Everytime the feast of Our Lady Of The Holy Rosary in Orani, Bataan is being celebrated, I can’t help but get excited with the parade of delicacies that I could see and avail from the vendors. Puto seko, suman sa lihiya, pastillas, turrones, duman are just few among the list. Of all these, it is with “Duman” , I got interested in.
I bet only a few Filipinos tasted this kind of delicacy from the Pampanga region. The main reason for that is that this food shows up only during the Christmas season right after the harvest time in October – November. Another reason aside from being seasonal is that it is expensive as compared to other food treats made up of rice grains. Yes, Duman is also made up of rice and it is colored green. But no, it is not just that plain green rice. It is actually made up of glutinous rice that is beaten from the husks, then toasted in clay oven.
Its color green is natural. It is the young kernels of the rice that did not fall off the husks. The labor in turning it into a duman rice is hard and rigorous. The process is very natural, too. The husks are being beaten against a hard surface until they fall off. It is then soaked in water, cooked for 30 minutes and then pounded.
This Duman rice can be munched on plain like nuts. Its smell is so good like the popular “pinipig” rice. I have tried making a delicious salad ice candy with duman rice. It is so creamy and delicious. It matches its color green and delicious smell to the attractive taste. It can also be added to your favorite ice cream or to the fresh milk as a breakfast cereal.
The people who make Duman is called “Magduruman”. Here in the Philippines, the place where this Duman is often produced is in Sta. Rita, Pampanga. A festival during the first Saturday of December is being held in this place as a way of keeping up with the culture of making “Duman”, the rigorous way – pounding away the unripe glutinous rice using their large wood mortars.
So next time you get here in the Philippines, try going to Pampanga region and ask for this green gold called “Duman”.
/// Written by Rosemarie Ramos, The Philippines
