Muñoz tries to have ‘Biko ng Mundo’ listed in Guinness
By CARLO MARQUEZ JR.
TODAY Corrspondent
MUÑOZ SCIENCE CITY, Nueva Ecija - Local residents Thursday partook in the 2.54-ton “Biko ng Mundo” (Rice Cake of the World), Nueva Ecija’s attempt to enlist on the Guinness Book of World Records rice- cake category.
Biko is a rice-based delicacy boiled with coconut milk and brown sugar, and garnished with coconut nuggets locally known as latik on top.
“Biko ng Mundo” took center stage in the celebration of the fourth anniversary of the charter of this science city. Muñoz, an erstwhile first class Nueva Ecija town with 470,000 rice-farming residents, became a city on December 9, 2000 in a plebiscite that ratified Republic Act 8977. It is the second science city in Asia with Chukuba in Japan as the first.
It is also Japan that listed the largest rice cake in the Guinness, weighing about 2.09 tons. Now, as if trying to be consistent in aligning with Japan in terms of fame, Muñoz folk produced the bigger rice cake.
In April, the Philippine Carabao Center also produced a giant white carabao milk cheese, or kesong puti, also in celebrating the center’s founding anniversary. There is no report to date whether kesong puti landed in the Guinness’s pages, though.
Some 3,000 women started to cook the biko the other night, distributing the work among women in 37 villages here and mounted it on a 10-wheeler truck that led a cultural parade that depicted various forms of rice-farming activities Thursday morning.
Muñoz Mayor Nestor Alvarez said his townsfolk wanted to live up to the impression the city already created as the first science city in the country.
“We also would like to show to the world that we are on a par with more developed countries like Japan even in terms of promoting rice consciousness, especially in this year’s celebration of the International Year of Rice.”
Muñoz maintains its record as the top rice-producing area in Nueva Ecija, the so-called rice granary of the Philippines, added Alvarez.
The “Biko ng Mundo” weighted 2,540 kilograms (kg). What made it different is that it was installed like mosaic.
“It also stands as a symbol of unity and cooperation among the Muñoz people,” Alvarez said.
Members of the Samahang Kababaihan ng Muñoz prepared the biko based on the recipe provided by Local Government Nutrition Office and the Philippine Rice Research Institute. The cooking proportion was 2.5 kg of glutinous rice with three coconuts and three kg of brown sugar. Each village produced a uniform average of five to 5.2 kg of biko with an approximate mass weight of 2,250 kg.
The preparation, estimated to cost about P127,000, involved 1,200 kg of malagkit, 960 kg of brown sugar and 2,600 coconuts.
The “Biko ng Mundo” contains Vitamin E and B and about 74 percent of carbohydrates, which the average work-oriented Filipino needed.
Editha Burgos, of the Philippine Home Economic Association, said “for every 100 grams of biko, one gets about 252 calories—58.7 grams of carbohydrates, 12 milligrams of calcium and 35 milligrams of phosphorous.”
It is also an addition to the 15 existing rice festivals in the country as recorded by the book “Beyond Rice” published by the Centro Escolar University.
Alvarez said, the “Biko ng Mundo” will, from now on, be held each year that the city celebrates its anniversary.