Champorado~The Breakfast of CHAMPions (get it?! ;)

Okay, while I'm on a roll and inspired, I might as well post again in less than 24 hours of my inaugural post...

So, this morning I had a yearning to go out for breakfast with my faves (aka: Alex, Elena & Katrina), but after lying in bed and contemplating the "to do" list for today, and seeing how busy the Girlies were with play and congested with colds, and how opposed to getting up early on Sunday Alex was, I decided that I didn't need to fulfull my want of going out for breakfast.  Instead, I remembered that my friend has more recently been hounding me for the recipe of "Chocolate Rice" as his non-Filipinoness refers to it as.  And as luck would have it, Alex also mentioned wanting Champorado for breakfast, and we had it in the house, so win win for all!  Champorado, as its known in Filipino circles, is basically a sweet bowl of deliciousness often eaten at a lovely morning breakfast.  It's the Filipino culture's version of chocolate porridge or even breakfast oatmeal that has its roots in the galleon trade made between Mexico & the Philippines back in the day (thanks, Wikipedia!), but I wonder if it also has some roots with the Spanish colonization of the Philippines long ago as well.  In any case, this is our version of deliciousness.  And actually, to make things more interesting and Filipino, it's often accompanied by its savory counterpart of salted fish!  Some of you may be yacking at the thought of pairing chocolate rice with salted fish, but it's to die for, I promise.  It's the Filipino palate of pairing sweet & savory, and it's a delectable combo.  Unfortunately, I didn't have salted fish (some versions aka "tuyo" or "danggit"), but I did have some instant champorado mix in the pantry.  I actually prefer the "homemade" version to the mix, but I didn't have the sweet sticky rice it usually calls for, and I'm not a snob that I would shy away from ready-made products, so instant champorado mix it was.  Okay, because my non-Filipino husband's palate for Filipino food is still developing (even after all these years together...), he always puts his stamp on such dishes, so instead of the traditional swirl of evaporated milk I would stream into a bowl of champorado, he opted to swirl a touch of Vanilla Silk Light soymilk & decorate it with whipped cream...blasphemous to some I'm sure, but whatever works I say...He'll eventually learn how to eat it the "right" way, since my Filipino family is always demonstrating to guests on how to eat this and that the "right" way!  Til then, happy eating...nom nom nom...

You can find instant champorado mix at any local Filipino food store.  You'll also be able to find sweet sticky rice there as well if you want to try your hand at making it homemade.  Email me @ madonna.sr77@gmail.com if you need help locating a Filipino food store in the Chicagoland area.

And here's a link to a homemade champorado recipe:

http://www.food.com/recipe/champorado-chocolate-rice-pudding-132659

Enjoy!