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What is the definition of culture in Filipino Rice culture? The Filipino Rice culture
is the importance of rice in the filipino rice culture. It is so important to Filipinos that they
have created very abstract proverbs. Some of them are, “ Cold rice given wholeheartedly
is better than newly cooked rice, ” and “ Without rice, you haven’t eaten ”. I honestly didn’t
know about this and I think that this very ridiculous and funny. Even with all of these silly
proverbs, it’s true that most Filipinos dishes are served with
rice. This is proven by food businesses like Chicboy. They
used a marketing strategy of offering unlimited rice, which
was a big hit among Filipinos. Also, what culture means to
me to a belief or a way to think that influences the you act and how others are affected
by it.
Filipinos shows the importance of rice in Filipino Culture in the San Isidro
Pahiyas Festival located in the Quezon province. This festival is in the honor of San
Isidro Pahiyas, who is a patron saint of farmer. Filipinos will show their appreciation to
him by decorating their homes with “kipings”. Kipings are colorful, attractive decors
which is made out of ground rice flour and is shaped using cabal leaves (or any other
leaves in fact). Kipings are dyed the colors yellow, red, or green with food coloring and
are stringed together to show the owner’s creativity.
Their creativity is tested in a annual competition for the
most creative and attractive decor. The winners up this
competition have their creations thrown to a huge
crowd as free treats..Kipings aren’t just for decoration,
but are edible and are served to guests of homeowners as a delicacy. Filipinos believe
that people with these “kipings” on their house are blessed by San Isidro in the day of
the festival. I think that Kipings are a good representation of the Filipino Rice culture
because they have a good balance of everything. What I mean by everything is that
they are a rice dish, and they a good way to represent the design portion of the Filipino
Rice culture.
Rice in the Philippines has been deeply “ingrained” in Filipino culture that most
Filipinos can’t imagine a meal that doesn’t include at least a small amount of rice. Rice
is a staple food in the Philippines, being picked up instead of noodles or bread, and it
has many historical and cultural importance. It was found that “while rice consumption
has declined in the region, per capita consumption in the Philippines rose.” from the
study that was launched by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (quoted from the
PEPPER article). Currently, the Philippines is the one of the largest rice importer in the
world, under China and Nigeria. Now, I’m going to talk about the brief history of the
Filipino Rice Culture.
Rice arrived at the Philippines when the Indo-Malaysia, Chinese, and
Vietnamese started migrating in. Rice cultivation started 2 thousand of years ago, and
this is proven by the rice terraces in Banaue, or
the unofficial name created by many filipinos,
the 8th Natural wonder. The Banaue rice
terraces are located in the Banaue mountains of
the Ifugao province, which is located in the main
island of Luzon, and are most likely built by hand. These rice terraces had a soaring
height of three thousand meters high and it covers an area of twenty-three thousand
square kilometers. These terraces are found to be about three thousand years old and
it’s purpose was to just cultivate rice. These rice terraces are still used for farming rice
and is a great attraction for tourists.
According to Filomeno V. Aguilar’s 2008 paper from the Philippine Institute for
Development Studies, they state that harvesting rice was a religious ritual for the Igorot
people, an Austronesian ethnic group that lives in
the Luzon mountains. At this time, rice wasn’t a
staple food, because rice was a thought of a
“prestige food”. The staples foods were taro,
yam, and millet. Rice was only served at a festival
occasion because it was needed to complete a spiritual ritual. Rice was thought to be
used by used as tribute, only being given to the elite members or the chief. Rice was a
“marker of social, ecological, and geographic differentiation.” (quoted from Aguilar from
his studies). Rice is a symbol of a social structure and was highly and valued craved for
by all.
The Igorot people also had stories that are passed down from generation to
generation. One of these stories are “The Igorot tribals of the Philippines tell the story
of an honest and hard-working family who during a famine could find nothing to eat but
a few strange white grains. God appeared and taking the grains put them in a pot of
water on the fire. It boiled and filled the vessel with white grains. This was rice.” (quoted
from the book, The Story of Rice by Ramesh Dutt Sharma, pg.11-12 ) This shows that
rice is not just food. Rice is a BLESSING of god, which is showed in other cultures, like
the Japanese culture.
The Spanish soon arrived at the Philippines, rice was still a very craved for food.
The Spanish introduced new agricultural technology that helped in the production of
rice. They introduced the plow, usage of large water reservoirs, dams, and the usage of
marshlands as farmable land. Surplus rice was given as tribute, and sometimes as
payment for rent. Since agricultural methods for rice helped with rice production so
mush, it was no longer a seasonal offering. It helped so much that there was enough to
feed the entire village! In 1830 - 1870,
the surpluses of rice in the city of Luzon
was exporting to other places.
Over the years, the Spaniards, or
people who are native to spain, was
lead towards other cultivated crops.
This meant less farmland for rice. Rice started to fall because the agricultural
technology wasn’t enough to keep up to the growing population, and of the infestation
and calamities that slowed down the production of rice. This resulted in the rise of
importing rice from other places/nations which started in 1870 and continued on today.
This could be a tactic made by the capital to keep their colonial power and give less
power to the local who were growing all of the rice. During the times of poverty, like in
World War II, locals returned to taro, yam, and millet, but they never really liked it. They
no longer believe that they were “real foods” unlike rice, showing rice is really significant
to them. But in 1947 started turning rice around again, 24,000 deaths occurred from the
beri beri disease in the Philippines. The beri beri disease is caused by the lack of
vitamin B1. Some symptoms are heart failure, loss of muscle strength, and eventually
muscle paralysis. How rice helped people fight the beri beri disease is the improves
nutrients in it. This was effective enough that after 21 months, the beri beri disease
disappeared.
The 1960s was another turning point for rice history. University of the Philippines
Los Banos created a plant that was made possible because of selective breeding. This
revolutionary plant was called IR8, or it’s nickname “miracle rice”. The plant rice IR8
produced higher amounts of rice, compared to traditional cultivars, or plant made by
selective breeding for cultivation. IR8 had
a strong stalk that didn’t break in winds
and it was more efficient in turning
converting nutrients into grains. IR8 was
so successful that they even transported
to it India is help fight the famine, or the
shortage of food, that was happening at the time. This plant increased rice production in
the Philippines from 3.7 million tonnes to 7.7 million tonnes in nearly two decades.
Though IR8 had many benefits, there is a flip side to it. IR8 needed heavy usage of
pesticide, which in turn killed many population of frogs and fish by the 1970s. Another
variable that help the rebirth of rice was the increasing upgrades to Philippines
irrigation. This inspired more agricultural productivity and farming.
The success of the 1960s quickly dropped in the 1980s. During the 1980s, the
Philippines was hit with droughts and more economical problems, slowing down the
production of rice again. This downfall of rice productivity in the Philippines caused rice
to be imported to the Philippines once more. A serious drought in the 1990s caused the
philippines to import about 400,00 tonnes of rice. From here, the amount of rice
imported to the Philippines only grow more and more because of the rising population of
people. This grew so much that the Philippines apparently was the top rice importer of
rice in the world in 2010. Currently, the Philippines is the third largest rice importer in the
world with 1,800,000 million tonnes of rice, behind Nigeria (2nd) with 3,000,000 million
tonnes and China (1st) with 4,700,000 million tonnes.
My influence on the Filipino Rice Culture is my mother. Her name is Cecil
Geronimo Cayanan. My Mom, like any other filipino or asian mom, gave me rice ever
since I started eating food. She gave rice dishes like adobo, corn beef, fried chicken
(served with rice of course), porridge, and sinigang. As I grew up, I continued to eat
these dishes, as well as some weird ones like Champorado, which is Chocolate Rice
Pudding. This basically happens to every generation our Filipino family line, from my
parents to my grandparents to their parents.
My Mom came the America in 1992 from the Philippines. When she came to
America, she started cooking rice dishes at the age of 13 years old, cooking dishes like
porridge. She wasn’t the best at cooking the actually rice in a pot, burning the rice all the
time, but in terms of cooking the actual dish, it was great. As she grew older, she
learned many rice dish recipes from family and cook book, since the internet didn’t exist
or wasn’t recognizable at the time.
My Mom inspires me because she basically is the one who gave me rice in the
first place. She made many rice dishes that I enjoy and tastes amazing. She isn’t the
best chef in the world, but is certainly a good one. I learned somethings from my Mom’s
story. Some of these things are that who much rice I eat in a daily basis. I have never
really realized how often I ate rice for lunch and dinner, but when I asked my Mom
about Filipino rice culture and her story with rice, I started thinking more about rice.
Another thing that I learn from her story is that how important rice is for Filipinos, or
Asians in general. I always knew how Filipinos had good rice dishes, but I never knew
how much we actually act. Also, I learned and ate many fantastic filipino rice dishes that
she made, which makes me think more about the filipino culture in general. I will
incorporate what I learned from them into my style by looking at the rice dishes that she
made and modify them accordingly, either by adding on to them, changing them, or fuse
them with other foods/cultures.
Now I’m going to present about my three recipes. My first recipe is a simple
Chocolate Rice pudding, or Champorado in the Philippines. Champorado originally
came from Mexico, and their connection is through in from the Spanish colonies. The
cocoa trees grown in the
Philippines came from Mexico.
During the Galleon trade, the
trade between Mexico and the
Philippines, Mexicans gave
Filipinos their Mexican recipes, like our one and only Champorado. Filipinos also
received many fruits and plants from them like avocadoes, pineapples, and cashews.
Since the Spanish came to the Philippines and gave the Philippines some of their ideas,
I got the idea that I should base all of my dishes off of Mexican foods.
The ingredients you need for Champorado are 2 cups of water, half a cup of rice,
Nesquik, 3 tablespoons of sugar, milk, and chocolate bar. First you get your pot and put
it on the stove. Set this stove to high. You then get your two cups of water and half a
cup of rice and pour them in the pot, but make sure you’re constantly mixing it to make
the rice more soupy. When it starts to boil, set the heat to medium and you’re ready with
the next step. You should start to pour in the Nesquik, and the amount of Nesquik
depends on how chocolatey you want your dish to be, After this, stir the mixture so the
Nesquik can dissolve into the water and rice. Then you should be ready to pour the
three tablespoons of sugar into the mixture, putting the heat to low right after. You
should be constantly mixing it
so you dissolve the sugar and
so the rice will keep more of a
soupy texture. Also, you can
taste the dish with a spoon to
see if the rice is soft and big
enough (as you cook, the rice
grows bigger.) Then put the chocolate porridge into a serving bowl to make some final
touches. Grab your milk and drizzle as much milk to add a more milky flavor. Right after,
make sure to mix the milk in. Lastly, you can dump your chocolate bar into the dish or
you can use the dish as a dip and dip your chocolate bar in.
My next dish is a Fried rice taco. The ingredients you need for this dish are
spam, taco shells, taco seasoning, a bowl full of cooked rice, pepper, and sliced carrots.
First, you take the spam out of the container and cut the
spam into little cubes (or any size depending on
preference). Put the spam you don’t need in a separate
container and put it away. After, heat the pan on medium
heat and place the spam cubes into the pan. Start to cook
and shifting the cubes around until the color turns into a
light brown. When it’s light brown, then it’s ready to put the
bowl full of rice into the rice dish. Make sure to mix the
spam cubes and rice together for about two minutes. After this, you can pour about half
a packet of taco seasoning into the dish. Start to mix the dish again for about a minute
or so. Then put a pinch of pepper into the fried rice and keep on mixing for more flavor.
Put about a handful of sliced carrots into the dish and, once again, keep on mixing the
fried rice. After this, turn off the heat on the stove when you’re done with your fried rice..
Lastly, start putting the fried rice into the taco shells and serve on a plate.
The last dish of my cookbook with a Filipino Breakfast Burrito. The ingredients
you need are 2 eggs, a bowl of rice, pepper, hash corn beef, tortillas, tin foil, and Sliced
cheese. First, before you do anything else, get a separate bowl and crack the eggs into
the bowl. Then you scramble the eggs and save it for later. Set the pan on the stove
and set the stove into medium high heat. Take the hash corn beef out of it’s container
and place on the pan. For this dish you don’t need any oil because the corn beef it’s is
already oily. Mash down and cook for about a minute or so. After cooking it for a
minutes or so, grab a pinch of pepper and put on the dish. Make sure to mix the meat
to spread the pepper around. After, move the corn beef onto side of the pan and grab
the eggs you have prepared. Pour the
scrambled eggs on the empty side of
the pan and leave it to cook for a bit
to solidify. Then start to mix together
the corn beef and the scramble eggs
to get the meat portion of the burrito
ready. Turn off the heat of the stove
after your done cooking it. Get one tortilla (size of burrito is the size of the tortilla) and
place it on a plate that fit it’s size. Either heat up the burrito on the stove on low heat or
microwave the tortilla for thirty seconds. After heating the tortilla, you can start to place
some of your rice on the tortilla and flatten it down. You can place your corn beef and
eggs on top of the rice and flatten it down just like the rice. Also, place your cheese on
top of the corn beef and eggs to melt it faster.
Now we are prepared to fold the burrito, first we pick two opposite side and fold it
like a book. Start to roll the front flap towards the back flap and tuck it in. (Also if some
of the insides are going out, push it back in.) Roll last unfolded remaining flap of the
burrito to the other side and tuck it in. Lastly, place the burrito onto tin foil and start to
wrap the burrito to hold the burrito together. This dish can make up to four burritos,
which could be enough to feed a family of four.
Why should YOU care about my culture? You should care about my culture
because it reflects the importance of rice of the entire Asian community. Rice in the
Philippines wasn’t invented in the Philippines, it was brought by the Indo-Malaysia,
Chinese, and Vietnamese. Rice itself is integrated into many Asian culture and is a
staple diets for than two billion people in Asia, plus millions from Africa and Latin
America. Rice is so popular that people in Asia, like from India, China, or Japan, that it
is estimated to be that every third person in the planet Earth eats rice everyday in a
form or another, and that it is cooked basically everywhere, from huts to high quality
hotels. An example of rice being important in other cultures is in Japan, where there is a
story where the sun goddess, Amaterasu, brings a grain of rice to Japan herself!
Once Asian people started to immigrate to America, they brought their culture
and ideas to the United States, which meant rice is coming. The first rice that the
Americas received was around 1609 and was grown in Virginia.Then the true cultivation
happened of rice in America at 1685 when a ship from Madagascar docked at
Charleston in South Carolina for repairs. The captain of the ship left a bag of rice which
started cultivation of rice in Carolina. Even President Thomas Jefferson loved/was
impressed by the Po River in Italy that he SMUGGLED a pocketful of rice back to the
United States. Today, you can see Asian rice culture in places like restaurants, malls,
and even your own home. Being so culturally diverse, I expect that anyone that live in
the United States have at least tried rice once in their live. If not, I believe that you are a
subhuman to society that needs to go outside and try some Asian Rice foods, either
from Japanese food, Chinese food, Filipino foods, Indian foods, or any other Asian
Cuisines.
(Jollibee is a Filipino Fast food Restaurant
Which is in America)
THE BOOK I USED
Sharma, Ramesh Dutt. The Story Of Rice . India: National Book Trust, 1991. Print. http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/21nbt-%20The%20Story%20Of%20Rice%
20by%20Ramesh%20Dutt%20Sharma.pdf Bibliography Http://facebook.com/Mia.Marci. "Why Do Filipinos like to Eat Rice?" Pepper . Pepper, 02 Apr. 2016. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. http://www.pepper.ph/why-rice/
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"Travel Philippines | Maganda Filipino - Why Do Filipinos Eat Rice?" Travel Philippines Maganda
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"Champurrado to Champorado: Origin of a Favorite Filipino Breakfast." Lola Jane's World . N.p., 27 Oct. 2015. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.
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"Champorado." IFood.tv . N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.
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