Savoring words on our staple

Six winners received cash prizes, books from Anvil Publishing Inc. and more importantly, recognition and distinction by topping the 11th Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Awards for 2013. The awards were handed out at a pleasurable high-tea affair at the Writers Bar in Raffles Hotel Makati on March 22, with the Manila Ladies branch of the International Wine & Food Society as the sponsoring host.

The theme for the contest was “Rice.” Three major winners and three honorable-mention winners were declared by the DGF Food Writing contest judges, namely the contest chairperson Micky Fenix, Felice Prudente Sta. Maria, Maya Besa Roxas, Karina Bolasco, Corazon Alvina, Mol Fernando, and this writer.

Undersecretary Berna Romulo Puyat represented the Department of Agriculture at the awards rites, where four of the winners were present.

The Honorable Mention awardees were Gio Mangaya-ay, Elmer I. Nocheseda, and Philippine STAR columnist Wilson Lee Flores.

A registered nurse and culinary student who writes and takes photos for his blog “The Hungry Giant,” Gio Mangaya-ay submitted an entry titled “No, This Isn’t Paella” — detailing his aunt’s recipe for their Zamboanga family’s adaptation that is described as more local and accessible. Here’s a paragraph:

“Even if Zamboanga is home to a culture and language with heavy Spanish influences, Mama Eng’s paella is not rudimentary just as Chavacano isn’t exactly Spanish. Despite the influence, her adaptation is more local and accessible. It might as well be blasphemous.”

A previous winner (for 2009) and the author of two books — the multi-awarded Palaspas: An Appreciation of Palm Leaf Art of the Philippines and Pateros (about his hometown) — Elmer Nocheseda wrote on fermented rice and its various forms. Here’s an excerpt from his essay, “The Invention of Happiness”:

“Rice fermentation, however, is not given much attention in Philippine food literature and recipe books although Filipinos have long made fermented rice as part of their diet and celebratory traditions. Antonio Pigafetta, the chronicler of Ferdinand Magellan’s westward navigation of the world and his 1521 arrival in Samar and Cebu, noted the word ‘tinapai’ in his early lexicographic notes. Tapay or tinapay, while Pigafetta simply noted as ‘acerte fogacie de rizo or certain rice cakes,’ is fermented rice bread or puto, while tapayan is the earthen jar where rice is fermented. The word tinapay is now extended exclusively to kneaded wheat bread and to the sacred hosts, while tapayan loses its exclusive utility for rice fermentation.”

Palanca-award winner Wilson Lee Flores still recalls how Doreen had been a “brilliant and kind moderator” of AdMU’s Guidon newspaper when he was its managing editor and columnist. Besides writing for The STAR, Flores is a realty entrepreneur and college teacher. He has won 11 Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA). Very recently, he purchased and took over the 75-year-old Kamuning Bakery in Quezon City, reputedly the favorite of then-President Coraczon C. Aquino.

His loving tribute of an essay “Every Grain of Rice is Life” dwells on the various Hokkien rice dishes his widowed mother used to prepare. Here’s an excerpt:

“One favorite was the brownish kiam-peng, also spelled kiampong in Tagalog, which means ‘salted or salty rice’ in Hokkien, the south Fujian dialect of southeast China. Mom’s savory adobo-like kiampong was glutinous sticky rice with shiitake mushrooms, soy sauce, hebi or dried shrimps, adobo chicken or pork meat.

“… If she could afford it, mom would add Chinese sausages to her kiampong. This rice dish is best topped off with fried peanuts, chives and chopped green onion leaves, and ideally served with a side dish of hot fishball soup or ma-kut, pork bone soup with radish.

“My other favorite was mom’s Hokkien-style cha-peng, which literally means ‘fried rice.’ It’s actually also her one frugal yet delicious way to recycle leftover rice into delish meals. Cha-peng is different from Yangzhou fried rice because it has a thick sauce cooked with all other ingredients like mushrooms and meat.

“When my younger sister or I got sick with flu or fever, we’d relish the creamy comfort and warmth of my mother’s lugaw — plain rice porridge which we also call beh or am-beh in Hokkien. Viands were usually something salty like the canned hiu-ko ma-chiu, mushroom with bits of pork meat, or steamed fish with tausi (black beans) sauce.

“One variation of mom’s restorative and nourishing rice porridge creations which I crave for was her kiam-beh — literally meaning ‘salty rice porridge.’ It is congee mixed with either chicken or beef or pork or fish, seafood, innards or other foodstuff. The affordable snack or street food goto is a form of kiambeh, deriving its etymology from Hokkien words gu meaning ‘beef’ and to meaning ‘tripe.’

“Among mom’s sublime kiambeh variations was that thick, yummy chicken congee called kwe-beh in Hokkien and which most of us in the Philippines call arroz caldo from the Spanish words ‘rice broth’. The late Doreen Fernandez wrote that 19th century Chinese eatery owners gave their dishes Spanish names like arroz caldo to make things easier for the customers.”

Winning third place was Ruby T. Cariño’s “The Odyssey” — which personifies rice and has it render its own account.

“Life began in the Pearl River area in Southern China. My clan father’s name was Oryza. His many children lived with him in grass homes, but only two members of his family do I remember, named Sativa and Glaberrima. They are precious, for from Sativa and Glaberrima, almost all descendants have sprung, including me.”

At 78 years old, Cariño writes a regular Wednesday food feature for Sunstar Baguio. She says that she bylined her entry to the DGF award competition “Zadkiel’s Lola” because her grandson, Zadkiel, is one of her biggest fans, as are her other grandchildren and her own children. 

Second prize went to Jun Belen who resides in California. His Jun-blog was a finalist for Best Culinary Blog at the 2013 International Association of Culinary Professionals. He also won an honorable mention award in the DGF contest last year. His entry “The Ritual of Cooking Rice” is yet another loving tribute to a mother.

“At times, my mom adds a knot of pandan (screwpine) to give kanin, or cooked rice, a subtle, sweet fragrance. She ties the long, narrow, blade­-like leaves into a simple knot and buries a knot or two underneath the bed of rice. The scent of pandan in a pot of cooked rice is one of my earliest and fondest recollections of food as a child. Pandan is the fragrance of a home­cooked meal, the fragrance of home.

“As soon as the water in the pot begins to boil, my mom calms the flame and lets the rice simmer slowly, termed as inin, until the rice is fully cooked. If the flame is too strong, a scorched crust forms at the bottom of the pot called tutong, or burnt rice. A liberal douse of sarsa, or sauce, from braised food like caldereta or mechado fixes the flaw. For some, tutong is not even a flaw but the sought­-after part of the entire meal.”

Also an honorable-mention winner last year, Lolita Lacuesta of Davao City took the first prize this time with her essay, “Ata Rice.” Having retired from teaching at the Ateneo de Manila and UP Mindanao, Lacuesta now edits books and regards herself as a farmer. Here’s an excerpt from her winning piece:

“The Ata rice of my childhood is upland rice. And the Ata of Talaingod grow several varieties — pongosan, hinumay, tapul, indalawi, bansilan, sambales. The pongosan is humot (fragrant), dagko ug mubo (big and short), tambok (fat). The tapul is violet and the indalawi is white. Bansilan and hinumay are long-grain rice. The sambales was brought over by some Ata from a trip to Zambales. All are treasured by the Ata of Talaingod but the pongosan is considered the best. Cooking it sends its fragrance three, even four, houses away, said Bae Pilar with a smile.

“Talaingod Ata grow rice in the uplands on a once-a-year cycle. Neighboring planters wait for each other and plant at the same time, following a time-honored form of crop insurance. Planting ahead of everyone else means the maya (Eurasion tree sparrow) and rats go only to one’s rice come harvest time. Everyone planting at the same time shares the risk. No pesticides or poisons are used because the Ata believe this would so anger the maya and rats who will finish off the crop and wala’y mabilin (nothing will remain).

“All work is done manually from planting to harvesting, with the men opening the galas (field) and the women doing the pugas (planting) after the galas is cleared. No fertilizers are ever used. Ata rice is organic if unknowingly so, long before the term came around.”

The judges acknowledged that we had quite a bountiful harvest for 2013. Early last year when we held the awarding for the 10th edition, we also launched the anthology, Savor the Word (Anvil Publishing), edited by Micaela Fenix, Felice P. Sta. Maria and Maya Besa Roxas. It was a collection of winning entries to the ten-year-old contest. In November last year, it won as the Best Leisure Book in the 32nd National Book Awards given by National Book Development Board and Manila Critics Circle. It is already on its second printing.

With the quality of entries that we’ve been receiving, we now believe that we may not have to wait for another decade for a follow-up title. Maybe soon enough Mol Fernando and I can co-edit another collection of entries — in particular those that might not have placed among the winners, but have certainly educated us on fascinating aspects (and regional terms) of Philippine culinary tradition.

Well, at least that was how Mol and I felt — gung-ho about this idea — while we enjoyed the repast that Saturday afternoon at Writers Bar. It may have helped that Mol brought a bottle of Kavalan single malt whisky ex-bourbon cask billed as “Solist” — of cask strength at 114.2 proof. Whew. The scones et al. tasted even more terrific with this Taiwan produce that won the 2011 gold medal in the International Wine and Spirit Competition.

Yes, that’s also how we felt — winners all when it comes to food and what we care to wash it down with.