IT IS remarkable to see how children can be held indoors in the time of Covid-19.
Playing board games with the family, doing group art projects, learning new skills such as baking and quilting, reading, playing favorite game apps and watching movies on Netflix have helped the young (and the not-so-young) stay happily at home.
Reminding people at home that Covid-19 is the meanest monster to-date has also helped keep trips outdoors to a minimum. Food has been a big factor in adding to the well-being of the family as well.
Many afternoons, my Aunt Tita Blitte mixes mashed bananas with flour and eggs to make fritters. Sometimes, she adds raisins, and at other times with preserved jackfruit or fresh, if available.
My cousin Dona tweaks her hotcake recipe by adding choco powder or choco chips or raisins or cubed ripe mango. But we like best the choco chip hotcake.
Cousin Amie once fixed the family’s afternoon snacks. She slit ripe cardaba (cooking banana), stuffed it with ham and cheese, and wrapped it with lumpia wrapper.
After deep-frying it, she served it with a choice of dips: Ketchup, honey-mustard, sweet chili sauce, mayo with garlic, barbecue sauce, vinegar with garlic, oyster sauce with lemonsito and strawberry jam.
The combinations were strange indeed, and most family members preferred to eat the fritters plain. However, my nephew Polonggoy and I dug in with gusto. There was a riot of flavors, but we enjoyed the crazy process of deciding on which dip provided the most unusual but acceptable taste.
The enhanced community quarantine is bearable when lived productively. And eating snacks with a nephew who is not afraid to try weird food.