Maw! When’s dinner?” I holler to her as my stomach grumbled in frustration. “I’m hungry! [Let’s] eat now!” In order to avoid upsetting the cook, I eat whatever she feeds her family. This cook does painstaking work to prepare each meal made with love and from the sweat of her brow. “Come and get it!” she replies.
This verbal stimulus causes the salivation response and we’d all come “running” to the table. Well, except Paw because he tends to do other compulsive chores around the house before eating with the family.
We are trained to eat together as a family unit. Each unit member had to assume the normal position and as it stands with Maw at the ‘head’ of the table and Paw to her right, with Brat and myself to his right and front, respectively. The Filipino culture is a matriarchal society, which allows the women free reign in decision-making especially around the house.
Most Filipino dishes are meaty flavored drowned in tasty sauce. We seldom eat fresh salad and vegetables because the logic of Maw is to have the meals well cooked. There are some Filipino dishes that are similar to Vietnamese and Chinese cooking, such as bitter melon and fried rice, respectively. I guess I grow tired of eating Filipino food and am already too familiar with the American continental variety.
All the food I seem to eat taste the same and bland, like tofu which I love. Anything too hot or spicy burns my tongue and mouth, including Indian food, which I could tolerate to a point. I’ve tried the exotic Ethiopian food, which is good to eat. However, it’s time for me to explore more tantalizing tastes out there.
Our eating habits have been the normal three course meals, which I do not understand since today’s nuclear family unit of being on the go and eating out has replaced the traditional farming household of working the fields by pa and kids while attending the cooking and indoor activities by ma and kids.
I often wonder why we need to eat in the first place. Eating is necessary to feed the metabolism of us warm-blooded mammals; while eating a well balance diet promotes a healthy human body. I wouldn’t miss a day without eating my favorites of all sorts, especially the kinds that would clog the arteries. I am not a picky eater.
Since we have been blessed with all this abundance in foodstuff, the idea of bullying ourselves from the pleasures of feeding our emotional appetites is simply denial. I should not be this selfish and should share my scout cookies I bought with my hard earned pennies.
My opinions on different cuisines are very limited and I do not offer any personal advice on which taste better from the other. Moreover, my sense of smell is limited and I cannot fully enjoy what more sensitive people experience when tasting broccoli or spinach. I happen to like both vegetables by the way.
I figured I’d save some of what’s left of my money by staying at home and personally do not cook. That’s because, like I said in my prior blog somewhere, eating tastes much better when prepared by someone else with a more discerning palate.
Besides, Maw cooks almost everyday and one doesn’t not argue with the cook. Maybe when and if I ever move from this house, I may actually cook what I like and lose the weight I’ve gained, which is understandingly from Maws cooking.
She knows it’s not her cooking that makes me a bit thick today, it’s my hearty appetite. Both Paw and I happen to have inherited this trait from Lola Loose, who originally came from Bicol, one of thousands of provinces in the Philippines. This means there are several thousands of dialects as well as the types of food cooked by people there. The island is too diverse.
This current arrangement does not help my evolving eating attitudes of avoiding any and everything the smells good from Maws kitchen. If I could stop eating altogether, I may have more time either to blog or to watch television. And yes, Shrimpsei, there is a television located near the dinner table.
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Sunday March 26, 2006 – 03:48pm (PST) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
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