Kids gain grains of wisdom from cooking rice

Kids just love tinkering in the kitchen and sticking their little fingers into whatever Mommy’s cooking. Probably the first thing mommies teach their inquisitive chef wannabes how to cook is ... yes, rice!

Cooking rice should be a piece of cake even for kids, but there are the priceless grains of wisdom they can gain to last them a lifetime.

In his latest book, Rice to the Occasion (available at Fully Booked and National Book Store or call 361-7491 to 98 local 811 to 838 for orders and inquiries), chef Myke “Tatung” Sarthou piques kids’ curiosity and creativity by sharing practical, no-fuss rice recipes for them to try at home in the hope of helping ingrain in their young minds the respect that our staple food deserves, because it is nature’s gift, and reconnecting them with the environment.

Now, if only today’s children would stop fiddling with their gadgets even for a while and learn to appreciate our farmers’ hard toil — all that sweat — that went into our daily rice — the harvesting, drying, and milling — before it’s put on our tables.

Cooking in general teaches kids how to work with their hands, molding them into creative individuals. Chef Tatung writes in his book, “Learning to cook was one of my fondest memories as a young boy. Cooking was not only fun but also an engaging activity that taught me how to work with my hands, and become methodical and intuitive at the same time. It taught me to follow directions and repeat what I was instructed to do. But it also developed creativity; the more I cooked, the more I understood the fundamentals and the freer I felt to cook without recipes.”

Chef Tatung enjoins parents to cook with their children. After learning to cook the perfect rice (sounds perfectly impossible, right?), kids can move on to more complicated recipes that also use rice as the main ingredient.

One of the first rice recipes he learned to cook, chef Tatung relates, was kakanin (rice cake). “It was difficult to prepare but engaging because it challenged me. It pushed me to not only master recipes but to become a craftsman as well, because kakanin is not just about the cooking but also about the tedious job of preparing, wrapping, and shaping food to achieve the perfect outcome. I also learned that it usually took more than one person to prepare the more intricate varieties of rice cakes.”

While your kids may not churn out the perfect rice cakes, cooking is the perfect time for family bonding. Yes, the more, the merrier (but hopefully not the messier)!

“More important, this cooking — more specifically, the recipes found in this book — allows children to immerse themselves in the heritage of their family and community, and develop values attuned to our culture, which is essential for self-identity and connectedness to their roots ...”

While exploring and savoring their roots, kids get the chance of a lifetime to rice and shine!

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Junk food ban in schools

The Department of Education  (DepEd) and the Quezon City government got high marks from health/environmental groups for issuing policies that would protect school children from foods and drinks containing high amounts of saturated fat, sugar or salt.

The EcoWaste Coalition praised Education Secretary Leonor Briones for promulgating DepEd Department Order 13, Series of 2017, which sets the “Policy and Guidelines on Healthy Food and Beverage Choices in Schools and in DepEd Offices.”

  The group also commended the Quezon City government for its Anti-Junk Food and Sugary Drinks Ordinance of 2017 that bans the sale and distribution of unhealthy food and drink within a 100-meter radius of private and public preparatory, elementary, and high schools in the city.

Thony Dizon, coordinator of EcoWaste Coalition’s Project Protect, remarks, “We laud Secretary Briones for issuing detailed guidelines aimed at promoting healthy eating habits, especially among our young learners, particularly by restricting the marketing, sale, and consumption of food and beverage products that are too fatty, too sweet or too salty in our schools.” 

He adds, “If effectively enforced, this latest policy issuance from DepEd will go a long way in curbing both malnutrition and obesity among our children, which can severely affect their growth and development, while promoting the regular intake of foods and drinks that can make them go, grow, and glow.”

The QC ordinance, which complements DepEd’s policy, can serve as a model that can be studied and replicated by other local government units.

School administrators, canteen owners, and vendors found violating the ordinance will be fined P1,000 for the first offense, P2,000 for the second offense, and P5,000 for the third offense, as well as have their business permit revoked. 

DepEd’s latest policy “establishes the guidelines to promote healthy diets and positive eating behaviors,” as well as “provide healthy eating environments to learners, teaching and non-teaching personnel.”

The guidelines, for instance, came up with a list of foods and beverages classified into the green, yellow, and red categories.  Those listed in the green category should always be available in school canteens.  Those classified as yellow should be served carefully.  And those categorized as red should not be found in the canteen menu.

 Examples of foods and drinks in the green category: unsweetened milk, safe and clean water, fresh buko water, rice, corn, whole wheat bread, cassava, boiled sweet potato, boiled saba, boiled peanuts, suman, puto, fish, shellfish, small shrimps, lean meats, chicken without skin, nuts, eggs, and fresh fruits in season.

 Examples of foods and drinks in the yellow category: 100-percent fresh fruit juices, fried rice, bread, biscuits, bananacue, camotecue, turon, maruya, pancakes, waffles, champorado, pancit, arroz caldo, sandwiches, processed foods (subject to evaluation of saturated or transfat and sodium content), stir-fried vegetables.       

Examples of foods and drinks in the red category: soft drinks, alcoholic drinks, sports water, sports drinks, flavored mineral water, energy drinks, sweetened water, powdered juice drinks, any products containing caffeine, any processed fruit/vegetable juice with added sugar of more than 20 grams or four teaspoons per serving, any jelly, ice crushes and slushies, any ice cream, ice drops and ice candies, cakes and slices, donuts, sweet biscuits and pastries, chocolates, hard/chewy candies, chewing gums, marshmallows, lollipops, yema, french fries, bicho-bicho, instant noodles, all types of heavily salted snacks such as chips or chichiria, chicharon, chicken skin, bacon, deep-fried foods including fish balls and kikiam, canned fruits in heavy syrup, sweetened fruits, deep-fried vegetables.

Making sure that our school children don’t end up as junk food junkies is certainly a healthy move.