"Filipino ways with RICE"

Rice is the food of more than half the world, but Filipino idiosyncrasies about how rice is cooked and served, and what it is made into. Defines Filipino cuisine.

Filipino cuisine reserves the water used to wash rice (hugas bigas)  and uses it as a base for sinigang broth. This thickens the soup and retains vitamins that would otherwise wash away.

The traditional Filipino way of measuring water for cooking rice is to lightly place the tip of the middle finger on the surface of the washed rice (it should barely make a dent) and add water  up to the first joint. Scientist may insist that every finger is different and every rice variety requires a different volume of water to cook properly, but somehow, the method works, and traditional cook swear with it.

On the Filipino table. Rice is always eaten as a accompaniment to something else, usually a viand. The exemption to this is desserts and porridges, such as champorado. Rice is often flavored. It may be gently patted with block of salt (called tultul, duldul, disabog, or dokdok) to give the grains a delicately salty flavor; or it may have soup or sauce poured on top, an act known as hirhir, bahoc or labay. To create a dessert or porridge, liquid chocolate or coffee poured into the rice.

Rice is the principal ingredients in dishes such as bringhe and paella Valencia. Arroz caldo, literally “hot rice” is rice porridge flavored with ginger and chicken. Rice can be made into wine, such as tapuy of the cordillera the mountainous region of central Luzon.                                            

Trivia; Rice cooked in a woven frond is called "puso"  because it resembles the heart.