Chocolate Rice

Robert Cabamalan

Chocolate rice is a breakfast food prepared, more often than not, by my grandmother when the whole family decides to get together. After a while of looking, it is, in fact, a rice pudding. My grandmother, of Asian descent calls it Sempriado, which I guess is "chocolate rice" or "rice pudding" in Tagalog.

A couple of my aunts know how to make it, though they add their own spin to it. Every time my grandmother makes it, it tastes much better than when my other relatives attempt to make it.

As far back as I can remember, roughly thirteen years ago, my grandmother has always made chocolate rice as the family breakfast food every time I see her. But now, my grandmother has reached the age of eighty and her memory has started to fade. So, we leave it up to my Aunt Betty and Aunt Rosa to make it.

My Aunt Rosa makes it somewhat sweeter than my grandmother and Aunt Betty and usually only makes one or two pots of it. Aunt Betty, on the other hand, has the recipe closer to my grandmother and makes pots upon pots of it. I think the most she's made is at least six pots. With all of our cousins and relatives there, it was all downed pretty quickly, with my brother and myself taking roughly a pot and a half to ourselves. It's astonishing that we aren't fat.

The recipe for chocolate rice has been a part of my family's traditional breakfast and probably will remain that way. I make it for myself on occasions when I have the ingredients and a stove available to me.