Rice: A Basic Necessity

A meal without rice for Filipinos isn’t called a complete meal at all. When I arrived here in America, the first thing I bought in the store was a bag of rice. “Can’t live without it!” that’s what I told my husband.

Rice plays an essential part in the diet for Filipinos. We only not eat rice during regular mealtime but sometimes we also consider it during merienda (snack) in the mid-afternoon.

Rice is usually plain steamed. Families who don’t have electricity use gas burners or wood or charcoal fires to cook rice. Today, life became easier with rice cooker. Left over rice is usually made into fried rice and serve for breakfast. You can even mix it with different other ingredients like eggs, hotdog or ham. Oh how I miss all those old times when my dad used to make it for us! I also remember using stale rice and turn it into pop rice. We washed it in water and drain. Put it on a flat surface dish or thing so you can spread it out and sit under the sun to dry. Once totally dried up, deep-fry it and walaa! We have something to munch on for snacks.

Common type of rice used in the Philippines is usually white rice. Other kinds available like the brown rice and sticky rice, which is typically used for dessert when prepared with coconut milk and sugarcane syrup.