Based in Manila, Philippines, Dessert Comes First is a chronicle of the food-obsessed food writer, Lori Baltazar. This website is all about desserts, restaurants, coffee, and the pleasures of homebaking. Read more about me Champion Champorado
Wed, November 16th of 2005
7:45 pm
Here in the tropics where I live, the word ‘cold’ is relative. The coldest it could probably get (in Manila) is 25°C, and that may even be pushing it already. Still, it does get cooler during this time of year, and when it’s cold and raining outside, my thoughts turn to champorado.
Champorado is glutinous rice cooked with cocoa powder and sugar. Similar to a hot porridge and certainly more palatable than oatmeal, champorado is usually drizzled with fresh milk or condensed milk and sweetened to taste. Dried salted fish called tuyo, be it freshly fried or from the bottle is a salty-good mix-in. Eaten for breakfast or as a mid-afternoon snack, it’s a food that warms my stomach and heart.
Having been reared on instant “from the pack” champorado, I was terrified when I was assigned to make champorado for 50 people from scratch. This happened in culinary school for a breakfast service. Thankfully, all went well, and I was pleased that my first attempt “out of the box” was successful. I admit however, that I still prefer the taste of packaged champorado.
Surprisingly, there aren’t many instant champorado brands. White King is the most widely available, so you can imagine how excited I was with Antonio Pueo’s latest offering. Antonio Pueo is a commercial tsokolate (tablea) manufacturer. The company has a line of interesting cocoa-based products like instant churros with chocolate dip and a complete pack of tsokolate making accoutrements. The “made with real Spanish chocolate” tag is very visible on Antonio Pueo’s champorado box. Considering that all the come-on I needed especially since this was a tablea company, I promptly snapped one up.
Making champorado requires very little brain activity: you just dump in the contents of the box, add water, and stir away. In this case, the resulting aroma of the cooking chocolate is heady – more than enough to set mouths a-watering. The mixture starts out very thin and then transforms to a chowder-like texture thanks to the starch in the rice. Constant stirring and heat does a champorado well – it’s important not to rush the process so that the rice can cook all the way through, and the chocolate flavor deepens.
It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas…
Antonio Pueo Double Chocolate Champorado
P78.50
Available at all leading supermarkets
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I love champorado, although it’s only recently that I’ve come to appreciate the taste of tuyo in it.
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Comment by Eric — November 17, 2005 @ 6:46 am
i will be honest here… i have never tasted champurado. ;p
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Comment by meekerz — November 17, 2005 @ 3:00 pm
OMG!!!!!!!!! i’ll be home soon and i’ll be grabbing a few packs of those for sure
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Comment by darra — November 17, 2005 @ 3:27 pm
My husband loves champorado, so I always request visiting family and friends to bring us the White King ones — we used to live in Vancouver and are now in Singapore. Thanks for the info on Antonio Pueo. We will be home for Pasko and I will definitely be getting some to take back!
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Comment by Grace — November 29, 2005 @ 7:10 pm
Hey, for all you Champorado lovers out there, I suggest you give Family Recipes Champorado a try. It really is like home-made Champorado, and unlike any other brand in the market, this one is READY-TO-EAT! No need to cook on the stove, no need to add hot water! Simply heat in the microwave for 45 seconds and enjoy!
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Comment by Rics — May 2, 2006 @ 10:21 am
I find it most disturbing that for a self-professed “unabashed food writer”, you’ve never had a taste of home-made champorado. >_>0
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Comment by Ligaya — March 9, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
Hello! I am obsessed with this champorado brand, and was lucky enough to have a couple of boxes given to me as pasalubong a year ago. You’re so right – this stuff is freaking AWESOME. I hoarded my 4 boxes like gold, but it’s really hard to ration it when I ate it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. I haven’t had any luck getting any here in Washington DC or the neighboring areas, unfortunately.
It just so happens that some family members are leaving for the Philippines this November. I’d asked family back home to see if they can get me a couple (ok, maybe 10 or 12) boxes of this magical stuff, but they haven’t been able to find any. May I ask where you usually buy this brand? They haven’t had any luck and wanted to send me White King, but I said it was Pueo or Nothin’.
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Comment by Lorelei — November 13, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
I’m pregnant and I’m in the US right now. I’ve been longing to eat champorado and thought I couldnt have one here. Well, we found a filipino store and asked if they sell tablea and fortunately they do!
So i grabbed 8 of them and made champorado at once. Oh man! The taste was so good!
I havent tried eating it with tuyo though. Tha’s new. Actually I eat tuyo with my white porridge or lugaw. Maybe I’ll try this one as well, lets see how it will taste.
I just love champorado very much, the taste is awesome. You can have it anytime of the day.
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Comment by vanessa — April 1, 2008 @ 3:46 am
i think you should try white king champorado… it’s price-reasonably compare to Antonio Pueo and it really captures the authentic home-cooked goodness of traditional champorado in an instant…
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