Duman (Green Gold) festival &amp Essay Example

wood mortars at two o’clock in the morning. To the local folk, duman can be bought at PhP 40 by the glass. However, it is amazing to learn that duman is actually exported to other parts of the country and the world at around $35 a kilo.

To get a taste of this green gold, visit the Sta. Rita Duman festival on the first Saturday of December. There are also establishments in Angeles City and in San Juan, Pampanga that serve duman rice. Susie’s Cuisine in Angeles and Butchie’s Recipes in La Moderna in San Juan serve small amounts of plain duman and duman suman (green rice cakes). Harvested and processed through the end of December, duman is usually eaten with fresh carabao (water buffalo) milk for breakfast or stirred into tsokolate (drinking chocolate made with Philippine cacao).

In Santa Rita, a Pampangan municipality and the epicenter of duman production, the eagerly awaited specialty is honored annually with its own festival. Years ago, during duman season, Santa Rita’s streets rang daily with the “tok-tok” of baseball bat-sized wooden pestles hitting meter-high mortars as lacatan malutu, a red-husked variety of glutinous rice, was transformed into duman. Nowadays, only a few barangay (the smallest Philippine administrative unit, something along the lines of a district or village) engage in the laborious and time-consuming production process.

Most Filipinos have never tasted duman. Once word gets out that harvest is near, in-the-know locals place their orders, leaving little for the open market. And it’s expensive — up to 30 times the cost of regular rice per kilo. Yet Santa Rita’s duman producers, motivated less by profit than by the desire to keep a

local tradition alive, do little better than break even after covering production costs. Butchie’s Recipes of la Moderna (Ground Level Health Cube Building, 226 Wilson Street, San Juan City, Pampanga) also has a small amount for sale but it goes quickly.

This town’s 10th Duman Festival is set on December 3, 2012, highlighting local delicacies like a night of dinning and music in front of the Sta. Rita de Cascia Parish Church here. "Arti. StaRita" started the festival in 2002, which originated from the long standing tradition of pounding and winnowing unripe glutinous rice (lacatan) and turned into a light pale gold or green delicacy called “duman. ” The festival features alfresco dining in front of the Sta. Rita Church patio were rows and rows of delicacy stalls would sell various pastries and native dishes of the town with duman being the major highlight.

The food sold during the festival would include native pastry attractions of the town like sansrival, masa podridu, mamon and mamon tostado. Sta. Rita town is known as a pastry town with a strong culinary tradition. The festival has attracted a steady following of local and international tourists. ArtiSta. Rita that will present their latest musical “Ing Tauling Sarsuela. ” Different grades of duman, the star of the festival celebration, will also be sold in the event. Traditionally regarded as a Christmas delicacy, duman is eaten with hot chocolate or milk as additive or accompanying drink.

Duman is relatively expensive. Food critic Claude tayag explains that unlike the regular rice variety, which can be planted and harvested three times a year, duman can only be harvested in the cool air of November and December,

otherwise it will not be a bountiful one. For every hectare (San Agustin and Santa Monica), a farmer can produce only a maximum of 4. 5 cavans of duman, while a maximum of 300 cavans can be harvested from the regular rice variety. Duman prices range from P600 to P1,000 per kilo depending on the quality.