Oh no no no! I will not track this meme although what Ana did to the Cookbook Meme and Nicky to the Cook Next Door meme appeals to my obsessive-compulsive tendencies. But between you and me, I just had to know how this Childhood Food Memories meme started. Fortunately, I didn’t have to trace it too far up and tracing is as far as I’ll go.

And how about that, Childhood Food Memories was originally a generic The Five Things I Miss From My Childhood meme “unleashed” by one Unrepentant Individual - Brad - because he was tired of… memes! He’s been told of his “plague’s” evolution and he seems to get a kick out of it based on his reaction “[throws head back] MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”

When it got to Beauty Joy Food, Amy decided to turn it into a Childhood Food Memories meme. In a twist, Cathy reverted to the original as soon as it got to her (My) Little Kitchen.

I’ve been tagged twice, by Nupur and Joey, almost a month apart. I should get on with it. Two non-food memes I’ve been tagged with are on my other blog. I’ll get on to the next one and a few Lasang Pinoy articles soon, hopefully.

Now my reply…
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I’ve always thought that the food blogging community is close-knit. Now that it’s gotten so large, I suppose getting-to-know-you memes are in order. A meme, by the way, was a concept used in genetics and the transmission of characteristics. Someone defined it later on as the spread of ideas that evolve and mutate. But now, as applied to blogs, some information which is replicated then passed on. That of course is a very simplified explanation.

This time around, I’ve been tagged by Ting-Aling (doesn’t that name ring a bell?) with a meme started by Nicky and Oliver of that delightful food blog Delicious:Days. See how they have tracked this meme and trace your (meme) genealogy, too.

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?

It was in kindergarten - so that makes me about 6-years-old - when I was taught to cook inangit, which is plain fried rice. I remember wanting to get involved in cooking so my mother “assigned” me something to do. Baking came much later, I was perhaps eight at the time I experimented with angel food cakes.
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Perhaps it’s now too late to back out of this blog. I realised that what I want to accomplish entails a lot of archival and field research, not to mention some testing of recipes from long ago, perhaps not cooked for at least a generation. However, the more I think about it, the more excited I get. This not only feels like a trip down gastronomy lane but an anthropological study as well. I have already had a few eureka moments in the last few days.

For the past week or so, I have been asking my mother for information about food that I have not heard of for sometime. In her usual lucid and detailed explanation, Mom would describe ingredients, procedures and implements that are traditionally used in Kapampangan cooking. Sometimes, a few minutes of our conversation would be worth at least three blog entries. Right now, I have already made a list of field trips that I need to go to, farms and produce that I need to photograph, people I have to interview and so on and so forth. In a way, just planning the articles has made me more aware of my roots. Just the other day, even all by myself, I had a lesson in etymology.
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