Saturday, October 25, 2008 Ober’s food character By Ober Khok Sira-sira store
IN the spirit of fun (or as my Tita Blitte would say, “in the spirit of being bereft of ideas”), this week we will study the different characteristics in people using my very own special guide.
I’m using common kitchen figures to demonstrate to you the types of character found in people. I will use fruits and other ingredients you would need to make a tasty buffet or a snack.
You can take it seriously, but I suggest that you take it with a grain of table salt.
Mushroom types. A mushroom is a fungus that doesn’t need sunlight to thrive. Mushroom types are very astute when it comes to pecuniary matters.
They moonlight (who needs sunlight, they laugh) a lot to earn bundles of money, which they stash in the bank and only Scrooge knows where else.
They look very personable, and I might say quite the fashionista. Some display brilliant colors (the poisonous mushroom), although regular types are rather dull. They make up for their pedestrian looks by investing their money in business, and so they start looking very attractive to iba (a sour fruit), broccoli and banana types.
Unlike fruit and vegetable types, you can’t get juice out of mushrooms, and by extension, mushroom types don’t lift a finger to help others in need.
They should be urged to develop more love, and to put to good use one of those rooms in their life.
Iba types. Contrary to its sour taste, iba types are very sweet personalities, very giving. They look small but they bear much fruit. They blend well with obnoxious people (bagoong or fish sauce) and even the rich in society (fish, which is rich in vitamins and minerals).
Iba personalities are home conscious, making their humble abodes look presentable. They are flowery with their praises, but they are very sincere, too.
While you can’t find fault in this person, sometimes people tend to abuse them. And so it is best that iba types sometimes analyze whether the person crying in front of them really needs “money for the sick child” or they just need the cash to pay for the car installment (overdue) or to appease an angry missus.
Banana types. Banana types blend well with the environment, and they offer fragrance even to the most foul-smelling problem in the world.
Like mushrooms, banana types don’t offer juice but they are generous with their wealth, no matter how small. They are what we call kuripot pero dili dalo (stingy but not greedy).
They save even if they only receive P200 per day, and stock their larder with food for a rainy day. However, stingy as they are, when someone knocks on their door with a legitimate need, they dole out from what they have at home. In bunches, too.
Perhaps banana types are best advised to lighten up a bit, and then they can truly be the sweet blender for all seasons.
Cauliflower types. Here’s a person who is so serious he can hardly smile at the flower vendor. This person is all goodness but he just feels he has to solve the problems of the world by his lonesome.
You have to play Catch 22 every day. Before you can approach this person, you have to ask yourself: “Hmm, let me see. Is the boss happy now? Hmm, let me see, is she tired?”
However, this person is a softie inside. The curls and big top and Halloween green are mere fronts. Actually, broccoli types are good people who seek nothing but the welfare of others.
