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
