Monday, April 25, 2011

Eating culture

When we were young we were taught never to leave any unfinished rice on your plate for if you do this you will have pock marks on your face.We were taught never to be fussy about food as it was in the first instance difficult to come by.Dinner was set after everyone has bathed as mum would not allow us to come to the table if we are not clean.
No one could eat until the head of the family started and once you finish your meal you are out of the table to wash your own dish.there were no leftovers because mum would insist that food must not be wasted and the last one would have the honor of finishing all the food.
Eating in restaurants or eating out was almost unheard of and if ever we ate out it would be at the hawker stalls.Today the young people fuss so much about food.They would go the extra mile just to eat something they like and price was no issue.And after a meal you are talking about coffee and dessert.What a far cry from what we had when we were young.
I am never one to fuss about food and would just eat to keep off the hunger.Three important meals a day a must, what you eat is of no importance as long as you are not hungry>Malaysian are never in want for choice ,you can have so many options for b'fast,lunch and dinner.When we were young breakfast was always bread ,butter and jam and a cup of coffee,lunch was rice as was dinner.No fancy dishes but there was always sambal and curry to give you the appetite to eat more rice.On hindsight this was healthy living as today there is so much hoo ha about having three important meals a day.
We are so lucky today as you can have so many types of food to choose from ,Japanese,Italian ,Thai,French,Vietnamese etc but during our time we had no such options so to me even today a good meal would be rice with sambal and curry.But we have to keep with the times and eat what is available and to try what the food market has to offer.There should be no big fuss over a meal ,just eat whatever is served,if you like it eat more if not eat less.There are people who would insist on the type of food they like only without caring for the needs of others.
The Uzbeks have quaint eating habits.If you are invited to a house for dinner or lunch be prepared to allocate at least three hours.The meal would always start with the table full of appetizers which are a meal by themselves.Then you have the main course and after that dessert. Bread was sacred to the Uzbeks as it was their stable food and if a piece of bread fell on the floor you have to pick it up.Because bread was so important it was just served on the table without it being put in any plate.Dinner was a lengthy affair because there was a lot of idle chatter and small talk.
Eat to live or live to eat?To us common people of course its eat to live and I have found eating moderately an important maxim and meals should be eaten at the proper time.Breakfast should be between 7 to 8am ,lunch 1to 2 pm and dinner should be not later than 7 to 730pm as it would then give you enough time to digest your food before you sleep.Of course if your personal schedule is off you cant follow this timetable.A lot of young people skip breakfast because they wake up just in time to go to work and on weekends or holidays they sleep till lunch time.The key to good eating habits is eat on time ,eat moderately and dont be obese.Then you will find that you do not become sick because of poor eating habits.Enjoy food by all means but learn how to determine what you should eat,when you should eat and how much should you eat.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Seremban 3

We played golf in a little known course called Paradise Valley in Seremban 3.It is one of the few dry courses you can find nowadays.Green fees are cheap but no caddies are available .A hilly ,narrow mountainous course,it is not one for the faint hearted.
After a challenging round we landed in a restaurant called "Seremban Siew Pau" and it is a pretty good one with food reasonably priced.We had four dishes including fish, meat and vegetables and shellfish and the bill just came to RM 80.00 and two of the group drank a bottle of stout and beer.
What makes this place interesting is that they have a mini market selling fresh siew pau(The best I have eaten cos its freshly baked)and a lot of other goodies like salted chicken ,chocolates,etc.etc.The restaurant is very popular among tourists ( a few bus loads were there as we arrived).Despite this the food came within 10 or 15 minutes and its really value for money.We decided that the next time we play in Seremban this is where we will go for our lunch.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Challenging the paradigms

I was asked for my company profile the other day by an officer who was handling our application to manage another hostel.He was taken aback when I said " Sorry ,I have no such profile because my company is me ".He asked me what I meant and I said " My credentials are in the form of my record as an educationist " and I listed to him my experiences as an educationist and after that he said "OK no need for company profile".
On looking back and reflecting many would still wonder why I am still working at an age when many would be happily retired.Challenging existing paradigms has always been what I like to do.Playing active golf at this age and sometimes beating my younger opponents is so much fun.I have a friend who is is his mid fifties who is always so frustrated when he loses to me because we play level ie he does not give me any handicap and for me its such an achievement to be able to do that.Working?Why not? I have told myself that I will work for as long as I can and for as long as I am wanted.
I still find that many young people need guidance and they cant even remember things better than me.I cannot imagine sitting at home day after day and just waiting to die.I would rather die on the job or die on the golf course.Then you go doing the things you like .Education is such a challenging field and one can get no better satisfaction than to be able to pass on knowledge and experience to the young and nothing is more satisfying than seeing them learn .That is why till today I still like to teach and I have a group of Vietnamese and Indonesian students whom I am helping to improve on their English.I do this on my free time and do not take any money from them and the reward of seeing them improve day by day is certainly worth more than money.
They say you never know what you are capable of until you have to do it.I never imagined that I could cook but when I was in Uzbekistan I had no choice but to do it as eating places there are limited.I have so been used to mum's meals all the while that I never bothered to learn how to cook but because there was no other choice I cooked my dinner every night when in Uzbekistan and as it went on began to enjoy churning out different types of dishes.Unfortunately when back to Malaysia the need was no longer there cos good old mum takes care of the food and you can always get food outside.
Bottom line ,we can do anything if we set our heart and mind to it but then there are things which we simply cannot change or do anything about.You will find it difficult to change somebody or save somebody from sickness>It is so sad to see my elder sister wasting away.She is no longer the sister I knew and whenever I look at her I think of the time when we were all young staying in the same house.All said and done I have only good memories of her and I always come out depressed after seeing her in her condition today.This is something which we can do nothing about ,nothing which we can change and this realization helps you draw the line between what you can do and not do and therein perhaps lies the secret of happy living.