Food Memories from Childhood as the theme for Lasang Pinoy 10 is most fitting for me. I always say that what I know about cooking has much of its foundations in my childhood. My appreciation for the intrinsic values of traditional cooking methods was born from that period and is in no small measure learnt from my grandmother. Today, 31 May 2006 is her 20th death anniversary. She may have been gone for two decades, almost two-thirds of my life but the seeds that she planted have grown and bloomed. After all, I am writing about it, am I not?

We had many rules about cooking and had as many about eating. Aside from table etiquette, there were rules about serving food, specific platters or bowls were used for corresponding viands. There were many unspoken rules such as what we ate for specific meals and how many times a week we were supposed to have meat.

Since my grandfather had a botica (pharmacy) until after the Second World War, we have a relatively health-conscious family. My grandmother was strict about having vegetables and fruits at every meal. Fish was preferable over meat. Chicken was next while pork and beef were served twice or thrice a week at most.

We never felt meat-deprived because it was accessible to us anytime - stored raw in the freezer, or cooked in clay pots. Of course if the aroma of the cooked meat was ‘calling’ us and it was irresistible, we could always ask for a bite but no more.

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I was shocked that they were shocked. What gave them the idea? or what didn’t give them the idea that I can cook? Hmmm…

Today, 22 May is the feast day of our town’s patron, Santa Rita de Cascia. We had been cooking vats and large pots of food since Saturday because one of my aunties and half a tribe of hungry friends descended on us yesterday, Sunday - kaduspirasan (on the eve) - to avoid the fiesta traffic and to go to a feast without being absent from work, I suppose.

A few hours ago, some of my mother’s friends came over after work. They realised I was the one in the kitchen cooking since they were in the adjacent dining room. They probably thought I was just puttering around boiling some water and reheating the food because when they saw me wrestling a vat of bringhe, they were astounded at how I was really the one cooking!!?!?!? They were flabbergasted.

Well, I WAS flabbergasted that they were especially after I overheard one of them say she thought all I did was bury my nose in books when I was off at that posh university on the hill. Hmmm… what does one have to do with the other? And of course I’m bristling at the implication.

I really don’t know where people get their ideas about me. I never pretended to be a spoilt, pampered princess who has never had soot on her dress. The funny thing is, this is perhaps the nth time this has happened.

I wonder what they’ll say when they see I’m quite adept at slaughtering and plucking a chicken, or even decapitating and skinning frogs. Hehehe!

P.S. The above is to keep the blog current. I’ll still publish my backlog posts. Please check backwards every few days or so. Thanks for the patience!