A Special Breakfast: Popped Pinipig and Tablea Tsokolate

According to my mother, Tiyô (Don Felix Montinola) and his wife, Lola Teáng (Doña Dorotea Magalona Montinola), would enjoy breakfast in the old days at their home in Victorias City, Philippines, with the popped pinipig on their plate over which they poured warm tablea tsokolate. 

Don Felix probably had these as breakfast at their home in Jaro, Iloilo, even before he decided to find fortune in Negros island in the 1890s. And it was Don Felix's unmarried sisters, Encarnacion (Dakô) and Priscila (Muchi), who taught my mom how to pop the pinipig and also how to make a mean cup of tablea tsokolate in the 1950s. (Read blog about Don Felix Montinola here).

Today, a portion of the pinipig was roasted; another was popped by quick-frying in boiling cooking oil. These were then paired with warm tablea tsokolate using the carabao's milk I bought from Casa A. Gamboa in Silay City, Negros Occidental, Philippines, at last weekend's Slow Food Earth Market.  The pinipig was from the dinorado rice grown by the Mailum Organic Village Association of Bago City, Negros Occidental, and it was fun roasting the rice myself and then pounding them on a lusong after. And as I roasted the dinorado pinipig, its fragrance wafted as if to announce that a treat was about to be enjoyed.

While the roasted pinipig was hard until soaked in tablea tsokolate, the popped pinipig was softer and crunchier. No wonder Don Felix and Lola Teáng preferred the latter.

The pinipig and tablea tsokolate are the tastes and flavours of the past, having been enjoyed and taught to us by our elders whom we continue to remember and celebrate every time we enjoy these outselves.

This wasn't just a meal of pounded rice and warm beverage. This was a breakfast of memories.😋

#memories #tableatsokolate #pinipig #breakfast #slowfood #slowfoodcommunity #earthmarket

The Breadfruit: A Superfruit and So Much More

My essay about the breadfruit won the 3rd Prize at the 2022 Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Award.

Here's the link to the winners' list:

https://philstarlife.com/geeky/635622-award-winning-literature-dining-table?page=3

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The Breadfruit: A Superfruit and So Much More

It’s Saturday morning and I make my weekend trip to the fruit and vegetable market at Bangga Daan in Victorias City. This is where the vendors from the northern part of the Negros island bring their produce to sell during weekends.

Along with the other vendors, Ining, my sukî from Toboso, promised me a week ago that she would bring me kolo today, and she did. Of the half a sack of kolo that she brought to sell, I bought two. At P20 each, a price for her loyal customer, the two pieces of kolo made my eco-bag heavier by a few kilos that morning.

When I was kid, I remember my lola treating the family with a sweet delicacy made from kolo. Kolo, round-shaped and called breadfruit in English, originated from the islands in the South Pacific and its seeds must have reached the Philippine archipelago through the traders and colonizers of the past centuries. In other parts of the Philippines, it is called rimas. According to TIME magazine, breadfruit is a superfood, meaning, it is packed with vitamins and nutrients that are good for one’s health. The ones I bought from Ining were almost the size of a football. And beneath its yellow- green skin that’s full of prickles, it looks like a plain white bread that’s bland to the taste. It is, however, loaded with calcium, fiber, phosphorous, copper, potassium, and other nutrients.

The reason I asked Ining to bring me some kolo was a memory from childhood of enjoying kolo – cooked, sweetened and yummy. My grandmother, who had long passed, introduced me to breadfruit as a dessert, and I want to relish that memory again – through my palate.

The recipe for sweetened kolo is simple: it is skinned and the good parts are cut into bite-sizes, washed and soaked in water for a few minutes, moved into a pan, bathed in coconut milk and brown sugar, and carefully stirred with a few drops of vanilla until it dries up and softened. Compared to more complicated recipes that churn out less nutritional desserts, this recipe is easy to do, requires cheap ingredients, but promises a lot of enjoyment and health benefits.

My cooked kolo, now golden brown, and sticky and creamy from the coconut milk, is warm and ready to eat. I transferred a few chunks into a plate, forked one and took a bite. Its texture is pulpy with the sweet syrup now flooding my palate alongside the dancing grains of the brown sugar. As the delicacy’s fragrance fills the air, so do my memories of the days when my grandmother used to prepare this dish herself. The breadfruit, grown and harvested from the northern mountains of the Negros island,

found its way into my lola’s old kitchen and was transformed into a beloved delicacy whose aroma, texture, and sweetness helped me celebrate my beloved grandmother.

According to the Department of Agriculture, kolo, or rimas, can be cultivated as “a staple crop which can help alleviate poverty and malnutrition.” Breadfruit can also be an alternative for rice. But compared to rice, breadfruit has a moderate glycemic index, which means it is good for diabetics if cooked and eaten plainly. It is so versatile that it can be used to make pastillas, chips, crackers, and even ice cream.

In the Hawaiian culture, a breadfruit tree, a symbolic tree of life, is planted and gifted to a newborn. Well, my lola never gifted me a breadfruit tree but through its fruit, she showed me her unconditional love and affection like all our grandparents did for us when we were young. Although our grandparents may no longer be around to once again make us enjoy their homegrown recipes, we can always revisit those fun memories through the dishes they once prepared for us.

The recipe that transforms a raw breadfruit into a sweet delicacy is very simple, and there are a lot of dishes from our childhood that are easy to prepare. But when these dishes are once again enjoyed, they become conversations with our past, celebrating the people whose hands prepared them for us to enjoy.

And as I finish the last chunks of the sweetened kolo on my plate, each bite is a conversation about my childhood memories with my lola. But with these mouthfuls of kolo, I also benefit from all those nutrients. And if I enjoyed a cupful, my potassium intake is equivalent to three bananas.

Breadfruit has other names: Ukwa, ulu, panapén or pana in other countries, and kolo, kolu or rimas, locally. Its scientific name of Artocarpus antilis may be difficult to pronounce, but all we need to remember is that it is not just a fruit, it is a superfruit.

#kolo #breadfruit #rimas #foodwriter #DoreenGamboaFernandez #foodwriting #comnpetition #food

Happy 10th Anniversary, BTS!

A few years ago, I read in the news that the kpop boy band, BTS, lives in my neighborhood of Hannam-dong in the Yongsan District of Seoul, Korea. (read blog here).

So, I thought for a moment that they would have lived inside the UN Village, an area where rich families, CEOs, celebrities live. My apartment was just next to UN Village, so I probably encountered a few of them around the area during weekends. And on a few occasions, I recognized a member of the boyband, Shinwha, was on the next treadmill at an underground gym in Hannam-dong. But as to BTS, I later found out that they had an apartment at Hannam The Hill, a very exclusive apartment complex that sits in an area where Dankook University campus used to be.

So, this week, I join the millions of BTS fans as Seoul landmarks also pay tribute to their popularity with these landmarks, which I have visited several times over the years, turning purple. 

Happy anniversary, BTS! You guys have come a long way! 😎

#BTS #seoul #Korea #COEX #tradetower #Namsan #DDP #DongdaemunDesignPlaza #sebitseom #floatingisland #banpopark #lotteworldtower 

Photo credit: Korea Tourism Organization