Making suman

• How to make suman
• 2 cups of malagkit (sticky or sweet) rice
• a can of coconut milk
• fresh ginger or maybe anise seeds or anise extract
• sugar

Directions 

1. Cook malagkit just like you cook rice in your rice cooker but instead of using water, use coconut milk - about two-thirds of the can, when cooking malagkit, you have to use a little bit less of liquid than cooking regular rice.
2. we don't use ginger.. we use langka///
3. If you don't have ginger, add a tablespoon or two of anise extract or if you have the seeds, a sprinkle will do.
4. Once the rice is cooked, you can wrap them in the banana leaves (or foil) like you wrap lumpia.
5. Take about two tablespoonsful of the rice, put them on top of your banana leaf sheet that you have cut into square pieces about 6 inches by 6 inches or so, then roll to make a log, then twist both ends and tuck under the log.
6. Note: in order for your banana leaf not to tear, you have to run the leaf over a flame.
7. You also need to wipe the leaf with a piece of damp cloth.
8. Place the rice on top of the darker side of the leaf (this side doesn't have that whitish powdery stuff that covers the underside of the banana leaf).
9. Now, after you finished wrapping your rice, put them in a casserole or a large sauce pan, then boil the hell out of it, covered, again using coconut milk just enough to cover your pile (use the remaining coconut milkdiluted with water).
10. I remember my mother used to cook the wrapped malagkit overnight but i suppose you can finish this in one hour just how i did the batch above - or until the liquid evaporates.
11. Serve rolled in sugar or as a side dish for ripe manila mangoes.

Laguna : Where it Started?

The Province of Laguna was named after Laguna de Bay, the body of water that forms its northern boundary. Laguna de Bay, in turn, was named after the town of Bay (Laguna de Bay is Spanish which means "Lake of Bay"), the first provincial capital. Captain Juan de Salcedo with a band of one hundred Spanish-Mexican soldiers and many Bisayan allies conquered the province and its surrounding regions for Spain in 1571. Seven years later, two Franciscan friars started the work of Christianisation.


In 1577, the Franciscan missionaries arrived in Manila, and in 1578 they started evangelizing Laguna, Morong (now Rizal), Tayabas (now Quezon) and the Bicol Peninsula. Juan de Plasencia and Diego de Oropesa were the earliest Franciscans sent to these places. From 1580, the towns of Bay, Caliraya, Majayjay, Nagcarlán, Liliw, Pila, Santa Cruz, Lumban, Pángil and Siniloan were founded. In 1678, Fray Hernando Cabrera founded San Pablo de los Montes (now San Pablo City) and built a wooden church and convent considered as the best and finest in the province.


In 1670, delimitation of borders were made between Lucban, Majayjay and Cavite. The populous town at that time was Bay, the capital of the province until 1688, when the seat of the provincial government was moved to Pagsanján, and later in 1858, to Santa Cruz. In 1754, the Province of Laguna and Tayabas were divided, with the Malinao River separating the towns of Majayjay and Lucbán.

The province became a bloody battle ground for the Chinese during the two instances that they rose in revolt against Spain. In 1603s, the Chinese made their last stand in the mountains of San Pablo, and in 1639, they fortified themselves in the highlands of Cavinti and Lumban, surrendering in Pagsanjan a year later.


The natives of Laguna proved loyal to the Spanish crown during the British invasion (1762–1764) when thousands rallied to its defense. When a detachment of British troops under Captain Thomas Backhouse entered the province in search of the silver cargo of the galleon Filipino, Francisco de San Juan of Pagsanján led a band of volunteers that fought them in several engagements in and around the town which was then the provincial capital (1688–1858). Backhouse plundered the town and burned its newly reconstructed church but San Juan succeeded in escaping with the precious hoard to Pampanga where the treasure greatly bolstered the defense effort of Simón de Anda, leader of the resistance movement. For his heroism, San Juan was made a brigade commander and alcalde mayor of Tayabas (now Quezon) province.

The people's loyalty gradually degenerated into bitter hostility. Grave abuses by the colonizers, especially those of the clergy, caused the resentment of the natives to be fanned into a rising flood of insurrection. In 1840 for instance, religious intolerance led the people of Majayjay, Nagcarlan, Bay, and Biñan to join the revolt of Hermano Pule (Apolinario de la Cruz) of Lucban, Tayabas.
Laguna was also exposed to the aspirations of its most famous son, Dr. José Rizal, who was born in Calamba City. The persecution of the Rizal family, along with their fellow landowners toward the end of the century further aggravated the situation. In 1896, thousands of inhabitants, especially of Bay, Los Baños, Nagcarlan, Magdalena, Santa Cruz, and Pagsanjan had joined the revolutionary Katipunan.