Nostalgia & Strange Eating

As I was doing some necessary grocery shopping this evening (the absence of washed sugar, brown sugar or any kind of sweetener in my cupboards finally forced me out of my bat cave...) I came across a particular brand of sardines that I particularly love!

I love it so much so that whenever I do get my hands on a can, I hide it in unusual places so that my dad can't get his hands on it before I open it to consume the sardines. This came about since my dad and I have a serious competition going on when it comes to eating that kind of sardines (yet we both wait for the other person to buy it instead of buying it for ourselves, and then we eat what the other bought....now isn't that as clear as mud?).

Popping the flat, square can with rounded corners into my shopping basket, I was suddenly hit by a wave of nostalgia and tried to remember food which I like to eat (there are a lot!) but which I don't indulge in (quite a few on the list actually)...either due to price, availability, season or something which I term let-me-practice-self-control-I-can-do-so-too!

I am aware it is a ridiculous notion, but sometimes it makes me feel satisfied that I can control my urges for food which would normally have me salivating like a dog when it sees a juicy bone. Then again, there are also some types of food that I can think of which amuses me - due to the memories associated with them, or the process by which I make them disappear from this world.

"Mabuti" sardinas con salsa de tomate - these Portuguese sardines have approximately five (5) fishes in the small flat cans and could range in price from Php 99 (years ago) to Php 160. When I feel my appetite abandoning me (yes, Virginia it happens!) I open a can, then grab a pack of Skyflakes or some toasted pan de sal. I usually just eat one or two pieces of the sardines, and put away the can in the ref for the next meal. Anticipation makes me look forward to finishing the whole lot in the next 24 hours.

Sometimes I pour olive oil and tomato paste into the container, but it never tastes as good as the original sauce. My dad and I mop up the insides of an empty can with our bread when we do get to the final fishes..uhm..I mean pieces.....

Green tea ice cream - I cannot always get this at Japanese restaurants and its an expensive indulgence...so when I sometimes see a Häagen-Dazs freezer, I stand in front of the freezer and try to pick out (only with my eyes though) the pint or cup which has this flavor. Then, keeping that picture in my mind's eye, I fantasize about making my own cup of green tea ice cream and continue on my errands.

Well....either that or go home and brew some green tea and add sugar and milk and pretend that its the green tea ice cream...which has melted or phased into another form.  Hmmmm, that reminds me that we have an ice cream maker at our house..which my dad bought ages ago (back in the '80s). When I asked him why, he was probably pulling my leg when he said, he did it in case Magnolia stops selling ice cream :-)


Crispy chicken skin - this harks back to the days when my maternal grandmother roasted native chicken (bisayang manok) for my dad whenever we visited her in  the town of Sibonga, Cebu. I do not relish eating chicken meat (I still avoid chicken though I can eat it on occasion for the sake of politeness), but there is something really uplifting about inhaling the aroma of cooked "tanglad" (lemongrass) stuffed inside a chicken which is roasted over hot coals.

And lest I forget, there is also a "come-hither" effect on me every time I see a roasted chicken's golden-brown crispy skin encasing its shapely body. Ehem....I only like eating chicken skin though...and since my dear Lola P and dad indulged me when it came to chicken, by the time the roasted chicken (aka sinugbang manok) arrived at the table to be given to my dad or shared with visitors, it would be in all its skinless glory.

This is why I've never wondered why they called chicken displayed in the supermarkets as "dressed chicken".  Obviously, the ones I had already gone through were the undressed ones...or at least that is how I view it now. My mom always teasingly commented upon seeing the very bare chicken on display: "Nag-hubo na ang manok."  literal translation: "The chicken has undressed". Doesn't it remind you of bold stars?...


Durian candy from Davao - I'm sure you've seen the kind which is flat and rectangular, probably more than 6 inches in length and about 1.5 inches wide..by 1/8 inch thick? Every time I received this type of candy from my relatives in Davao, I used to nibble it centimeter by centimeter (or maybe millimeter by millimeter) until all that was left was the wrapper (probably took me an hour or two to finish the whole thing). I took really small bites of the candy, so much so that maybe that bite may be non-existent and I just had a swipe of the candy's taste on my tongue. Go figure.


Horlicks (chocolate tablets) - think Ovalteenies if this is a BMT (before-my-time) thing for you. My dad used to buy them for me when I was in grade school, but sadly I don't think its being manufactured anymore right now, or at least this is not in the Philippine market these days. I would open the jar, take out a number of tablets and arrange them on a napkin or plate. Then, I would put a chocolate tablet standing up-side in my mouth and crunch on one side of it. There is always a side of the tablet, where that "face" of the tablet falls off like a piece of paper. If you crunch on the wrong side, the tablet crumbles. I had great fun trying to figure out which side, then eating first the side which fell out, then the tablet itself.


Banana-flavored toothpaste - aww-may-gulay! I suddenly remember this as I type away....I was either in  Grade 1 or Nursery when I used to swallow little bits of this toothpaste...and not during the nightly-brush-your-teeth-before-you-sleep ritual too. I make an -eewww! sound now that I think back to how I could have done it, but somehow in my mind I can only remember how deliciously it all tasted.

Hmmm...all this reminiscing is making me hungry....I better stop here and eat my dinner (looks over leftovers on kitchen top): cut-up tomatoes with vinegar, oil and feta cheese with jalapeno, a few pieces of over-toasted french bread which are  probably as hard as rocks, one slightly-burned pan de sal, a bottle of buko juice, a couple of kiat-kiats, two jaffa viennese, a few pieces of chili-flavored crispy seaweed snack and  sweetened yogurt...till next time kiddies!