Mang Gener, our neighbor who’s a great {and often inebriated} gardener, went back to the South(ern Philippines) and left us with beautiful pots of herbs. One of them is oregano, an herb that grows well even with a person like me around who kills every green thing I touch. We placed it at the atrium where it gets good sunlight and where we feed it “good food” every day. Everything’s been fine so far. Our oregano plant has flourished and is growing very fast producing more leaves than I know what to do with. Everything needs to be fine! Hazardous as I am with plants, I love them with all my heart.

We are growing our tiny garden one pot at a time. We started urban farming when Attika was barely a year old, but we lived in a penthouse and the winds from Laguna de Bay were just as murderous as I was. This time, I am seriously meditating day after day just so I’d grow a green thumb. Where I got the idea that you could develop green thumb escapes me now. Maybe I made it up.

I keep boxes of different kinds of teas in our cupboard and my goal now is to replace most, if not all, with fresh produce from our tiny green patch and we’ve started with oregano. My tea press was just sitting around, probably hating its teabag neighbors, but that has changed over the last few weeks. I’ve made mugs of fresh oregano tea, and I’m not going to pretend and say I jumped for joy the first time I tasted it. I’ve been using oregano in most of my dishes, but I’ve never had it fresh as a cup of tea. The discontent of my tongue only lasted a few sips though. My palate warmed up to it when I got halfway down my mug. A few minutes later, I started burping, and boy, that felt good! A happy tummy makes a mommy happy.

You can use dried oregano leaves, but nothing beats fresh herbs. Oregano is a member of the mint family and it could be bitter depending on how much oregano you use and how long you infuse it. When I tried it the first time I just used three mature leaves. I wasn’t sure about its taste and I found out that three leaves were enough for my 8-ounce press. If you want it stronger just add more oregano and chop them. You can also stir in a teaspoon of honey if you’re a sweet tea kind of person. I take a spoonful of honey especially when I feel like I’m going down with something, but I never use them in my teas.  

It’s been quite a while and I’m sticking to my 3-oregano leaf, no-brainer concoction. Tell me how yours went if you decide to try it.

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it fuels the mind and body. Health-wise, I don’t think anybody should argue with that. There’s another meal during the day though that I feel is more important for three reasons. One, it’s well-planned. Two, it’s well-attended.  Three, everybody’s ready for long conversations at this time of the day. 

Well-planned lunches

I have memories of the women in my family sitting down during a mid-morning coffee break planning the day’s lunch. We lived in the province where LUNCH BREAK meant coming home from work or school and eating lunch with the entire family. That’s the reason why lunches had to be well-planned — everyone in the family looked forward to it every single day.

My grandmother would sometimes call over the phone asking us what we’d want for lunch. So even if we did not live in the same house, she’d have our “orders” delivered by one of the ever-reliable househelps and the driver. I have loved crispy pata (pork’s leg) since I was four so when I was in the mood for it I’d let my mother dial the phone so I could call Lola Didit and ask for my crispy pata. That was my food delivery service back in the 70’s.

Attendance is a must

My grandparents were rather strict about lunch attendance. Everyone would be expected to be at the table a few minutes after my grandmother would ring the bell for a meal. Their home, the Villa Mercedes in Bohol, was a huge Spanish house sitting gracefully between two spacious gardens. You could be anywhere when the bell rang — you just had to make sure that you’d be at the table before the second call. It may sound a little austere but I’ve been thankful for all those moments because now I have wonderful memories of family time well-spent, eating together the most delicious home-cooked dishes one could ever imagine.

My father carried this on at home. You could never be doing anything more important than a family meal. It didn’t matter if Duran Duran was playing on MTV. You’d had to leave those guys to be at the dinner table when it was time for a meal.

Every bite counts

I’d be seated somewhere on the right side of my grandfather and they’d have to put a can of biscuits for me to sit on because I was tiny. My grandfather initiated all conversations and I still clearly remember how all the adults would politely answer him when he asked them questions. He was a judge and carried an air of intimidation in him.

The talk would slowly become animated in the middle of lunch so everyone would start easing up. I’d remain quiet, hardly eating anything but tremendously enjoying all the conversations that would go on around me. Theirs was a 14-seater antique table and you could just imagine the buzz that went on there especially when desserts were about to be served.

What are your lunches like? I'd love to hear about your memorable experiences with food. Share them here!

All the memories I have of food and the people who made them are all amazing. That’s what my husband and I have been trying to let our son (and now our daughter who obviously loves to eat) experience in our home.

From time to time we’d gather family around and cook for them and share the wonderful experience I had when I was little.

We gathered together recently, and as usual, cousins requested for Roastaman’s roast chicken. Roastaman of course, could not refuse.

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