Foodhuntress: What In the World Does She Eat?

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are. - Brillat- Savarin

Maybe it comes with age (God, I’m turning thirty this year), but these days I wake up earlier way before the sun is up, jog around the community, then drive with my sister to work. She drops me off near the train station while she reports at the air base.

Last night when I hauled all 8 kilos of clean laundry upstairs my sister did recognize that I have lost some weight. Wow. I love my life. I share a pad with my sister who lives next door to my own unit, because we had decided to have my room rented out. Talk about passive income! But I am a little worried when my brother-in- law, her husband, comes and stays with us for a few days some time soon. I might go back temporarily to our old apartment.

Ok, comes change in my waking time and my diet. No, I am not shedding off pounds for the summer but I just woke up to the realization that my usual food – the big breakfast of fried rice and eggs, and three giant meals a day make me feel drowsy and… huge. Suddenly I am no longer craving for crispy pata nor kare- kare, and if at times I had to eat them, I just take a small bite and that’s it. We’re no longer lovers now. I am neither following a weight loss/ diet program nor going vegetarian. Let’s say I just want simple things. The simpler, the better!

I go to work way before the official hours, so I stop by some café for breakfast. Within the vicinity there’s Café Adriatico which specializes in Filipino/ Spanish cuisine, and Krispy Kreme. I LOVE Krispy Kreme. Back in the old apartment we had boxes of them in the fridge. Ah, the ecstasy of Krispy and black coffee. But that morning I went for Café Adriatico. Doesn’t matter if my co- diners there were old men reading newspapers and Krispy Kreme’s were the chatty ladies with shriek- y voices. Is that the effect of too much sugar so early in the morning?

Café Adriatico’s hot chocolate is super. The authentic tsokolate, thick and natural.. I have a confession to make. Why I don’t want to drink on paper cups because I realize that… that since I was young, I had this habit of licking the rim of my mug/ cup with the tip of my tongue while I sip the beverage. That intimate part of the cup where you sip. The smooth, slippery porcelain surface all warm against your flesh. Oh sh-t. No one else has the right to use my coffee mug at home.

Breakfast. Hot chocolate, pan de sal, kesong puti (reminiscent of feta cheese). Again, please, no donuts before seven in the morning. Speaking of donuts, that same breakfast I was thinking what if someday I have my own children and they ask for donuts.

Oh, yeah, donuts, sure. Once as year. I might be a terrible mom. Poor children would be rolling on the floor asking for donuts while I look at them passively in my frilly skirt and stilletos. If they want ice cream, then we’ll churn our own ice cream. If they want a cookie, then we’ll bake cookies sans crystallized sugar. If they want chicken…go ask Solraya for those free- range birds. I will impose the laws: No sweets until you’re ten years old! No TV until you’re twelve years old!

Over the hot chocolate I was imagining, giggling over such silly things. Well, my ‘children’ will have an entirely different diet altogether. My husband, whoever the hell he will be, might as well get used to the art of pacifying little brats who are always denied with the tempting pleasures of the world.

These are breakfast musings.

Lunch. In the office I look around at what I could work on at the walk- in chillers and freezers. Arrived at this simple shrimp salad for lunch. For dessert, Choco crumble pastry – found inside my bag- two days old already :) Bought it from a convenience store at a gasoline station.

Afternoon snack. A piece of star apple.

Dinner. Dinners swing between simple pastas, brown rice or sandwiches. On most days of the week my sister and I meet some place somewhere and drive home together after work. Monday night we had easy spaghetti tossed with grilled asparagus, tomato and mushroom and drizzled with a little olive oil, topped off with cheese and some sprinkles of sea salt, garlic and assortment of herbs. My sister went crazy over this she said she’d make one for her husband. Some nights ago she made a great a dish from left over brown rice, tossed them in the pan with olive oil, mirepoix, and herbed egg omelet. Last night, (yeah, too lazy to cook), we had whole- wheat sandwich with lots of rabbit (romaine) greens , tomato, and the tuna salad that my wonderful sister made. Dessert is strawberry yoghurt.