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E is for Experimenting

I used to think that the Mama was a rigid, but, awesome, cook. Everything she cooked was perfect. Her cutting of meats and vegetables always came out precisely small and neat. Her dishes always tasted consistently the same—yummily delicious.

When it came to Filipino cuisine, nobody, including Filipino restaurant chefs, came close to her food. The Daddy came very close. The one dish of his that surpassed hers by a tiny bit was his fried chicken. His was a subtle melt-in-your-mouth delicious, while the Mama's was more a pow! wow! in-your-face delicious.

My perception of the Mama-the-cook changed when I was in my late 30s. Suddenly the food she put on the table when I came to visit was different. Her pork adobo no longer was the consistently same delicious taste. It was still delicious, but the taste slightly differed each time she cooked it. At first, I thought she was being forgetful when she cooked. And, perhaps, there was a bit of that.

During one visit, the Mama served fried chicken with thick deep-fried lemon slices and deep-fried chayotes. I had no idea lemons and chayotes could be deep fried and taste so good that way. When I told her that I liked them, she said, "It's good to experiment. You don't know if something tastes good until you make it."

I was totally floored, to say the least. Something else I had inherited from the Mama.


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Comments

  1. It is good to experiment but it seems you liked her original recipe at least with this one dish

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I did like her original adobo recipe. But, I wonder how much I would today. She cooked with a lot of salt back then. Best for me to just cherish the memory.

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  2. I did not know you were doing the A to Z Challenge this year, but I found you working down the list. I like experimenting with food as well, I think that makes it more fun. Your mom sounds like she is a great cook.

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    Replies
    1. Hello Sweetberries! Yes, the Mama was and still is a great cook. the Husband has to watch his salt intake so she feels like the food she cooks isn't as tasty anymore. But, we tell her it definitely is.

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  3. Sounds brilliant. That's how I cook too. The recipe never tastes the same twice. Maui Jungalow

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  4. I am enjoying your memories of your Mama's cooking. Funny that she surprised you with her experimenting. Now you know! I'm a fly by the seat of what's in my cupboard cook. I love making something tasty out of nearly nothing.
    Sue at CollectInTexas Gal
    AtoZ 2015 Challenge
    Minion for AJ's wHooligans

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Sue. I enjoy reading cooking books to get ideas and even starting a dish from a recipe. But, I rarely follow a recipe completely through. I ought to just to see what the recipe maker's final taste is.

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  5. I think we're doomed to disappointment if we try to duplicate that one specific taste sensation we remember ... I'm all for experimentation. And, there's nothing that can't be either put between two slices of bread, made into a soup, or a desert!

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  6. Or stirred into rice or pasta. I don't know how chefs do it -- achieving the same taste every time. Unless they really don't.

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  7. "It's good to experiment. You don't know if something tastes good until you make it." What a great memory quote!

    DB McNicol, author

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Thanks for the good cheer. :-)

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