Food and Friendship

During my Xth birthday last year, I decided to invite friends over for dinner.  It was the first time I had cooked for more than 20 people, and so, it was truly a grand production.  I served ham and sausage quiche, my famous roast chicken, my Vigan longganisa pasta, and many other dishes. Because of the number of dishes, I ended up cooking not just the whole day, but even when my guests had started to arrive one by one.  The party was scheduled at 7:00 p.m., but true to my notorious reputation of really enjoying the kitchen, we started eating at 8:30!

Well, the food aside, I prepared a short audio-visual montage of pictures with all my friends, as my own way of thanking them for being with me all these years.  I love playing the video once in a while to remind myself how blessed I am to have all these great friends.

My friends and I realized two things from that avp.  First, we love taking pictures of ourselves — talk about vanity! Hahaha.  And second, we love to eat!  I guess the pictures would show that as the years passed, and the more lunches and dinners we had, I grew bigger and bigger!  But who’s complaining?

I must say that to this day, I continue to be amazed about food and its ability to bring people together and closer to each other.  I guess this is the top reason why I have always enjoyed cooking.  Of course, I still know that cooking is a wonderful outlet that keeps one’s creative juices flowing.  And, exploring new places to dine in is part of the great fun.

Because of these sentiments, I find myself with a new goal — the goal of writing a cookbook.  It is said that one of the good things a person can leave this earth is a well-written book.  I’d like my first book to be about cooking and eating, with the book serving as testament to what cooking and dining can do to relationships.

I don’t know when I will write this book, but I guess I am not in a rush just yet.  Still, I am quite attracted to sites like Tastebook.com, which allows individuals to compile their own recipes into their own, unique cookbook.

Last night, I, with my girlfriend, had dinner with five best friends from the industry.  It was the first time we were complete in a very long time.  Our schedules had prevented us from being complete to eat and catch up with each other.  We enjoyed a very sumptuous dinner, which included tinapa fried rice, sisig in a pouch, lechon served like Peking duck, and baby squid in olive oil.  So what did those dishes do to influence our seeing each other?  I guess they provided the ambience for us to celebrate, just be ourselves, and be happy.  Something like that.

I am more convinced that this is the kind of life I want for myself — a life that I am already living, and would not want to change.  It is the simplicity of being with good company, being able to talk and listen to them for hours, sharing good company in the backdrop of good food.

And I will never tire of writing about food and friendships.