Food Obession

Food (noun): any nourishing substance that is eaten, drunk or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth etc... . (dictionary.reference.com). 

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love food! I am intrigued, fascinated and amazed about food. Local and international chefs, whether foul-mouth, travel-around-the-world chefs, creative 'mad scientist' of a chef, one who is trying to change school lunches forever (that is pukka!) or just your average 'Joe,' whatever it is inspire me to eat and cook. I LOVE FOOD.

I have not always loved food. My mum was worried at the age of 4 I hardly ate anything and even chocolate. Yes, chocolate didn't help me to chew my way to one 'power up' to tackle the day. The only way I survived was on drinking Sustagen chocolate (the only chocolate I consumed in liquid form) and perhaps a banana..okay I lied, I think I did consume little bits of Jollibee whilst in the Philippines, all because I wanted those fancy toys, yet I don't think I finished it all up as Mum finished it all. Living in New Zealand, changed all that. After I savoured my first bacon and eggs, it made me realised how awesome food is. Later I ate a steak...God I was in heaven! *Hallelujah* 

Of course there are some food I disliked and up to now I still dislike peas, yet I will still eat it.  Brussels sprouts, on the other hand  I do not like because of the weird cough medicine taste and even though they look like very cute mini-lettuces, tasting it irks me, yet I will eat broccoli, cabbage or lettuce, just to name a few. 

During my chlidhood years Mum would take my brother and I to any fast food chains on 'special days' and devour a Happy Meal while collecting as much toys as we can do. Other times Mum will just cook bacon and eggs or some traditional Filipino food. Grocery shopping was amazing for me. As Mum did, we would have spent a lot of hours in the supermarket, searching for food for tonight's meal to a week and I would go aisle to aisle looking at all the fresh produce, boxes, container, bottles and jars full of anything edible (or non-edible). That must be why I love wondering around a supermarket. (Yes I am strange). 

I don't even feel guilty to admit that Filo parties were the bomb because of the food! Pancit, egg roll (spring rolls), adobo, rice cakes etc..., it was wonderful. My stomach would be so full that I would pass out while watching a Disney movie with all the other children. Even the best, if it was held at our place...imagine the left overs!

Thanks to Mum, she introduced me to watching cooking shows. My first ever cooking TV shows were Ken Hom and then Madhur Jaffery. Mum even recorded it so I can watch it over and over again to the point where I would go to the kitchen, gather all the pots and pans and 'pretend' to be a TV chef. Mum wasn't bothered about all the noise, in fact she was happy and encouraged me for my imaginative creativity of a non-existent stir fry. 

The best part would be helping Mum cook or bake. As like every young girl, watching your Mum cook or bake food was wonderful and  even better when helping out. I loved watching mum make won tons or spring rolls and then I was able to make it later on. 

My classmates at primary school, I was envious with the other kid having the most good looking lunch while me with something rather boring like a soggy jam sandwich or a 'plain' yoghurt, not even the yoghurt with the nice choc-chip bits init to make it a pleasant lunch meal...no no. Eventually Mum started to pack the 'cool' stuff to eat for lunch. 

Then when I was in high school canteen money was 'cool' because I was able to buy that 25 cent spaghetti toastie and eventually loved eating chocolate each Friday. With thanks to Mum giving us $4 after a week after cleaning the house, I was able to afford to buy the so-called health food at the 'tuck shop.' 

In Australia, the abundance of food courts in shopping centres overloaded my senses with all the different types of food. Kebabs, Chinese, sushi, pasta, bristo-style, Greek, whatever it was, it was always hard to decided what to eat because of all the variety available. I wanted this, I wanted that, but of course my stomach wasn't about to accommodate all in one go. 

Watching Jaime Oliver's 'The Naked Chef,' my love of food went sky high and I looked forward watching on ABC every Wednesday night. After that with all the food reality shows, cooking shows or chefs travelling around the world, experience new flavours and watching them stuff their face with a blowfish sushi or bull's testes, the more I watched the more I want to change my career and become a chef and open up a restaurant. I think I may have to look at that. 

Just like Anthony Bourdain or Andrew Zimmerm, I am willing to try anything in front of me, regardless that I may like it or not, I get a high eating food. I've eaten snails, lamb's brain, liver, kidney, chicken insides, beef tongue, bone marrow, tripe, fish eyes (and I love eating it), steak tartare, frog legs, just to name a few. 

I am also eager to try all those crickets etc as what they do in those street foods in Asia.

I love eating out especially my favourite foods - Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Chinese, French, Spanish yet at the same time nothing beats homemade food!
I love cooking for my boyfriend and people. I love eating WITH people, being in their company and eating together as well as with family. One of the many ways to be together over delicious food discussing over anything and everything. 

Watching Man vs. Food makes me cringe and laugh at the same time, because I cannot believe how one guy can eat copious amount of food within an hour or so. For example a hamburger with 12 slices of beef and the spiciest sauce. Sometimes he struggle and fails, other times he finishes it and becomes part of the Food Hall of Fame.. or a free T-shirt. It is like me back in the days when I was able to gobble up 1/2 a dozen of Krispy Kreme donuts 10mins before going to a dance class, or after dance class heading over to Jojos for steak. 

My favourite re-collection of my version of (wo)man vs. food was at Market Place in Sunnybank. I had lunch with my friend Neil, where I ordered a Wagyu steak, prior to that being cooked, I ate one thick slice of garlic buttered toast, a small salad, soup, then the main course (which my steak was half the size of my plate) with a fired egg and fries, then after that, we went to the movies and ate 6 pieces of mini-moon cake and then after the movie, went home and I had a small bowl of pasta! Ha! And that was in one day! Still have no clue how on earth I ate it all. 

Ahh food. Speaking of food. Time to eat.