puso

Pusô or tamu, sometimes known in Philippine English as "hanging rice", is a Filipino rice cake made by boiling rice in a woven pouch of palm leaves. It is most commonly found in octahedral, diamond, or rectangular shapes, but it can also come in various other intricately woven complex forms. It is known under many different names throughout the Philippines with numerous variations, but it is usually associated with the street food cultures of the Visayan and Moro peoples.Pusô refers to the way of cooking and serving rice on woven leaves, and thus does not refer to a specific recipe. It can actually refer to many different ways of preparing rice, ranging from plain, to savory or sweet. Regardless, all of them are woven pouches where rice is poured inside and cooked by boiling. Pusô are differentiated from other leaf-wrapped Filipino dishes like suman, binalot, and pastil, in that the latter use leaves that are simply wrapped around the food and folded or tied. Pusô, in contrast, uses intricate woven leaves as the pouch.
Pusô is traditionally prepared as a way to pack rice for journeys and is eaten held in the hands while standing, usually paired with meat or seafood cooked on skewers (inihaw or satti). It is still eaten this way from street food peddlers (pungko-pungko). In seated dining, it is commonly cut into pieces and served on a plate in place of regular rice.Pusô were once culturally important among pre-Hispanic Filipinos as offerings to the diwata spirits and as an extension of the basic skill of weaving among women. It became linked to festivities since they were commonly served during religious events, especially the more complex woven variations. It is still used in rituals in some parts of the Philippines today, though the rituals themselves have been mostly Christianized. Similarly, it remained culturally important to Muslim Filipinos, where it became symbolic of the Hari Raya feast.
Pusô is related to similar dishes in other rice-farming Austronesian cultures, most notably the Indonesian ketupat, although the latter is restricted to diamond shapes and is woven differently. A very similar octahedron-shaped version called atupat was also found in pre-colonial Guam, before the ancient rice cultivation in the island was replaced by corn brought by the Spanish.

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