Title:
Hostaged for Food (Part B)
Date Created:
2021-03-17
Description:
Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is harvested unripe and hard but fully grown if it is to be baked. The rind is scorched till black and then scraped off. Beneath it is a tender crust within which is a soft, tender white “bread.” It has to be eaten immediately because within 24 hours it becomes “dry, harsh and choaky.” It is available 8 months of the year. The natives said it grew all over the Marianas Islands but Dampier had “never [heard] of it anywhere else.” Breadfruit (called RIMAS in Tagalog and KOLO in Bisayan) was not mentioned in records of Magellan. Instead jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophllus, nangka) was. Both fruits may have a common ancestor: Artocarpus camansi that grows all the way from New Guinea to the Spice Islands and to the Philippines. All three fruits remain valuably nutritious but they may need to rebrand themselves and create new products for competition in the current culinary trade.
Subjects:
Breadfruit Cooking (Breadfruit) Jackfruit Mariana Islands
Exhibition:
Dampier 1686
Source:
Photograph of breadfruit shot circa 1870 in Sri Lanka. By Charles T. Schowen. Public Domain. Wikimedia.commons.
Type:
Image;Still Image
Format:
image/jpeg
Source
Preferred Citation:
"Hostaged for Food (Part B)", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
Reference Link:
felicepstamaria.net/items/coll195.html
Rights
Rights:
Public domain
Standardized Rights:
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/