I might join my company’s Nihongo speech this November. For that purpose, I wrote two essays (Not really sure if there are differences in the contents of an essay and a speech.).
Since it’s a Nihongo speech contest, I’ll still have to translate what I’ve already written in English.
First one is below. Will Upload the other one in a separate post.
母親の料理 (Mom’s Cooking)
From as far back as I can remember my mom would cook for us almost every meal of every day. She may not be that much of a chef, but, having eaten her creations for such a long time, it no longer makes much difference whether what she made was delicious or not – she made them, so we eat them. Don’t get me wrong; I have eaten from a lot of places and I could judge my mother’s cooking to be above average.
Among the things we almost always request are her adobo and sinigang; those two are some of her specialties. However, having come from a not-so-small middle class family – all in all, there are nine of us – feeding that number of people every day with meat would take a lot, causing for times when we have to make do. And no matter how much my sibling and I protest – the greater majority of protests coming from me – we sometimes have to eat fish and vegetables. I hate fish and vegetables.
Whether mom’s cooking is delicious or not is not the issue here – if it is fish or vegetable, I refuse to it (I think this is the main reason I’m quite short and thin.). And since I refuse to eat, my mom would let me buy from the neighbor some barbecue. Yup, I’m such a terrible and spoiled child. I guess my mom just gave up after all those years that I flatly refused to eat unless the meal has either pork, or chicken, or beef in it.
But circumstances above are up to two years ago. On May 2008, I left Davao City to work here in Makati City. I left home, and as such, left behind my mother’s cooking as well. Now, I can buy all the food I want, eat anywhere I want. Now, all my meals really are just pork or chicken or beef. I never have to fish or vegetable if I don’t want to. Also, I could now eat as much as I want to at Jollibee, or McDonald’s or all those other fast-food chains that I usually could just wish about before. Working away from home surely has great perks!
Curiously enough, it did not make me as happy as I originally thought it would. It’s not that I got tired of eating only pork and beef and chicken; I definitely would still choose them above fish and vegetable. I think it’s partly because of the taste. I mean, every eatery can cook up adobo or sinigang; but it’s not the same adobo and sinigang taste I grew up to love. I’d have to admit that my mom’s sinigang is sometimes too flavorful or sometimes bland, but still, overall it’s the same sinigang. I miss my mom’s adobo and sinigang.
I think another reason for my general lack of happiness over food is that I have to do it myself. By ‘myself’, I don’t mean the actual cooking; these days, I have to think about eating, when before all I had to do was eat. I now have to think of what I will eat, where I will eat – and I guess, for me the whole thinking process takes a lot of the fun out of the eating itself. There’re just too many choices when before there was only the food my mom cooks at home.
But if I am to be honest, I would say that the main reason is that, more than my dislike of fish and vegetable, I hate eating alone. And I especially hate eating alone on Sundays. Seeing all those families eating out and enjoying each other’s company, well, it reminds so much of home that I lose my appetite. Like I said earlier, I come from a not-so-small family, and eating at home is always a riot. No matter how busy each of us is, we always try to find time to eat together the meals mom prepares for us. It’s as if mom’s cooking has some special magic in it that draws to us to the dining table to enjoy the food, and each other’s company.
Yup, there’s no denying it. I miss home, and mom’s cooking.
