Second of two parts

How did this tradition of harvesting unripe rice begin? Could it have been an experiment during the early period of agriculture? Traipsing along the fields one stormy day in early November got me thinking it could have been a similar time centuries ago when the rice plants had to be saved from wrathful weather way before harvest season.

The town of Santa Rita, Pampanga is known for its turrones de casoy, sans rival and other sweets but towards the end of the year, starting in November, everything is eclipsed as the town anticipates the Christmas season with the sweet smell of duman in the air. A delicacy once known only to a few has now caught a lot of attention during the Duman Festival, partly to revive a vanishing tradition and partly to celebrate life after devastation.

Duman is a seasonal rice cereal still produced the old way in our town. This may have been in existence in pre-Hispanic Capampangan society since duman was already mentioned by Fray Diego Bergaño – “El grano del arroz tierno cerca de madurar” – in Vocabulario de la Lengua Pampanga originally published in the 1700s. It could have happened other towns produced duman in the olden days but Sta. Rita’s is what has endured.
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We were told to value every grain. Every single precious one was handled with reverence. We could not indulge in it for it was no ordinary cereal. Duman, the delight of my childhood, my current unfolding mystery. Little did I know that it would take me home and send me searching the world for clues to the past - of relations forged across the seas. Or were there?

My personal pledge last year to learn how duman gets to the table from the field was fortunately accomplished. Quite fortuitous too that for this year’s Duman Festival, Arti Sta. Rita held an exhibit to better understand how duman is made. It took several weekends for me, Terence and Herbert, two of Arti Sta. Rita’s multi-talented members, to get the right pictures of lacatan malutu (red-husked glutinous rice), the specific variety from which duman is made. With our literal “field trips” we realised how special these plants are. There was a very precise method sustaining this tradition.
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On Friday afternoon, I went home looking almost like Cinderella before her fairy godmother’s arrival. I was carrying a clay pot, a cooking spoon, two semi-burnt bamboo tubes, two bags and soot on my dress. It was also drizzling and I had no umbrella. That most likely completed my forlorn look.

But forlorn I was not! I just had a wonderful day! Who wouldn’t if one got to sample food rarely eaten? I had a taste of something from the groaning tables prepared by public elementary and high school teachers from all the towns of Pampanga. This was for the celebration of the 434th Aldo Ning Kapampangan (Pampanga Day) with the theme Kapampangan: King Sunis, Terak, Teatru, at Apag king Dulang (In Songs, Dance, Theatre, and Food).

Never before have I seen so much Kapampangan specialties in one place. The products of each town were prominently displayed - eggs from Minalin, turrones de casoy and sans rival from Sta. Rita, puto seco from Baculud (Bacolor), pure carabao’s milk pastillas de leche from Magalang, burung asan from Candaba - name it, it was there!
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