Leave the Gloomy Weather Behind

What can be more comforting than having a bowl of steaming champorado on a rainy morning?

Tsampurado (Spanish: champurrado) is a sweet chocolate rice porridge in Filipino cuisine. 

It is traditionally made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder, 

giving it a distinctly brown color and usually with milk and sugar to make it taste sweeter. 

It can be served hot or cold and with milk and sugar to taste. 

It is served usually at breakfast and sometimes together with salty dried fish locally known as tuyo.

Its history can be traced back from Mexico. 

During the galleon trade between Mexico and the Philippines, there were Mexican traders, slaves etc. 

who stayed in the Philippines and with them the knowledge of making tsampurado 

(this is the same reason why there is Tuba in Mexico). But through the years, the recipe changed; 

Filipinos eventually found ways to make the Mexican champurrado a Filipino tsampurado by adding rice.

This chocolate porridge brings back fond memories of my childhood. When I was a kid I would curl up on my bed and pull my blanket over my head because I didn’t want to get up for school during the rainy days. My Mama would bribe me with a sweet and creamy champorado for breakfast. I always love it with little sugar but lots of powdered milk (instead of evaporated cream). I remember when I get home from school I would still eat champorado for snacks but this time it’s chilled.

I woke up this morning to the sound of raindrops trickling down the window and I suddenly craved for a bowl of hearty champorado to warm my stomach. Since I am away from home and I don’t have the time to cook for my own, my J and I drove to Max’s Magallanes to have breakfast. For P65 only I enjoyed an incredibly rich and creamy Triple Chocolate Champorado. (You may opt to add P15 for two pieces of gourmet tuyo. It’s available from 7 am to 10 am only.)

What’s your favorite food on a rainy day? Share it here.