I love my adobo with rice, but a friend once showed me how to eat it with bread.
Hmmm. Ok, maybe I will if there’s no alternative. But I still would rather have hot, steaming rice.
The Philippines has been eating rice for centuries. Changing an entire nation’s eating habits won’t be easy. But as former socioeconomic planning secretary and UP professor Felipe Medalla pointed out to me a few weeks ago half-jokingly, if Filipinos won’t eat too much rice, there will be no shortage!
So experts are now pushing for rice alternatives and extenders, namely sweet potato and corn, which actually have more fiber content and thus more nutritional value.
Here are some recipe/blog entries on kamote and other alternatives from my favorite food blogger Market Manila. I hope you don’t mind if many of them are snacks or desserts! The last recipe is my favorite breakfast alternative to sinangag. Enjoy!
Minatamis na kamote
Deep friend bananas with caramelized sugar
Roast duck with sweet potatoes
Battered and friend bananas
French Toast / Eggy Bread / Pain Perdu a la Marketman
April 24th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I guess I am lucky that I can go without rice for weeks and not miss it
How come no one is into fruits? Bananas, apples, etc - good for breakfast or snacks (to avoid overeating during meals)
Pita bread is another option although am not sure if this is economical. I would fill it sometimes with avocado or cheese and solve na ko
April 24th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Hi PchesV, they have kamote (which can be grown even in pots), kamoteng kahoy, saba. Corn is a bit harder to find, but they also grow well and is an easy crop. Filipinos need to plant more, IMO. And we don’t have to have haciendas to do that. Sometimes, simple awareness on self sufficiency can also make our lives easier. But i’m afraid in many instances we are too dependent on others, on things that we have to buy, when a pot of dirt is there for the taking.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:08 am
DB, bananas are the best. That sinapot is really good, but the oil is not good for the diet :p
April 24th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Willy, I love the idea of getting more productive and less consumptive.
The agriculture industry though has a LOT of problems, from structural to logistics to access to credit. I have met many of the brainy people whose integrity could not be questioned, who tried to solve the agriculture problem. Still, our farmers are still poor and unsuccessful.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:06 am
C_A, yeah, i think it will take a really long to do it though hehe, so last night I ate my pinakbet without rice. I survived naman
Oh, and just sharing another tip. I remember when I was young, we would wash and dry rice kernels that were about to go stale and fried them and voila, we have pop rice! crunchy and yummy