“Be Adventurous
with your food!” – Gordon Ramsay
Food, from any geographic
region or country, influenced by whatever culinary technique, and categorized
under any food group should always be given a “once around”. This is most especially
true when its roots can be traced back from your hometown. There is always something new to be
discovered when it comes to food. A new
taste that marvels your palate and leaves you with a perplexed and dumbfounded
look on your face that evokes the question “What’s in that?”. For me the element of surprise is the most
captivating aspect of food.
In this feast, I
treated myself into one of the Philippines home-grown delicacies, transformed and
re-invented. Made from a list of staple ingredients, a
recipe passed on from one generation to another, from a family that has humble beginnings.
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| Photographed by Foodie and the Feast |
The “Moron”, a
sticky dessert, made from gelatinous rice stuffed with roasted nuts and cacao, has
captivated the interest of food enthusiasts and has been placed on the map, as
evidenced by an article written in a popular Philippine broadsheet circulating
in Metro Manila.
This delicacy
finds its roots in the town of Tacloban, Leyte.
Sticky rice desserts/snacks, otherwise known as “kakanin”, holds a very
special place in our stomachs as Filipinos, and while the “Suman” is arguably
the most popular of them, that claim takes nothing away from, what might be
considered as its cousin, Tacloban’s “Moron”.
Personally, I
don’t indulge into too much of these sticky rice snacks, but from time to time
I do enjoy a treat of it here and there and this time was no different. I happened to chance upon a plastic
container with 6 pieces of these wonderful culinary creations and “Nanay
Cholengs Chokoleit Muron” was the name on the box. It was a “pasalubong”. Being the, curious cat that I am when it
comes to food, I decided to try one. At
this point I had no inkling as to what it was, let alone what it was called.
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| Photographed by Foodie and the Feast |
I’ve had my
share of “kakanin’ but this one is by far, based on my experience, the most
sinful take on that plain, boring, but still a classic, ‘suman” (I don’t think I
should even be eluding to the moron as a suman, but anyway). The “moron”
or should I say, “Nanay Cholengs Chokoleit Muron”, isn’t a town favorite for nothing. Not only is it made from scratch but is also
created from a recipe that has passed down from generations, which according to
an article I read, was and is still a favorite of the wife of the late former
President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos.
You know it is good
food when it is made from quality ingredients, couple that with a solid recipe
tested by time and a product that is made with passion, theirs is just no
substitute for that.
It begins with the
peanuts that are roasted in-house, and pounded out, not only adds another
dimension of texture to the soft and sticky gelatinous rice that encases the stuffing
of cacao and peanuts but it also provides you with the familiar flavor profile
of nuttiness and its natural saltiness that lends well to the bitter yet sweet
taste of the cacao. If I were to
describe it vividly, well just try having a spoonful of a peanut butter and
chocolate spread and make it as organic as possible. Next they roast, their own cacao, and grind
it themselves, and if I have to explain to you how chocolate or cacao
translates in terms of flavor, well, you must be nuts, pun intended.
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| Photographed by Foodie and the Feast |
As they encase
this cacao and peanut mixture in this thin layer of gelatinous rice cooked out
in freshly made coconut milk, you can see the passion that is put into
assembling this product. Having made the
rice casing so thin, they can still manage and make sure everything stays
intact and smooth all around. Not to
mention, there is more chocolatey and nutty goodness than there is sticky rice.
Who wouldn’t want that? Surprisingly all
the flavors complement each other, the cacao not being overly sweet so as to
mask the peanuts or the rice. Too much
rice it could go horribly bland. Too
much nuts and you might as well eat peanut butter. Too much cacao and everything else is lost
since the cacao holds an overpowering quality in flavor. The portions are just right, even perfect.
After all of this,
it is then wrapped in a banana leaf tightly tied at both ends and cooked. This process is not for naught, because cooking
it in the banana leaf imparts that flavor of smokiness to the product. I must say the smoky flavor that comes from
cooking a sticky rice delicacy, such as this, is what makes it distinctly,
Filipino.
The classic
pairing of flavors of the salty peanuts and the bitter-sweet cacao, the natural
sweetness from the sticky rice infused with the coconut milk, that distinct
smokiness imparted by cooking it wrapped in a banana leaf, and the perfect
ratio of all those home-prepared ingredients has practically turned me around
on the subject. This delicacy called “Moron”,
as interpreted by “Nanay Cholengs Chokoleit Muron” has now made me view a
Filipino staple in a whole new light, by the alluring proposition of any “kakanin”
that is reinvented in a simple manner, with an accompaniment of basic
ingredients that impart maximum flavor.
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| Photographed by Foodie and the Feast |
If you wish to know more about their product you might want to visit their Facebook Account:
This Post is dedicated to all those affected by Typhoon Yolanda.
Stay strong. Stand proud!
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