Don't Wipe The Straw
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A Classic Filipino Breakfast
By Karen Alinas
When people talk about porridge, they don’t usually describe it as brown, sweet, and creamy. However, such is the charm of the Philippine champorado. It’s the Filipino counterpart of champurrado, a cocoa-based beverage in Mexico often served with churros.
Champorado, made of cocoa, rice, and condensed or evaporated milk, is often eaten at breakfast or during rainy afternoons. It is sometimes paired with tuyo (dried fish): its salty and crispy texture balances said sweetness and creaminess.
The history of champorado dates back to the Manila Galleon era, which started in the 1500s and lasted till the 1800s, when Mexico gained its independence from Spain. The Manila-Acapulco trading route paved the way for exchanging goods, including Mexican silver, Indian cotton, and Chinese silk, at a massive commercial level. And it brought cocoa harvested and processed in Mexico to the shores of Manila.
Filipinos inherited the champurrado recipe from Mexicans but added their own twist. The Philippines relies heavily on rice. Filipinos consume rice cakes, rice wine, and desserts made from rice: it was only logical to switch out champurrado’s corn flour for rice.
Legend has it that the Philippines’ national hero, Jose Rizal, accidentally invented the country’s champorado. A textbook published in the 1950s by the Philippine Department of Education states that Rizal accidentally tipped a cup of hot chocolate onto a plate of rice and dried fish. Though his siblings scolded him for his clumsiness, he retorted that he had spilled on purpose. According to the story, he then proceeded to eat the mixture, declaring that it champorado.
No primary sources actually support the claim, but it remains a popular story about Philippine champorado’s origin.
Today, modern champorado is made from glutinous rice, chocolate powder, and sugar. Others may prefer to prepare it using the more traditional tablea, or fermented cacao. Ready-to-eat packages are also available in the market now, which is not at all romantic or historical, but still tastes good. 🌾
The Drink That Tells the Story of South America and the Levant
As the Guaraní story goes, a hunter once saved a little girl from a jaguar. It would turn out that the girl was Yaci, a goddess, in disguise. To thank the man, she visited him in a dream and showed him how to prepare a magical plant that would bring everyone together. When he woke up, a timid herb was growing at his doorstep.
The indigenous Guaraní people have many other stories that show how important maté, the plant and the drink, was and is in their social life. Today, maté is the national non-alcoholic drink of choice in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, and has become famous across the globe as a “superfood” in recent years, as this mix of twigs and leaves spread from its home in a unique migration story.
For almost a hundred years, some of the biggest importers of maté have been 12,000 kilometers away in Syria. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, successive wars forced many to migrate, sending people from the Levant around the world, often to South America. Some came back bearing a new drink. The first records of national maté exports from Argentina to Syria (which Lebanon was then part of) come from 1936, when it was the second biggest importer, right after Bolivia.
Maté consumption in the Levant took off in the 1970s when South America was politically unstable. As Syria and Lebanon benefitted from the oil boom and regional prosperity, many families came back with maté in their luggage. Today the Syrian market receives 80% of the Argentinian export. And to ensure that the ongoing Syrian war hasn’t doesn’t disrupt this commerce, in 2019, maté was included in the list of essential commodities that benefit from subsidized import by the Central Bank of Syria. In Druze communities especially, maté has become such a tradition that maté kits have become a part of bridal trousseaus.
There are minor differences in maté consumption in the two regions. For example, in Syria and Lebanon, drinkers clean the bombilla (a type of straw typical for drinking maté) with a lemon slice before passing it to the next drinker. Try doing this in South America, and you risk never being invited again. But the spirit of maté remains intact. A drink to share with friends, never in a rush, and a symbol of social cohesion.🧉
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