Desiree made suman. We would call this sticky rice in my hometown of East Helena, Montana.
Watching Desiree prepare food
fascinates me. Her processes never strike me as mechanical. I’m taken, instead,
by the grace of her motions—the liquid certainty of every gesture, the
purposeful gathering together of everything needed, the quiet flash of required
cookware and utensils, the daylighting of strange ingredients from shelves I
rarely access.
This is a culinary ballet.
Typically, the rice is encased in a
roll fashioned from either banana or coconut leaves before steaming or boiling.
Following this Filipino tradition, Desiree wrapped the rice in banana leaves,
pleating the rice into packets of her own design. She will be boiling this
batch of suman. The pyramid-ish packets withstand the rigors of boiling better.
Me: I’m in favor of anything built
into the shape of a pyramid. And I never tire of watching Desiree at work.
—Mitchell Hegman
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