Saturday, February 09, 2008 Khok: Suspicious food By Ober Khok Sira-sira store
“UNCLE, what’s suspicious food?”
So asked my nephew Panon yesterday. I looked at him closely, as you would when choosing flowers for your Valentine girl, to make sure he wasn’t asking me one of his trick questions.
“Uh, what do you mean by suspicious food, Panzki?”
He knitted his brows, tilted his head to the right, and said, “Isn’t it something the Chinese eat when they celebrate New Year? My teacher told the class about suspicious food.”
Oh-I-see! “Panzki, it’s “auspicious” food, not suspicious. But then at the rate people are placing premium on lucky food, I think you have a point.”
“What’s that, Uncle?”
“Auspicious? Suspicious?”
“No, premium.” Oh boy, I was really getting deeper into trouble talking with this motor-mouth, inquisitive nephew. I love him.
“It’s a more difficult word of “best” or “worth” or “quality.”
Panon smiled at me. “So, suspicious food has best quality?”
“It’s auspicious, Panzki.” I told him that all cultures have different ways of looking at food. The Japanese look at food as an expression of beauty and utility, which is why they put a premium on flavor and presentation, or “plating” as experts call it.
The Pinoy sees food as his missing rib. Just watch Filipino films and I bet you my month’s salary there’s bound to be a dining scene. The movie Dubai had an eating scene almost every other frame until the movie ended.
Food is a source of fuel to a Pinoy, and so he wants his table loaded with plates and lots of rice. Or maybe all cultures have the same way of looking at food.
“Uncle, please make up your mind. I have this homework to pass. Are you going to make me fail?”
I cleared my throat.
Yes, all cultures add symbols to their food. Even the Passover meal is a symbolic feast of burnt lamb and bitter herbs. It reminds the partakers on how the Angel of Death pass over every house that had the blood of the sacrificial lamb painted on the doorpost.
Auspicious food is supposed to bring good luck on the first day of the New Year. There’s even food you need to eat each day of New Year’s week.
According to www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty, jai is eaten to assure fortune. It’s made of root or fibrous vegetables. It may contain lotus seeds (signifies male offspring); ginkgo nut (silver ingots); black moss seaweed (exceeding wealth); dried bean curd (wealth and happiness); and bamboo shoots (wellness).
Fish represents togetherness and abundance, although I don’t understand why the common household has so much bickering and want throughout the year.
To Pinoys, serving chicken at New Year is knocking on the door of poverty (i.e. scratch-to-mouth existence, if I may pun about it). The Chinese see it as a symbol of prosperity. The website says: “The chicken must be presented with a head, tail and feet to symbolize completeness.”
So that’s why we’re still poor. We’ve been serving chicken in parts, and so we get wealth in parts. All this makes me think hard.
Maybe Panon really does have a point. Not that I disrespect culture and tradition—I value it—but I think a dollop of prudence should be placed on the table, too.
It’s suspicious, indeed, to bet your life on symbols, then live a lazy life—and still expect prosperity.
