Going into this adoption process, one of the things that’s really hammered home to you is how you’re going to have to approach cultural differences. Food is a big component of any culture and in the US, we sort of have a smattering of it all. You might go out for Italian one night and Chinese the next, and not think much of it. We really are a cultural melting pot.
While Skyping with Christopher, early in the process, we’d ask each other about food. He wanted to make sure we were going to have French Fries in the US. Don’t worry kid, we have you covered there! We asked him what he liked and it was always vegetables and chicken. The first hint of what was to come was when the social worker asked, on Christopher’s behalf, if we eat rice. Yes, we answered, we eat it about once a week or so. The social worker just laughed. “He eats it every day.”
While I hadn’t really thought about it, that certainly didn’t come as a surprise. Asian Pacific Island culture, of course rice is the center piece of about every meal. We had been looking up some specific Filipino foods we’d like to try make at home, once Christopher was home with us. While that seemed like a good plan, the reality was we had no idea what he’d really like.
At the hotel, we would have rice for all three meals. Even Beth commented, at one point, that rice at breakfast was pretty nice. I love rice, and I know I could eat if for three meals a day. I think it’s heaven. The rice in the Philippines is really good and a little on the sticky side. While I fancy myself a master rice cooker (no ricer cooker required), I was going to have to figure out how to make this rice. But that’s not the point, just figuring out what to go with it when we get home will be the challenge, though he’s such a good eater and he’s not fussy about what he’s eating at all.
We had a couple of meals at home and we just automatically had a pot of rice going at all times. It would last the day and he’d have a scoop of just plain Jane white rice with everything. It was like home base for everything on his plate. Old reliable rice was always the anchor on the plate for him. I’ll never forget the first breakfast we had that didn’t have eggs. We decided to do oatmeal. “Oh yeah, I’ve had this at Hospicio.” Oh great, I thought, but then came the “What? No rice?” With oatmeal? Thankfully, after the shock subsided he was still perfectly happy to have one meal without rice.
Soon, we’d start asking about what other things he liked. “Sardinas!” I’m game, but mommy definitely wasn’t. I ran to the store and bought sardines. To his dismay, they did not have the bones that you could eat, and I specifically looked for ones that still had bones. Apparently that’s a not possible in the five different brands I scoped out. I found some pictures online and he confirmed what we needed to make. Over rice, it was really good. Definitely a make again item for Christopher and I.
At one point during dinner he asked if we have fish balls, and we just thought he meant fish sticks, so that’s what we showed him. He just accepted that we were talking about the same thing and they were just different here. I did a little poking around and ended up finding out that fish balls are actually a pretty common street food, so I thought I’d add them to the upcoming Friday dinner menu.
Friday night daddy also decided he was going to make a pancit canton. It was a Friday meal so we went with a modified shrimp only route. He kept asking when were we going to be eating the pink circles. Shrimp is apparently on his favorites list. It was a super hit and they were probably the best homemade Asian stir fry noodles I’ve ever made. The fish balls were really good too. Christopher took one bit of them and said “these are fish balls!” Excellent, I nailed that one, and they’re super easy to make, so that’s a win. The recipe made so much we had enough for fresh balls during the following day’s lunch.
Mommy is on a mission to get the right ingredients to make a Filipino shortbread cookie. Christopher was asking if she could make him some “triangle cookies” and after some asking and picture showing, he confirmed what we were after. Unfortunately we’re going to need some very specific Filipino ingredients for those so we’re going to have to make a run to the Asian market. Hopefully the local Ithaca market has what we need. Beth is also on the hunt for ube. Christopher seems indifferent to ube, so I’m curious to see what plans Beth has lined up.
While cooking up what would have been a standard dinner of venison, brussel sprouts, and rice, I had decided I wanted to do something more with the rice than just do a standard white rice. I did a quick search for “Filipino Rice” and instantly got lots of recipes for the Filipino fried rice called Sinangag. It was available at the breakfast buffet at the hotel in one form or another. The most basic version is just a straight garlic stir fried rice, which is what I decided to make. It’s super easy and really good. It was a hit at dinner, so I’m glad we’re still looking for things he’s familiar with, rather than just the normal hum drum.
We’re slowly teasing out of him items he’s had at Hospicio. We had soup and asked if they at soup at Hospicio and he said there were three kinds, one with noodles, one with rice, and one vegetable soup. Who knows how accurate it all is, but we’re definitely discovering new foods and it’s been a lot of fun! I’ll try to do a better job with photos during the next couple of cooking sessions.
