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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All throughout the world today, tomatoes are one of the most highly-consumed produce. This berry is indispensable in many Filipino recipes, one would think it an indigenous plant. What adds to the confusion is that some varieties, like the one in the picture above are called “native camatis“. Perhaps nativised but far from indigenous for our beloved camatis has come to us most probably by way of the long Pacific journey.

Let’s learn more about the tomato.

The plant is native to the Andes where the Aztecs domesticated it first with the name xitomatl. Now globally popular, the tomato was feared to be poisonous during its early migration to Europe. Although grown in gardens and called poma amoris, pomme d’amour (love apple), Paradice Appfel (apple of Paradise) and later on poma d’oro to the current Italian pomodoro (golden apple), it wasn’t until the 1700s that the Southern Europeans, particularly the Italians, found the tomato acceptable but only mainly for garnishing.
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Meet Salé, the ever-reliable herb. In this picture, it’s still a fledgling plant not mature enough for the kitchen. This was taken sometime back and I meant to post it in a few months with a complete discussion and pictures of the fully-grown plant but comments from my previous entry on tanglé made me realise I might have confused several if not a lot of readers.

For this blog’s purpose, the system of nomenclature is usually Capampangan /Tagalog /English (if applicable) /scientific name. Therefore, the herb in the picture is:

Salé / Tanglad / Lemongrass / Cymbopogon citratus syn. Andropogon citratus

Just to compare:
Tanglé / Alagaw / Fragrant premna / Premna odorata Blanco

Request from me to you: If you know the names of these plants in other languages, please write them down in the comments box.

I’ll be back in a day or so! Hopefully, we’ll discover more names.