Just A Thought: Food for the Soul

Food for the Soul

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Cooking oil. Cloves of garlic. Red Onions. Butter. A dash of salt. Pepper. Minced ham. Sliced mushrooms. All-purpose cream. Egg. Penne Pasta. Quick dip to taste. If you cook, you'd have the slightest idea what this dish is.

Creamy Carbonara. Nothing more, nothing less. It's a plate of milky goodness asking to be eaten by 10 wonderful people in my house. With such a big family, all recipes need not be measured cause this takes a lot of time, a lot of energy, and a hell lot of Math to figure out what 3/4 + 3/4 is. What is it anyway? haha. Anyway, food, yes, what to say? what to say? ahh, my love-hate relationship with it I guess. Here goes...

I have always had this battle with food. I mean I love it (who doesn't?), but don't you just find it annoying when it starts to pile up as calories? Calories that you have to burn and spend so much energy to get rid off. The amount of intake you do is a whole lot easier than the amount of time you spend trying to take it all off. Would you agree if I say that it's easy to get fat but mega hard to lose it all off?

What am I saying?

I haven't really resolved my issues with food until now. I've been spending so much time inside the kitchen that it has already become a part of me for the past two months. I came across with my love for cooking by accident, I guess. Brought about by grief. I know? Too far out right? You know that feeling when you miss that dear person in your life that you just want him/her back? Even for just a quick moment? Food somewhat gave me that access to go about my grief not with ease but with a graceful transition.

I lost my 2nd mom who took care of me and used to cook such good food since I was a kid. When it happened everything went with her. It's like food never tasted the same without her. People come into your life giving you so much lessons and yet you don't realize it until they pass. Tita Sabel has been with our family for 34 years. For me, her soul purpose was to love unconditionally through her magic hands inside the kitchen. Her passing brought me so much pain but also that feeling of relief and happiness that she no longer feels the pain of this earthly experience.

I remembered when my Tita once said: "It's easy to cook you just have to put the most important ingredient," it's not something visible but felt, "Love is the whole idea of cooking." Cheesy, but right now when I look back I guess what she really meant was that food is an expression that many people would easily understand. It crosses cultures and social crossroads. I believe that one day it might easily solve conflicts and maybe wars. Simplicity would always solve complexity wouldn't it?

I never knew I could cook. After days of her passing, something pulled me towards the kitchen and told me that something, something can happen here. At first they were just fried eggs and pancakes, then the boiling, mixing, creating something from nothing just came magically to me. I honestly don't know what i'm doing sometimes, I just put everything in a pan or a pot, stir it a little and sometimes even forgetting the most important ingredients in cooking---the famous couple, Mr. Salt and Mr, Pepper.

Fried eggs became beef stew, italian dishes, baked herb chicken, ribs, roasted chicken, and a whole lot more. It feels like every time i'm in front of that stove the Big Bang Theory is about to happen all over again. I mean something delicious can start from raw produce.

Food is, GOOD! HOORAH! It took a lot of years for me to really discover this. After so much deprivation of it's goodness I've come to love it. It's true that you'll eventually learn to love your worst enemy when you get the hang of it or you get to know it better and understand it truly.Eating to satisfy your cravings and to just be happy about eating itself is in my opinion one of the joys of life. And I tell you this, you can never go wrong about falling in love with food over and over again. Right? Your soul will tell you this over and over no matter how hard you try to dismiss it. No matter how much you deprive yourself of this man's best invention, Food is good.

Today I cook to eat, to share, and yes for the love of eating and cooking. I gained not a few pounds but a whole lot, but I am contented and very confident to say that YES it is JOYFUL to love food and the whole experience of preparing it.

"Food is our common ground, a universal experience." ~James Beard

Just A Thought

Food for the Soul

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