Sunday breakfasts are quite special at home, where we eat the works. The works consisting of gralic fired rice, grilled pork belly, onion and tomato sidings and hot cholate eh! Yes, we have quite a heavy breakfast at home on Sundays and could go for more than an hour, usually until the animals at home start to get impatient for their victual.
But this post is not about breakfast (though it is my favorite meal of the day) nor about the grilled pork belly (which is grilled simply with salt and no other marinade). This is about the hot chocolate that comes with our breakfast.
Having hot chocolate never fails to remind me about the Noli Me Tangere, a novel written in Spanish by our national hero, Jose Rizal. I read this in high school and enjoyed it so much, especially with our analyses of the novel and the relevance of the novel with our time. Plus, I am a Rizalist at heart and he is simply my hero. Well, anyway, to get back to the novel, the Noli (as we call it), was written in the 1880s, a portrayal of the Philippines, the Filipinos and the Spanish occupation of the Philippines.
What about chocolate? A chapter in the novel talks about a parish priest serving hot chocolate to guests. Rizal puts it this way:
“Whenever these scandals reached the ears of Padre Salvi (the parish priest), he would smile, cross himself, and recite a paternoster. They called him a grafter, a hypocrite, a Carlist, and a miser: he merely smiled and recited more prayers. The alferez (town mayor) had a little anecdote which he always related to the occasional Spaniards who visited him:
“Are you going over to the convento to visit the sanctimonious rascal there, the little curate? Yes! Well, if he offers you chocolate which I doubt—but if he offers it remember this: if he calls to the servant and says, ‘Juan, make a cup of chocolate, eh!’ then stay without fear; but if he calls out, ‘Juan, make a cup of chocolate, ah!’ then take your hat and leave on a run.”
“What!” the startled visitor would ask, “does he poison people? Carambas!”
“No, man, not at all!”
“What then?”
“‘Chocolate, eh!’ means thick and rich, while ‘chocolate, ah!’ means watered and thin.”
But we are of the opinion that this was a slander on the part of the alferez, since the same story is told of many curates. At least, it may be a thing peculiar to the Order. “
Of course, our version of hot chocolate is always “tsokolate eh”!
The chocolate we use, of course, is not the overly processed and fine-powdered ones. Chocolate tablets or “tableya” is boiled with water until it melts, and then mixed with milk and sugar. In some cases, coconut milk is used instead of cow’s milk. Making tableya takes a long time. It starts with harvesting cacao pods, drying the seeds, roasting it, removing the seed coat, and grinding the beans with peanut to make a nutty and creamy chocolate. It is shaped into balls or flattened into tablets and dried.
I have found memories of making tableya. My grandmother has several cacao trees at her house. She would harvest the pods. Pop it often and let us, her grandchildren, eat the pulp in each seed. We can have as many as we want, as long a we return the seeds to her. She would gather the seeds and place them in a flat basket, and dry it for several weeks. She would patiently watch that it is exposed to the sun, transfering to another place as the sun shifts position. My cousins and me? We are always budgering her, wanting to know when she is going to grind them into tablets. I used to help grind the beans. Later on, when we had our own farm, my grandfather planted cacao seedlings. When they started to fruit, my sister and I made chocolate tableya just the way my grandmother did. Sadly, the trees got damaged by a fungal disease and we never made them anymore (Now my training is plant pathology, and I’m thinking of planting cacao once more).
These days we buy powdered chocolate from a local brand or whenever I go to Chinatown in Manila, I buy them from shop that has been making chocolate tableya since the 1930s.
To make “tsokalete eh”:
5 chocolate tableya
4 cups of water
Put water and tableya into a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer until tableya has melted. Check the thickness of the chocolate, not too thin nor too thick. If too thick, the chocolate granules can stuck on your throat and ruin your tsokolate eh” experience!
***
This is my contribution to the winter edition of Novel Food, hosted by Simona and Lisa.
***
A diet pill may help you lose weight.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
About Gay
This is so interesting, Gay. Recently, I have been reading about what you describe and your story made what I have learned very personal. I hope you will plant some cacao tree and in time harvest the pods.
What a wonderful post! I’m so happy you joined in our Novel Food event. I had not heard of that book before now; I love the excerpt, though.
The chocolate tableya sound similar to something I used to get in Grenada (in the Caribbean), and which a fellow blogger brought to me from Barbados recently. It’s a kind of log of chocolate that you mix with water (and milk and sugar) to make what Grenadians call “cocoa tea.”
Thanks again for taking part!
Hi Gay. I am sorry to contact you this way.
I am also a rookie blogger like you and my site is also very new.
I am very impressed with the way you are promoting your site with all these blog events. Please if you don’t mind, how do you get to find out these blog series?
Thank you very much.
Hi Lalaine, on the front page of my blog is the link for “Is My Blog Burning”. You’ll find a lot of blogging events over there. There is also the Lasang Pinoy blogging event. This December the theme is rice.
Gay,
Thank you very much!
Amazing post, Gay. The anecdote from the book is priceless — it reminds me of a saying in Greek that translates to “love the church, avoid the priests.” And the details of your family making and growing chocolate is, for this Alaskan, very exotic and very interesting. I hope you do start growing cacoa – I certainly would if I could!
Gay,
Do you mind if I ask you what part of the Philippines you are from?
I grew up in Tarlac which is so “city-like” that I never had the pleasure to see and experience things to “grow” around me!
Nice post by the way! Brought back memories…I remember having to potray Sisa in one of our highschool plays!
Hi Lalaine, I am based in Los Banos, Laguna and go home to my parents’ farm on weekends. That’s why we have lots of green things growing, plus my backgorund is plant pathology so I like to grow plants as well.
I never played Sisa, but she’s one of the more memorable characters in Philippine literature.
That’s really interesting (I’d never seen/heard of tableya before). Looks like a rich treat
Hi, I’m a Filipino away from home and would like to prepare tsokolate eh for breakfast this Valentine. Except I don’t think tableya is available here… You mentioned being able to substitute choco powder – umm, how much would be equivalent to 5 chocolate tableya?
Sorry if this is off-topic… but thanks in advance! ^^
Hi! I’m not too sure about the equivalent. Basically, tsokolate eh would be equivalent to what is “masarap/malasa/matsokolate” for you or you special version of hot chocolate. Also, it can mean that hindi mo tinipid ang tsokolate. Let me see what else it connotes, something that you yourself would drink?
Thank you for answering my question ^^
Arigatou… *bows*
Thanx for the info Gay! I’ve been having a steady supply of Kablon Farms products for the past months courtesy of my sis-in-law who frequents mindanao. It’s mostly the jams and marmalades though. I think i’ll ask for tablea next time! it’s nearing the cool months…perfect with hot chocolate!
How do I like my tsokolate?
My most favorite tablea moment is when I’m eating during breakfast. I place 2 rolls of suman on a bowl, put slices of sweet ripe mangoes beside the suman, sprinkle sugar on top and lastly pour down a cup of tsokolate on top.
It’s sinfully heavenly! Yum!
Hi gay,
i’d like my chocolate to be thick with milk..
Hi Gay, the scientist in the kitchen. It was nice chatting with you over at BeanHub. Wait ’til I have a chance to visit you at GenSan to taste your tsokolate! Bw. Regards to Flor Adrian.
410 shotgun hulls for sale
audio delta chants and songs
1950s hair grease pictures
artistic lettering for invitations sample photos
accurizing the 94 winchester
30 liquid grammes to milliliters
71 impala on 26 inches
amputee women no arms legs porn
25 ounce to teaspoon
arabic caligraphyfonts
aztec pyramid tattoos tenochtitlan
50 cal bmg ballistics
aluminum 1911 frames for sale
angelica panganiban txtflix com
09 spark plug gap chart
23isback release dates
axilas hombres
1 tbsp equals
alin hernandez desnuda
axle codes s10