Pray tell…
Fruits, Rice July 22nd, 2005
Comments from the previous post made me realise that eating fruits with plain rice must have been a common practice a generation or two ago. I don’t know many people who still do. In our family it died with my grandmother. This habit is one of the things I did not appreciate her teaching me as a child, palatably speaking. I suppose it’s just like eating ripe mangoes with suman but still… you know! Lola ate fruits, almost any kind – mangoes, guavas, chicos, pineapples, watermelon – with a cup of rice and a little salt or baguc (bagoong). Mind you, this was dessert for her. My brother and I complained to our mother when she came home that Lola would make us eat rice with our fruits. Mom would amusedly tell us to just let Lola know we ate a good amount of rice with our fish or meat and vegetables then have our fruits as we pleased. Apparently, mom was with us on this, so were her siblings. Lola was outnumbered. 
Toni mentioned her grandmother ate her fruits with rice too. Joey says similarly, her lola’s fruits were on the plate that they practically mixed with the rice. Over in Kuala Lumpur, I read that Babe’s grandmother taught her to eat durian with hot white plain rice but it was just durian, no other fruit. Now I’d like to hear from you:
- Does anyone in your family eat their fruits with plain rice?
- If yes, how long ago was this?
- From which part of the Philippines /world did this fruit habit come from? (If you can trace it.)
I suspect this is a Filipino, if not a Southeast Asian trait but who knows? If you would ever be so kind, if you are so inclined, would you ask others about this too? This is not a formal survey (obviously, Karen you silly girl!) but the morbidly curious obsessive-compulsive nerd that I am would like to know.
Thank you! Now, would you be so kind? Answers need not be limited by the questions. I would love to hear your stories. It would be a refreshing change from my rambling, no? 
July 23rd, 2005 at 12:07 am
well, i don’t remember my parents or grandparents eating their rice with fruits per se, but i do know they didn’t have an aversion to having fruits on the plate while they were eating the usual rice-viand combination. they didn’t eat it WITH RICE as much as they ate it alongside rice, sorta like having dessert and dinner at the same time. i particularly remember this being done with mangoes. i’m one of those people who can’t have food touching each other so that was ewwww for me.
July 23rd, 2005 at 12:43 am
hello! i’ve been lurking on your site but only now commenting.
my grandmother never ate fruit with rice but i know a lot of people from my lola’s hometown in laguna who would top their rice with ripe mangoes, sometimes even bananas and make the sweet savoury by eating the lot with patis or the fish bagoong. they ate with gusto and offerred me to do the same but the thought of wasting the fleshy mango on rice always deterred me.
great site, btw. i’ll be on the lookout for your next posts.
July 23rd, 2005 at 2:49 am
Fruits with rice.
yes.
But all the fruits and not with plain rice.
Fruits eaten.
1. Banana, Mango, Jack Fruit
2. Kinds of rice.
a. sweet rice with coconut milk and sugar. or just plain rice cooked with coconut milk.
b. this is very special sweet rice. cooked mostly in january to celebrate Tamil new year. google for ‘pongal’ - the festival. or google ’sakkarai pongal’ for the sweet rice dish. One eats banana or mango with this rice.
note: I have some friends of mine, no grandmothers.
Even here in North America. If they see a nice juicy Mango, the first thought in their mind is to make tasty yoghurt at home(nothing would beat home-made yoghurt. kinda like greek style yoghurt.) plain hot white rice(jasmine will do) and mangoes.
i did try it once.
YUM! YUM!!
-Mathy
July 23rd, 2005 at 4:16 pm
Hi!
I was a long time lurker!
I love this blog! Kampampangan influences right?
I’m 18, and moved to the States when I was nine, and even in the Philippines, Manila, parents are from Pasay and Navotas [Ilocano and Tagalog], none of my relatives would eat rice with fruits. I would however, sometimes. Mangang hilaw with bagoong, but I don’t know if that counts. I’ve tried various fruits and rice, peaches, nectarines, etc. but I don’t eat it with rice anymore. Too much carbs that isn’t getting burned off by the natural heat that is ever present in the Philippines. But I if the fruit is not it its ripest, and is still SOUR and depending on the fruit, I would eat it with rice and bagoong or patis or salt.
My friends Lola however eats rice with her ice cream. That, I don’t understand.
July 23rd, 2005 at 4:32 pm
hi karen! my aunt loves to eat green mangoes with bagoong and rice. she taught me this when i was young and when i get the chance and have it now, R will just watch me in amazement! hehehe.
July 23rd, 2005 at 4:40 pm
HI Karen.. I have seen people in my hometown eat this way,nothing unsual I suppose..I will get back to you am going to do a survey with the Filipinos here and I will try to divide them in provincial category…
July 23rd, 2005 at 7:06 pm
Stef, I’m like you. My food has to be pristine, tee hee hee! But I think it’s very Filipino to eat fruits or even desserts alongside the rice and viand. I know someone who goes back and forth. Rice-viand-dessert and back again.
Hello Rochelle, thanks for leaving a note! That’s like how my lola eats her fruits! Not all the time though.
Thanks Mathy! I really appreciate you telling us the Tamil practice. Now we’ve moved a bit out of Southeast Asia. Southern India or Sri Lanka? I looked at the sakkarai pongal recipe and my goodness, I almost swooned! Almonds and cashew nuts with all the other spices!!! Wowowie!
Hello Cathy! Glad to hear from you. I love it when my readers make their presence felt. Interaction is more fun than monologue, hehehe! I’m glad you’re still very Filipino even if you left the country early in life. Keep joining us in our discussions. I’d love to hear from Filipinos abroad.
By the way, next week I and several Filipina food bloggers will announce an event everyone can join. Keep posted for details!
Tin my love, that’s almost like a salad with rice, no? Green manoges and bagoong I understand a bit more. Let R have a taste sometime.
Sha, sige please! Let’s see what the Ilocana manangs say. Thanks for being my able and willing research volunteer!
Note to self: perhaps the concept of eating sweet, ripe fruits with plain rice was really prevalent and was just eclipsed by rice with savoury later on. Inquire, inquire, INQUIRE!
July 24th, 2005 at 7:46 am
yes, karen…i did eat mango — the ripe, yellow one — with rice. this was before my teenage years. my lola encouraged it which somehow did not please my mother at all. i don’t remember anyone else in my mother’s family doing it other than me. so maybe i got it from my father, who came from ilocos norte (or so i heard).
i even put rice in coffee…and i know that is a batanggenyo trait (correct me if i’m wrong here) but neither of my family is from that region! weird no?
July 24th, 2005 at 5:13 pm
The way my lola’s fruit got combined with her rice is pretty much the same as Stef’s. She ate her fruits along with, and in the same plate as, her rice-viand combi…causing the fruit to get mixed with the rice, which she happily ate that way. She was very much a dessert with the main course gal and if there wasn’t any dessert to be had then she would just have some jam with her meal.
I had a former co-worker who had a similar “dessert with main course on the same plate” style, except he would do this with leche flan. So the leche flan (and its accompanying caramel syrup) would mix in with her rice…Hmmm, not for me either. I would rather have a main course and a separate dish of Arroz con Leche for dessert! Haha
July 24th, 2005 at 6:35 pm
My dad eats mangoes with rice. So does my boyfriend’s dad! We’ve recently been joking about it being a “daddy thing”. My dad grew up in Manila but his dad was from Pangasinan (and Davao and a lot of other places) and his mom was from Batangas. I’m not sure where he got it from.
He eats it with his ulam too. My boyfriend has recently realized that it tastes good! I, on the other hand, prefer my fruit (and my dessert!) before my meals.
July 25th, 2005 at 2:39 am
Ladycharlie, encouraging grandchildren to eat their fruits with rice is a very Lola thing to do, no? Hahahaha! Rice with coffee isn’t so strange, it’s like champorado!
You know Joey, now that you mention it I remember my Lola would eat her coco jam or matamis na bao with rice too. Ayan, this is a good exercise to evoke memories, at least for me!
Hello Bea! Thanks for leaving a note! A dad thing, which before we called something about grandmothers. Hehehe! Since we’ve started on this I realise it’s more common than I thought.
I am liking this more and more. I hope we get to hear from the others too.
July 25th, 2005 at 2:55 pm
Does anyone in your family eat their fruits with plain rice?
My grandmother. Just her. I didn’t see ANY of her kids eat it that way!
If yes, how long ago was this?
Up till today she does that. Her favorite is banana with rice. She’s 83 years old.
From which part of the Philippines /world did this fruit habit come from? (If you can trace it.)
She’s a Bicolana.
July 26th, 2005 at 4:51 pm
ILOCANA FRIEND SAID mangga… daw with rice
batangena.. eh wala daw masama ano daw ang weird dyan… sila daw saging at mangga!
with rice
July 27th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
I remember my cousins and their parents doing the mango/banana and rice thing when I would eat at their house. I found it a very weird combination then. Later, my I observed that Mom would also do it, especially since ripe mango (meant for dessert) would already be set on the table with the rest of the meal.
As I got older and more exposed to different cuisines, I realized this combination was not so weird after all. Mango with sticky rice is a favorite dessert when we have Thai food. Also, there’s green mango salad, which I often find myself eating with rice and whatever other food we’re having in a Thai restaurant.
July 28th, 2005 at 6:20 am
Thanks Toni!!! That’s like in our family. None of my grandmother’s children ate rice with their fruits, or at least none that I know of. Who knows if there are/were closet rice-fruit eaters? Hehehe!
Sha! Thanks for that info. Now, if we can only map that out with little flags coloured to correspond with fruits, tee hee!
Thank you MJM! Am I right to suppose you’re Malaysian or a Filipino in Malaysia? If it’s the former, then I have reason to suspect eating plain rice with fruit may indeed be a Southeast Asian habit.
This is fascinating! I just had a semi-eureka moment from reading the comments. Can you see the connection between this habit and our penchant for sweetening our spaghetti?
July 29th, 2005 at 4:51 am
haha, ako ripe mangoes with rice..Papa’s influence
green mangoes with bagoong..
August 2nd, 2005 at 5:32 pm
“Does anyone in your family eat their fruits with plain rice?” Yes, my mother, her siblings, their mother and me.
My grandmother (bless her soul) specially liked plain rice with riped mangoes. Sarap ng kain nya nun!:hungry: She’s from Bulacan and she was 89 years old when she died. It’s either riped mangoes or bananas for my uncle and aunts. Many times, i saw my mother ate bananas with rice when i was growing up. We were in Bacolod then. As for myself, it’s bananas with rice on some occassions or riped mangoes at other times.
i have yet to see other fruits being eaten with rice.
August 9th, 2005 at 2:17 am
my paternal grandmother (from leyte) cooked camote (sweet potato) or cassava pieces with rice, such that the rice would have a delicious aroma and a sweetish taste to it.
my maternal grandmother (from cebu) sometimes eats ripe mangoes with rice.
one of my jamaican friends and i had a discussion about eating habits and preferences a while back, and she mentioned that she loved eating boiled or fried bananas with rice. does this count?
August 12th, 2005 at 11:37 pm
I didnt realize it was this “common”. We all ate fruit with our meals. Specially Mangos with pinatisan (like adobo but without the vinigar, really salty!)
I have a nephew who wouldn’t eat without fruits, to the point that one day we had to open a jar of Maraschino cherries or he wouldnt touch his meal at all.
Nice to know we weren’t so weird after all.
August 14th, 2005 at 9:34 pm
Ting, naku talaga that ripe mangoes with rice seems to be a classic. I wonder if they’ll make an ice cream flavour out of it someday, hehehe!
Hello Connille! Ayan, bananas with rice seems like another variation on the classic rice-mango theme. Have you had bagoong with it too?
Petite dear, camote and cassava and rice seems to be common in the Visayas, from what I’ve heard from friends. If you may, please ask your Jamaican friend if that habit of eating boiled or fried bananas with rice is common practice. But with a bit of giniling, that’s already Arroz ala Cubana!
Mangoes with pinatisan! That should be a delicious sweet-salty meal! Still the classic taste of our islands, ‘no? My lola would have loved your nephew, hehehe! Now, maraschino cherries will be a twist to the line of fruits with rice, hehehe!
August 21st, 2005 at 2:08 am
Hi! I’m Kapampangan too.
When I was young, we lived in a small barrio in Lubao. And you know how it is in barrios, all your relatives are just literally a stone’s throw away. I remember I loved coming over to a Lola’s house (my Lolo’s sister) because I get to play with my tita’s old dolls and they always always have yummy fruits from their mula. Anunas, balimbing, bayabas, sampaluk, camachili, and of course, mangoes.
I distinctly remember one time, I was about 5 years old, we were eating lunch and we ate ripe pico mangoes with steaming hot rice. I loved it so much that when I got home for supper I asked my mother if I could eat the same for supper. I guess I was a bit saklo mata that I couldn’t finish the food on my plate. Mesuya cu. I couldn’t very well leave food on the plate under my mother’s watchful eyes so I just swallowed what I could and the rest I strategically positioned around my plate so as to look like perfectly normal little bits of food left on the plate. From then on I swore never to eat ripe mango with rice.
Since we’re talking about unusual rice combinations, I wanted to ask if gatas damulag on rice is just a Kapampangan thing. I grew up eating rice with ambulang gatas damulag on Saturday mornings, either with tuyo or a little bit of rock salt. I favored the rock salt though. We would always fight over who gets the “panyu,” referring of course to the thin film that forms on top of boiled milk. I always thought it was a common practice. I was surprised when I went to a high school in Quezon City and my friends were so shocked when they learnt about the milk and rice combo.
November 7th, 2005 at 1:07 pm
Hi Karen,
My parents are both from Pampanga but I grew up in Cagayan, now based in the U.S.. Am a lurker, discovered you through other food blogs, now reading your posts from the past, and enjoying the re-affirmation of what I grew up with.
Like Tee, we had Ambulang Gatas Damulag (rice with carabao’s milk), seasoned with some salt, paired with ripe mangoes / banana or something sweet like mango jam / guava jelly. Fruit with plain rice, but always with wam carabao’s milk.
Arroz a la Cubana also comes to mind - rice with fried lakatan banana, ground beef/pork and fried egg.
Thanks for all the info you’ve shared with us. Keep on writing…
December 12th, 2005 at 3:07 am
Hi Karen!
Very happy to discover this website and for two days in a row now have been exploring and enjoying it.
And yes, somebody in my family ate fruits with rice. I do now, too!
My (late) mother would eat her ripe guava, guyabano, mango (green and ripe), banana, with plain, boiled rice and bagoong or toyo! I used to laugh at her when she did that, but I guess, she did so to counter the asim of these fruits (except banana)! So I learned it from her to eat my banana with rice specially when I don’t feel like eating anything greasy (due to LBM or hyperacidity).