FD Day 15: Of Home and Love

One of my favorite dishes* made by my (maternal) grandma used to be stir-fried lean pork with potatoes drenched in black sauce--it's one of those comfort food** that I looked forward to after a long day at school. So during my college years when I was living outside with friends, I tried replicating it as many times as teenagers would lie to their parents to hang out with friends with the excuse of "doing homework together", but it just didn't come out quite the same! I asked gramps why and what did I miss, and she couldn't tell me what's wrong. One day I decided to watch her cook it, and soon enough, I finally figured out what she forgot to tell me, the one ingredient that made the subtle yet distinguishable difference. You could imagine the joy and relief I felt when I found out the "secret ingredient", it was almost like when Siddhartha was enlightened and floated up in a circle of light--or the milder version of it: like something clicked and the light bulb lit up (with the sound effect 'ting!')--and everything made sense as I brought to my eagerly-awaiting taste buds the dab of sauce on my little finger that tasted exactly like how I used to remember it. It was a priceless moment, to me, one that I consciously recorded in my memory so I can recall in the future. (Like right now.)

May 13. A year and four decades ago on this day, there was a massacre in my country, where different races lashed out at each other, with parang knives and rifles and whatever was accessible. So much hatred floated in the air, villages were covered in red. In school we were taught to be thankful it was all in the past and that we should never ever bring it up or talk about it, for fear that it might incite another such incident. Yet what struck me is the stark irony: there's not a single day (especially of late) that passed that we are not reminded of the existing racial bigotry! I'm not exaggerating the fact either- look at the daily news and the political strangling going on. It's nauseating. Yet home is still home, and my heart is still there (well part of it anyway :P). Which is why it hurts. The thorn that's pricking the people might be just an annoyance for now; but who knows what would happen when people lose their patience? Or worse, when they lost hope and decided to leave. Blood, when spilled, can't be differentiated by race. They're all red regardless. Anyway. I don't know why I'm spewing all these when it's irrelevant to food.

Oh I remember. Because we're talking about home-cooked food. :) Home-cooked food-->home-->today's date. Hmm. But back to food and food diary!! So here's what I had throughout the day. And as usual, captured in a snapshot of my food diary notes on the phone:

And here's a very nice song/video I stumbled upon, titled "Here in My Home", by various Malaysian artistes. (Old song, dated 2008.) Enjoy!

End notes:
* I love all my grandma's cooking, so there's really no 1 fav dish. This is just one of the many. :P
** Comfort food- I have too many and it's probably easier if I list them out in another separate post. This is by no means the top of the comfort-food-list, and it certainly isn't the only comfort food of mine. (But it's a little redundant to even mention it right?! You should know me by now. :P)