Kalinga black rice or ‘forbidden rice’ is one of the ‘ancient grains’. It is grown in the mountains, in dry land, without lots of water like the more common rice varieties. It is the rice variety closest to the wild rice grains.

The traditional way of cooking it is to add a cup of Kalinga black rice with 4 cups of regular rice and then cook like your regular rice.

In the cordilleras, a restaurant who is going for acclaim would try to server either black or red rice to their regular customers.