Find out how these precious heirloom rice varieties are making a buzz today
During the Madrid Fusión Manila 2017 and in the Ark of Taste during the Slow Food Summit in 2015, Cordillera’s heirloom rice varieties have been reintroduced to Manila’s gastronomes and epicureans. In fact, the local dining scene in the recent years has highlighted these so-called treasures, giving chefs the freedom to express their creativity through this premium ingredient.
Not long ago, we’ve savoured the chef Dino Dizon of The Smoking Joint’s Goat Barbeque where Dizon brined the goat meat for 24 hours in ginger and sea salt and placed in a fire box with wood charcoal sprinkled with black rice and cooked to perfection. Up until now, we can still recall the taste of Happy Ongpauco-Tiu’s black rice tortillas with roasted Cebu lechon and Lechon Diva Dedet dela Fuente-Santos’ Lechon de Leche with sisig rice, chorizo, and taba ng talangka stuffing and its lechon sauce made of black heirloom rice, red heirloom rice paste with local chilli sauce.
But what exactly are the various heirloom rice that our forefathers have been producing up in the Cordillera?