like pouring cold water on a boiling oil
“tita knew through her own flesh how fire transforms the elements, how a lump of corn flour is changed into a tortilla, how a soul that hasn't been warmed by the fire of love is lifeless, like a useless ball of corn flour.” ― laura esquivel, like water for chocolate.
i was inspired to learn how to cook when i first read laura esquivel's tragic like water for chocolate, the ill-fated love story between tita and pedro. for those who are not familiar with the sad tale of love, obsession and revenge, then i will tell it briefly.
tita is the youngest daughter of a stern matriarch who raised her three daughters all by herself. since tita is the youngest, the mother decided that she could not marry because she will take care of her when she is old and ill. the problem is tita is in love with pedro. since there is no way that tita will break free from her mother's wishes, pedro decided to marry tita's older sister, rosaura so he can be close to her.
here's the passage in the novel where pedro explained to his father why he was marrying rosaura even if he was in love with her younger sister, tita.
“why did you do that, pedro? it will look ridiculous, you agreeing to marry rosaura. what happened to the eternal love you swore to tita? aren't you going to keep that vow?'
"of course i'll keep it. when you're told there's no way you can marry the woman you love, and your only hope of being near her is to marry her sister, wouldn't you do the same?'
"so you intend to marry without love?'
'no, papa. i am going to marry with a great love for tita that will never die.”
read and weep!
the book was made into a movie. i was among the few ones who watched it when it was shown at the shangri-la mall in ortigas. of course i wept through the entire film, and fell in love with the actor who played pedro.
here's the trailer of the movie.
(it's good that they shot the movie in mexico, with the script written in spanish, and hired mexican actors. at least you feel the authenticity of the characters, their feelings, their culture. unlike say house of the spirits or love in the time of cholera, where both scripts were written in english, and in case of house of the spirits, all the actors except for antonio banderas were non-spanish. s0 how did i understand como agua para chocolate, the movie? simple, it had english subtitles.)
&&&&&&&&&&
so what does the book had to do with cooking? well, fairies, bitches, queens, pa-queens, witches and wannabes, if you read the book instead of those gossip blogs, then you will know what i am getting at. chos!
tita was born in the kitchen one stormy night. since her mother was busy taking care of the family business and other affairs, tita was raised by her yaya, who was also the family cook. so she grew up in the kitchen, watching her yaya prepare all those family favourites like adobo, dinuguan, lechon paksiw, kare-kare. kidding. of course it follows that when she grew up, tita became the family cook. especially after her yaya died.
the book has an element of magic realism (like all other latin novels around that time such as gabriel garcia marquez' one hundred years of solitude). so even if her yaya was dead, tita could still hear her voice, she could still ask her how to prepare a certain dish.
too, whatever tita was feeling when she was preparing the food would affect the taste, texture of her dish. then it would be felt by those who ate it. for instance, during the wedding of pedro and rosaura, the guests all felt sad, longing for their love ones (they all cried), then got sick and vomited because tita was hurting, crying and wanted to die while she was preparing the food for the feast.
but when she prepared a recipe using quail with roses that were given to her by pedro, the dish turned out not only delectable, but also inspired its diners to fall in love and have sex.
the book was written like a recipe, with the titles of each chapter corresponding to a dish prepared by tita, complete with instructions on how to prepare them.
&&&&&&&&&&
because i did not grow up in the kitchen, nor did my yaya force me to learn how to cook, i ended up growing up with limited knowledge in the kitchen. truth be told, i hate cooking.
however, when i got sidelined from my journalism career (and in the process finding something, a forgotten passion, that had i lost for a long, long time), i decided it was time to learn a new skill. and i chose cooking, remembering that i had always wanted to be a kitchen goddess like tita, or the british nigella lawson.
i never thought i would love it. going to the supermarket to buy the ingredients. chopping onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, vegetables. washing them.
my first ever dish was the filipino favourite pork adobo. it took me a lot of trials and errors before i learned how to cook an acceptable adobo, quite close to what my mother and sisters used to prepare. true, it might look easy when you are watching someone doing it, but believe me it's not. it takes the patience of a saint to be able to cook the dish.
with constant practice, however, i finally was able to come up with a decent adobo that even my mother had approved.
see the photo above? the adobo tasted so good that there were only a few chunks left. chos!
&&&&&&&&&
then as i became more confident not only in the kitchen but at the supermarket, learning my strides, gestures, chopping techniques, tasting, timing, and even pirouetting, as though i am nigella lawson in front of a camera, i started expanding my repertoire.
so i experimented with another favourite, sinigang. with the advent of those ready to use (or pour into the boiling dish) sinigang mix in sachets (knorr is my favourite), the task has become easier. just threw in vegetables, tomatoes, onions, then add knorr, then presto, a sinigang that tastes like the one from my childhood that mother had prepared.
this is how i cook sinigang, with the cover usually tilted on the side of the caserola while tasting the soup and sprinkling some more ingredients.
&&&&&&&&&
on to a more difficult dish...anything fried.
the challenge has always been frying. not because it's so complicated to do, but because the boiling oil keeps on escaping from the pan and into my flawless skin, into the sink, into the floor, etc. it does not only hurt, causing some blisters on my arms and hands, but it also makes a lot of mess. that's why after frying, i always end up cleaning up the entire kitchen to get rid of the oil not only on the stove, sink, floor but on the other utensils as well.
but it's well worth it. fried food -- pork, chicken, eggs, fish -- (i know it's not healthy) is still one of the best tasting dishes there is. in my case, i usually marinate the pork or chicken or fish in vinegar and soy sauce for an hour before frying them.
&&&&&&&&&&
now, anything fried usually tastes better with green mango, tomato and bagoong (shrimp paste) salad or ensalada. so i learned to prepare one as well. this is probably the easiest to do. the only thing difficult is peeling the green mangoes. i am always slow on peeling them, scared that i might get wounded in the process. afraid!
to give you a visual example of how a typical meal that i painstakingly prepared looks like, here is one of my lunches with adobo, sinigang, fried pork, ensalada, and ripe mangoes.
oh yes, i always prepare my favourite sauce for dipping those crispy fried pork or chicken or fish: a mixture of maggi seasoning and vinegar. lovely!!
&&&&&&&&&&
as i learn more dishes to cook, as i become more comfortable in the kitchen, i begin to understand why some people love cooking. it's not only relaxing (better than yoga), but it also helps to keep your mind off the ugliness of life, the injustices in the world, the men who broke your heart, the people whom you've trusted dearly but betrayed you in the end.
like tita, cooking has even helped me forget, even temporarily, the craving for the one
person that i love most. como agua para chocolate. like water for chocolate. like pouring a very cold water on a boiling oil in a frying pan.
i was inspired to learn how to cook when i first read laura esquivel's tragic like water for chocolate, the ill-fated love story between tita and pedro. for those who are not familiar with the sad tale of love, obsession and revenge, then i will tell it briefly.
tita is the youngest daughter of a stern matriarch who raised her three daughters all by herself. since tita is the youngest, the mother decided that she could not marry because she will take care of her when she is old and ill. the problem is tita is in love with pedro. since there is no way that tita will break free from her mother's wishes, pedro decided to marry tita's older sister, rosaura so he can be close to her.
here's the passage in the novel where pedro explained to his father why he was marrying rosaura even if he was in love with her younger sister, tita.
“why did you do that, pedro? it will look ridiculous, you agreeing to marry rosaura. what happened to the eternal love you swore to tita? aren't you going to keep that vow?'
"of course i'll keep it. when you're told there's no way you can marry the woman you love, and your only hope of being near her is to marry her sister, wouldn't you do the same?'
"so you intend to marry without love?'
'no, papa. i am going to marry with a great love for tita that will never die.”
read and weep!
the book was made into a movie. i was among the few ones who watched it when it was shown at the shangri-la mall in ortigas. of course i wept through the entire film, and fell in love with the actor who played pedro.
here's the trailer of the movie.
(it's good that they shot the movie in mexico, with the script written in spanish, and hired mexican actors. at least you feel the authenticity of the characters, their feelings, their culture. unlike say house of the spirits or love in the time of cholera, where both scripts were written in english, and in case of house of the spirits, all the actors except for antonio banderas were non-spanish. s0 how did i understand como agua para chocolate, the movie? simple, it had english subtitles.)
&&&&&&&&&&
so what does the book had to do with cooking? well, fairies, bitches, queens, pa-queens, witches and wannabes, if you read the book instead of those gossip blogs, then you will know what i am getting at. chos!
tita was born in the kitchen one stormy night. since her mother was busy taking care of the family business and other affairs, tita was raised by her yaya, who was also the family cook. so she grew up in the kitchen, watching her yaya prepare all those family favourites like adobo, dinuguan, lechon paksiw, kare-kare. kidding. of course it follows that when she grew up, tita became the family cook. especially after her yaya died.
the book has an element of magic realism (like all other latin novels around that time such as gabriel garcia marquez' one hundred years of solitude). so even if her yaya was dead, tita could still hear her voice, she could still ask her how to prepare a certain dish.
too, whatever tita was feeling when she was preparing the food would affect the taste, texture of her dish. then it would be felt by those who ate it. for instance, during the wedding of pedro and rosaura, the guests all felt sad, longing for their love ones (they all cried), then got sick and vomited because tita was hurting, crying and wanted to die while she was preparing the food for the feast.
but when she prepared a recipe using quail with roses that were given to her by pedro, the dish turned out not only delectable, but also inspired its diners to fall in love and have sex.
the book was written like a recipe, with the titles of each chapter corresponding to a dish prepared by tita, complete with instructions on how to prepare them.
&&&&&&&&&&
because i did not grow up in the kitchen, nor did my yaya force me to learn how to cook, i ended up growing up with limited knowledge in the kitchen. truth be told, i hate cooking.
however, when i got sidelined from my journalism career (and in the process finding something, a forgotten passion, that had i lost for a long, long time), i decided it was time to learn a new skill. and i chose cooking, remembering that i had always wanted to be a kitchen goddess like tita, or the british nigella lawson.
i never thought i would love it. going to the supermarket to buy the ingredients. chopping onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, vegetables. washing them.
my first ever dish was the filipino favourite pork adobo. it took me a lot of trials and errors before i learned how to cook an acceptable adobo, quite close to what my mother and sisters used to prepare. true, it might look easy when you are watching someone doing it, but believe me it's not. it takes the patience of a saint to be able to cook the dish.
with constant practice, however, i finally was able to come up with a decent adobo that even my mother had approved.
see the photo above? the adobo tasted so good that there were only a few chunks left. chos!
&&&&&&&&&
then as i became more confident not only in the kitchen but at the supermarket, learning my strides, gestures, chopping techniques, tasting, timing, and even pirouetting, as though i am nigella lawson in front of a camera, i started expanding my repertoire.
so i experimented with another favourite, sinigang. with the advent of those ready to use (or pour into the boiling dish) sinigang mix in sachets (knorr is my favourite), the task has become easier. just threw in vegetables, tomatoes, onions, then add knorr, then presto, a sinigang that tastes like the one from my childhood that mother had prepared.
this is how i cook sinigang, with the cover usually tilted on the side of the caserola while tasting the soup and sprinkling some more ingredients.
&&&&&&&&&
on to a more difficult dish...anything fried.
the challenge has always been frying. not because it's so complicated to do, but because the boiling oil keeps on escaping from the pan and into my flawless skin, into the sink, into the floor, etc. it does not only hurt, causing some blisters on my arms and hands, but it also makes a lot of mess. that's why after frying, i always end up cleaning up the entire kitchen to get rid of the oil not only on the stove, sink, floor but on the other utensils as well.
but it's well worth it. fried food -- pork, chicken, eggs, fish -- (i know it's not healthy) is still one of the best tasting dishes there is. in my case, i usually marinate the pork or chicken or fish in vinegar and soy sauce for an hour before frying them.
&&&&&&&&&&
now, anything fried usually tastes better with green mango, tomato and bagoong (shrimp paste) salad or ensalada. so i learned to prepare one as well. this is probably the easiest to do. the only thing difficult is peeling the green mangoes. i am always slow on peeling them, scared that i might get wounded in the process. afraid!
to give you a visual example of how a typical meal that i painstakingly prepared looks like, here is one of my lunches with adobo, sinigang, fried pork, ensalada, and ripe mangoes.
oh yes, i always prepare my favourite sauce for dipping those crispy fried pork or chicken or fish: a mixture of maggi seasoning and vinegar. lovely!!
&&&&&&&&&&
as i learn more dishes to cook, as i become more comfortable in the kitchen, i begin to understand why some people love cooking. it's not only relaxing (better than yoga), but it also helps to keep your mind off the ugliness of life, the injustices in the world, the men who broke your heart, the people whom you've trusted dearly but betrayed you in the end.
like tita, cooking has even helped me forget, even temporarily, the craving for the one
person that i love most. como agua para chocolate. like water for chocolate. like pouring a very cold water on a boiling oil in a frying pan.
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