FOOD AND MEMORIES

Hi peeps ! So, how are you guys doing in semester 2 ? Dying ? Still surviving ? I hope that you guys are still doing well and keep on surviving ! 

I am QUITE glad that we are all here again, contributing ideas and stories for our new blog! Today I want to share about the traditions that my family and I practiced when eating and the best meal I have ever had with my family. Firstly, let's relate this topic with with the novel that we have read, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. What I can see from the ritual practiced by Rose and her family in the novel is a religious ritual. I think that the ritual done is to be grateful for their food and fortune and thank their God for all that they have.

My family and I DO have a kind of 'ritual' that we practice before we eat and we ARE still practicing it until now.It is actually a prayer where we thank our God for the food that we are able to eat to fill our hungriness, the drinks that we drink to fill our thirst and the fortune that we get from Him. My mother and father once told me that it is important to be grateful for what we have as not all people in this world are lucky - have enough food to eat, have tasty drinks to drink, have ability to eat or drink. 

Recalling something about food ? I remember the day where the whole family set up a dinner together. That was the most memorable and precious memory I have when being asked about meal or eating together with my family. It was when I was 11 years old. It was a public holiday but I can't recall what public holiday it was. We planned to cook spaghetti bolognese and pasta with cheese. I remember that my mom and dad gave me and my other 2 siblings instructions - boil the spaghetti, wash the veggies,cut the veggies into dices, defrost the minced meat, melt the butter,heat the oil and so on. After that, here comes the funny part. My little sister and I were instructed to heat the oil in a pan and then put the onions and garlic and fry them. My mom warned us that we must make sure that we didn't mix the water in the bowl that we put the wet onions and garlic into the oil. We heard the warning but we didn't realize that there was slightly a little water in the bowl that went into the pan when we put the onions and garlic into it. Suddenly, a big fire came out from under the pan (Not so sure because my memory is quite blurry about that part) and the fire almost burnt our house ceiling. I didn't know what to do and started shouting for help. My mom asked me to turned off the stove but I was too scared to do so and cried so hard. Luckily, my mom came and turned off the stove for us. However, there was a big black spot on the ceiling and fortunately the ceiling didn't break into a hole. I was so relieved at that time and I was so happy that we all managed to make dinner on our own ! The spaghetti we made were so delicious (FOR ME). It was sweet but slightly sour because of the tomato sauce and Prego, the most popular instant mixture of sauce and sugar. We also add mix veggies, mushrooms and minced meat into the sauce. Whereas for the pasta, we mixed Prego Alfredo -  made from Parmesan cheese, garlic and fresh cream, mushrooms and sliced sausages.

I have trauma sometimes when it comes to putting something wet into the oil until now and my parents always make fun of me when they remember about that tragedy. That is one of the most precious memory I have ever had with my family as that was the first time ever we cooked something together without excluding any of the members in the family. Somehow, it made me laugh when i remember that I almost burnt our kitchen.