Weekend Challenge #14: A Taste For Life/ Summer
When Mom Crammed A Picnic Basket With Her Kitchen
Whether it’s a picnic, day trip or road trip, my mother has her own way of packing a picnic basket
Each one of us has an idea of what to bring to a picnic, day trip, or road trip. Of what to pack in a picnic basket. From finger food to sandwiches to chips, the usual one. The simple, handy, and easy to prepare. Right?
But don’t expect that from my mother. Don’t contradict her.
For her, a picnic basket is her kitchen and a picnic table is an extension of our dining table.
Oh, how she loved to cook. She could spend the whole day in the kitchen. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to pass that love to me. A 3-ingredient-dish is all my patience can tolerate.
She had a dislike of a growling stomach, an empty dining table, and an empty refrigerator.
Now — What’s in her picnic basket? I mean …in her portable kitchen.
Well — you name it.
Chopping board, knife, ladle, can opener, soy sauce, salt, vinegar, pepper ketchup, onion, garlic, tomato, all the canned goods in our pantry.
The stove and fridge maybe left behind because of their size, but — — a small portable stove and a big cooler took their place.
A water jug. Spoon and fork — not the disposable one.
We didn’t have Tupperware but a rice cooker, thermo cooker, and pots.
Aside from her dislike with a growling stomach, she anticipated the what ifs. What if we get stranded, caught in a traffic jam or someone out there needed something to eat.
An oversupply is better than an undersupply.
What’s her favorite picnic snack recipe?
She loved the complicated one — the soupy and the saucy.
Not a snack.
1. Arroz Caldo
It is a congee with chicken, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, and other seasonings. Topped with boiled eggs, crunchy garlic or onion spring, and calamansi (the Filipino’s version of lime). To keep it hot, the thermo cooker was to the rescue. Not only to keep it hot but to keep it from spoilage.
2. Chicken Pastel
Chicken cooked with sausages, carrots, green peas, potatoes, quail eggs, cream, and seasonings. Best eaten with rice. The thermo cooker helped this dish to withstand the day.
Later on, when standing even for an hour in the kitchen would tire her, she had opted for simple recipes. But — still needed to dwell in the thermo cooker.
Now that she is gone, I wonder what were her reactions to our day trips. All we had — bottled water, no more, no less. And bought food wherever and whenever.
