Hello Foodies! How have you been? How's life treating you this weekend? Have you tried another exotic food or tasted your favourite on the menu? We're swinging to Monday in the next few hours so I hope you had a good weekend and were able to eat your respective comfort food.
I wasn't able to come home for the weekend. It made me a little bit sad but life has profound ways of lighting up our moods. My little brother dropped by food for dinner. I got a mom-made fried chicken and mom's best suman.
Have you eaten suman? For those who don't know, Suman is a sweet dessert and a Filipino delicacy. Some call it rice cake. But it's technically glutinous rice that is cooked with coconut milk and sugar. It's wrapped in banana leaves and it is steamed. It's best when it is paired with hot coffee, hot choco, or milk. It depends on you. You can have it on your afternoon tea or as your early morning snack.
In our vicinity, it's always the adults and the oldies who crave suman. Maybe because it is sweet and sticky. And technically it is a traditional dessert. The recipes have come from generation to generation. It was passed to the children and the grandchildren. My mom knows how to make suman. She doesn't just make suman for our consumption but she also does it when someone would ask for it. She also accepts short orders. She learned it from her mom. She shared that she would always look at her mom whenever her mom would make suman. I and my siblings help her but none of us got the talent. We sure know the process but I'm not confident enough about the right amount of ingredients that I would put into it.
Suman is present at the table whenever there is a celebration at home. May it be a birthday, anniversary, or graduation. Mom's suman would also be present at church too whenever we celebrate the church' Thanksgiving and anniversary. Though we don't practice simbang-gabi in our religion, still we stay up late at night during that time of the year as mom would always receive short orders from our neighbours who would like to serve suman during the simbang gabi.
By that time, making suman becomes a family affair. All of the family members will be involved in the process. Each of us, me, my siblings and my father would work on the assigned roles given by my mother. By doing so, my mom wouldn't feel burdened by the load of work she has to do. Plus, we also have the means to bond as a family. While working, we would talk about the past, the present and our dreams for the future.
I grow up seeing my mom making suman and until now she does it occasionally. She might not do it every day but I guarantee that it's perfectly cooked as a lot of our neighbours look forward to it.
This is the first step in the wrapping part
That's the second part. It looks twisted now.
Third step
Almost there. Steam first and then suman is ready!
*All the photos are mine
Thanks for your time.