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Amid rising rice prices, DTI chief hints at adjusting diet
(www.gmanetwork.com)
Filipino artists whose works were featured on our daily random thread covers.
Rice kasi is an irreplaceable part of the average pinoy diet. It's historically cheap, accessible, goes with everything, and gives you so much kcal with a single cup.
I can't see the nearby carinderia replacing rice and ulam with chicken and kamote fries or fish and chips or nilagang baka with corn+carrots, and I also don't expect construction workers having the energy to do what they do with a lean diet.
Most importantly, it lets the BBM administration off the hook with their promise of rice utopia.
Some other regions, lalo na sa bandang south, have a tradition of eating ground-up corn (apparently, corn grits) cooked in a similar manner to rice. It takes a bit of getting used to, but after that, it can be a substitute.
This is how it looks like when sold and this is how it looks like when cooked. It doesn't look that different from rice, if you're willing to look past the broken kernels and all that entails.
However, hindi siya uso sa ibang lugar and I don't think people would take to it easily. Thus, not many people would even bother distributing it, much less getting the facilities needed to make it in other areas. Also, do we even have enough corn for livestock feed and local consumption?