This was another IMBB of many options. So many noodle dishes, so little time!

For this month’s theme, Amy chose Use Your Noodle to make us think and improvise around a food article beloved the world over. I am already looking forward to reading the other entries during the round-up.

It is still cold even in this tropical country. There are nights when one wishes for a nice steaming bowl of something, anything to keep down the chill. Oh the possibilities one can think of! But then a hearty noodle soup was right up there on top of the list!

Although it wasn’t easy choosing my entry for the month, I knew I wanted something I haven’t had for sometime like mami (pronounced ‘mah-mee’). This is a noodle dish innovated by a migrant Chinese entrepreneur who started out very humbly in the late 1900s then was so successful he was able to build up a chain of eateries in Manila. In fact, the word mami is a combination of his name, Ma Mon Luk and the word for noodle - mi. Kirk over at mmm-yoso!!! has even had an encounter with his descendants in the US and writes about it in Asian Noodles - I Want My Mami. What Ma Mon Luk pioneered has since then become very popular and can now be found almost everywhere - from respectable restaurants, makeshift eateries and even as street food!

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Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are hardly a new phenomenon. Historical documents note that in 1600 Filipinos arrived in California, way before it was part of the United States. They were among the first agricultural workers or field hands in the mission areas. Today, like their contemporaries of centuries ago, most OFWs - whether manual labourers or salaried professionals - are well-liked by their employers because they are conscientious workers who will try to learn new skills to cope or just to be better at their jobs.

This versatility is also found in adapting to different tastes in food. Although there is a propensity for sweet-salty-sour dishes and to always look for rice, the Filipino palate can adapt well to any prevailing culinary conditions be it sushi, hamburgers, shawarma, sauerkraut or whatever is available. With stable work difficult to come by in the Philippines, it is also not rare to find many Filipinos of different vocations to transform into cooks in many ships and restaurants abroad, most especially in the Middle East. The father of a close friend was originally a skilled carpenter/house painter in the Philippines but became head cook in one of the Emirates in the 1980s. I have also heard of similar situations before. It is perhaps only now that the situation has changed since the food industry has become more specialised with culinary schools being established in most major cities worldwide.
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In one of my previous incarnations as a junior government bureaucrat, I was travelling all the time yet hardly saw the places that I went to. However, not having enough time to go around did not stop me from visiting the marketplace or the grocery just to have a feel of the daily life of the populace. I would also eat where locals go and sample their fare. If I only knew then that I would be maintaining a food blog! Sigh!

Among the places that has my heart (and stomach) captured is Rome. Whether in the office canteen, the trattorias or ristorantes, I was fascinated with the simplicity and freshness of the cuisine. Even as I was preoccupied with work, at the back of my mind I was trying to dissect what I was eating such that I could cook them myself. I’ve always been partial to red sauces for my pasta and in Rome I learnt of combinations that I wouldn’t have come up on my own. Returning home, I recreated some of the recipes which I now regularly cook. Following the same principles, I have also come up with my own recipes.
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