SOME FILIPINO FOODS. 397 
analyzed. The details of the process of manufacture may differ 
slightly in different establishments, but the essentials are the 
same. 
Bihon.—This product is made from milled rice and resembles 
macaroni. The rice is first washed and then soaked overnight 
in water, ground between millstones to a finely divided liquid 
suspension, and run into linen bags or old flour sacks. (Plate 
Ill, fig. 2.) After standing about twenty-four hours, much of 
the water drains from the sacks, the contents become firmer, and 
shrink about 25 per cent in volume. The rice is then kneaded 
by hand, or pounded in a wooden mortar with wooden hammers 
until homogeneous, and then patted into balls which are boiled 
in water for about one hour. They are then pressed through 
round holes in the, bottom of a metallic box, thus producing 
strings which are about three times as thick as vermicelli. 
(Plate IV fig. 1.) These are again boiled for about an hour 
and then laid on bamboo frames, in flat boxes 15 or 20 centi- 
meters square, and placed in the sun to dry. A day is sufficient 
for drying, after which they are ready for market. 
Misua.—This food product resembles vermicelli and is made 
from wheat flour. The dough, made by mixing salt water and 
flour, is rolled into small ropes and then stretched into long 
thin strings which are hung in the sun to dry. A flour imported 
from China and also made locally from the sweet potato (Ipomoea 
batatas Poir.), locally known as camote, is often used on the 
mixing boards when the dough is kneaded but is not incorpo- 
rated in the mixture to any great extent. (Plate IV, fig. 2, and 
Plate V, fig. 1.) 
Mique.—tThis product is made from wheat flour in much the 
same manner as misua. The dough is made with saline water 
to which a small quantity of alkali is added, principally for the 
purpose of making the food a golden yellow. The alkali is 
usually obtained by leaching wood ashes or the ashes of tobacco 
stems, and the solution is used for mixing the dough. The 
dough is cut into strings about 20 centimeters long, boiled for 
two or three hours, and dried in the sun. (Plate IV, fig. 2, 
and Plate V, fig. 1.) 
Analyses of these three foods are given in the following table, 
together with analyses of macaroni, vermicelli, rice, and wheat 1 
for purposes of comparison. 
*Leach, Food Inspection and Analysis. New York (1905), 212 and 
265. 
