender within.
Palauan cooking sits at a crossroads of Micronesian, Filipino, and Japanese influence, and ulkoy shows it, close cousin to the Filipino ukoy that arrived with generations of exchange across the western Pacific. On Palau it has become thoroughly local, the snack you reach for straight out of the pan while it is still too hot to hold.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1/2 lb small shrimp, peeled
3 cups kabocha or butternut squash, grated
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 green onions, chopped
to taste salt and black pepper
1 cup oil, for frying
Instructions
1
Toss the grated squash with a little salt and let it sit 5 minutes, then squeeze out excess water so the fritters crisp rather than steam.
2
Mix the squash, shrimp, green onions, flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, pepper, and egg into a thick, spoonable batter; add a splash of water only if it will not come together.
3
Heat the oil in a wide pan until a drop of batter sizzles at once.
4
Drop in heaped spoonfuls, flatten slightly, and fry until deep golden and crisp on both sides, about 3 minutes a side.
✎ Chef’s note
Fry in small batches; crowding the pan drops the oil temperature and leaves the fritters greasy.
5
Drain on paper and eat hot, with a squeeze of lime or a chili-vinegar dip.
Palauan home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Ngerulmud. The capital is a purpose-built cluster of buildings on a hillside in Melekeok rather than a town, moved there from Koror in 2006, and almost nobody lives in it. The cooking that matters happens on the surrounding islands: taro grown in wet patches worked mostly by women, and fish off the reef.
🗺️
Palau. Palauan cuisine is Micronesian and reef-driven, taro, cassava, fresh fish, and the giant fruit bat soup once served at feasts. Coconut, root crops, and the surrounding ocean define the island table.
🌍
Oceania. The twentieth century changed the Pacific plate faster than anything before it. White rice, tinned corned beef, mutton flaps, flour and sugar arrived by ship and are now entirely everyday, and the public health consequences are among the most closely studied anywhere. Alongside that, Australian and New Zealand kitchens have taken up Asian technique and Maori and Pasifika cooking in a way they had not before.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Palau
DemokA rich Palauan taro-leaf soup thickened with coconut cream and studded with crab or fish.
Taro with Coconut SyrupSteamed taro drizzled with a warm caramel-like coconut syrup, a gently sweet Palauan breakfast built on the islands' staple root.
Seboseb (Tapioca Coconut Pudding)A silky Palauan pudding of tapioca starch cooked slowly with sugar and coconut milk until glossy and chewy, served cool.
Browse all Palau recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Steamer.
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Palau meal
Young Coconut WaterDrink
Seboseb (Tapioca Coconut Pudding)Dessert
Reef Fish in Coconut MilkDinner
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Ulkoy?
Golden fritters of grated squash and small shrimp bound with a little flour and fried crisp, a favorite Palauan snack-lunch.
Where does Ulkoy come from?
Ulkoy is a Palauan dish from Ngerulmud, Palau.
Can Ulkoy be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Ulkoy recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Ulkoy safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Ulkoy take to make?
About 35 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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