Times like these call for serious comfort foods.
I agree with what the iconic local film director Peque Gallaga said in his essay Samo-samo in the Kitchen:
Food wasn’t going to solve the problem or make it go away, but it certainly was going to help put me in a frame of mind to see things with a little more philosophy and courage.
Direk Peque’s idea of comfort food involves a massive plate of old-school bacon and sunny-side up eggs with garlic fried rice. While I can certainly identify with how such cholesterol-laden goodness can be beneficial to one’s psyche, I tend to veer away from anything fried whenever I’m ill. Indeed, my go-to meal in times of illness and/or personal crisis involves boiling – specifically: boiling up a packet of instant noodles.
Combined with the al dente noodles, the sweetish chicken, the veg, and the sub-molten egg, the spicy broth gives me a feeling of well-being and comfort. I swear: whenever I eat this, things start to look much better – not matter how bleak they may seem.
Incidentally… Direk Peque’s essay is one of the interesting food-related mini-memoirs compiled in the 2003 anthology Comfort Food edited by Erlinda Enriquez Panlilio and published by Anvil. If you’re the sort who grew up with foodies like I did, this book is for you,