The Breadfruit: A Super Fruit and So Much More
Third prize winner of the 2022 Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Award
Breadfruit (Source: Wikipedia)
Along with the other vendors, Ining, my sukî from Toboso, promised me a week ago that she would bring me kolo today, and she did. Of the half a sack of kolo that she brought to sell, I bought two. At P20 each, a price for her loyal customer, the two pieces of kolo made my eco-bag heavier by a few kilos that morning.
When I was kid, I remember my lola (grandmother) treating the family with a sweet delicacy made from kolo. Kolo, round-shaped and called breadfruit in English, originated from the islands in the South Pacific and its seeds must have reached the Philippine archipelago through the traders and colonizers of the past centuries. In other parts of the Philippines, it is called rimas. According to TIME magazine, breadfruit is a superfood, meaning, it is packed with vitamins and nutrients that are good for one’s health. The ones I bought from Ining were almost the size of a football. And beneath its yellow-green skin that’s full of prickles, it looks like a plain white bread that’s bland to the taste. It is, however, loaded with calcium, fiber, phosphorous, copper, potassium, and other nutrients.
The reason I asked Ining to bring me some kolo was a memory from childhood of enjoying kolo – cooked, sweetened and yummy. My grandmother, who had long passed, introduced me to breadfruit as a dessert, and I want to relish that memory again – through my palate.
The recipe for sweetened kolo is simple: it is skinned and the good parts are cut into bite-sizes, washed and soaked in water for a few minutes, moved into a pan, bathed in coconut milk and brown sugar, and carefully stirred with a few drops of vanilla until it dries up and softens. Compared to more complicated recipes that churn out less nutritional desserts, this recipe is easy to do, requires cheap ingredients, but promises a lot of enjoyment and health benefits.
My cooked kolo, now golden brown and sticky and creamy from the coconut milk, is warm and ready to eat. I transfer a few chunks into a plate, fork one and take a bite. Its texture is pulpy with the sweet syrup now flooding my palate alongside the dancing grains of the brown sugar. As the delicacy’s fragrance fills the air, so do my memories of the days when my grandmother used to prepare this dish herself. The breadfruit, grown and harvested from the northern mountains of Negros island, found its way into my lola’s old kitchen and was transformed into a beloved delicacy whose aroma, texture, and sweetness helped me celebrate my beloved grandmother.
According to the Department of Agriculture, kolo, or rimas, can be cultivated as “a staple crop which can help alleviate poverty and malnutrition.” Breadfruit can also be an alternative to rice. But compared to rice, breadfruit has a moderate glycemic index, which means it is good for diabetics if cooked and eaten plainly. It is so versatile that it can be used to make pastillas, chips, crackers, and even ice cream.
“And as I finish the last chunks of the sweetened kolo on my plate, each bite is a conversation about my childhood memories with my lola.”
In the Hawaiian culture, a breadfruit tree, a symbolic tree of life, is planted and gifted to a newborn. Well, my lola never gifted me a breadfruit tree but through its fruit, she showed me her unconditional love and affection like all our grandparents did for us when we were young. Although our grandparents may no longer be around to once again make us enjoy their homegrown recipes, we can always revisit those fun memories through the dishes they once prepared for us.
The Breadfruit tree (Source: Wikipedia)
The recipe that transforms a raw breadfruit into a sweet delicacy is very simple, and there are a lot of dishes from our childhood that are easy to prepare. But when these dishes are once again enjoyed, they become conversations with our past, celebrating the people whose hands prepared them for us to enjoy.
And as I finish the last chunks of the sweetened kolo on my plate, each bite is a conversation about my childhood memories with my lola. But with these mouthfuls of kolo, I also benefit from all those nutrients. And if I enjoy a cupful, my potassium intake is equivalent to three bananas.
Breadfruit has other names: ukwa, ulu, panapén or pana in other countries, and kolo, kolu or rimas, locally. Its scientific name of Artocarpus altilis may be difficult to pronounce, but all we need to remember is that it is not just a fruit, it is a superfruit.
Alfonso Delgado is based in Victorias City, Negros Occidental. He is a CPA with accounting and assurance experience in the Philippines and South Korea. He is also a blogger and contributes to Korea.net, the Culture and Information Service of Korea.
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