My flight for the US leaves at precisely 8:30 pm Manila time, October 7, 2005. I'll be taking a Jet Blue flight. (Remember? It's the same airline involved in the incident last week when a plane's landing gear locked up and the pilots were forced to make an emergency landing.)
That, and I'll be traveling with five other people who are each at least twice as old as I am. Needless to say, I'm not too thrilled about this vacation. :)
At dinner this evening, my mind wandered over a plateful of rice. How much rice was I likely to run into while abroad? Would my rice meals in the United States be limited to expensive gourmet dishes and Chinese take-out? What am I going to end up eating? Will I have to upgrade the size of my slacks once I get back?
When one's mind wanders like this, one knows that there are no easy answers.
Suman, I imagine, would probably be a rarity in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Which is a shame, really, since they probably need more rice-based desserts over there. Heck, they probably need more rice over there, period.
The last time I bought a plateful of suman (and biko, and sapin-sapin) for a visiting foreign guest, I remember them enjoying it immensely. That said, they had these interesting expressions on their faces that basically went, "Oh, this is quite exotic. I'm glad I'm sampling some of the local cuisine before I get back home to my non-rice-based affairs."
Yes, I'm being cynical today. Every day probably needs at least one cynic, after all.
Anyone ever thought that maybe suman should be partially credited with the differences between American and Filipino physiologies? I mean, suman is such that it gives you this stuffed, I-can't-eat-another-bite feeling, which implies that Filipinos don't stick around for too much dessert. Whereas one can probably eat pies, donuts and other pastries all day and not have any mental warnings to show for it. That could be a possible explanation as to the rising trend of obesity among Americans.
On the other hand, now that I think about it, I'm going to be eating like them for the next three weeks. And even if I choose not to go and perhaps save on the cost of a new wardrobe, I've still got to consider the fact that there's a bakeshop in the stable of close familial proximations.
In other words, I lose either way.
Run, Sean! Run!
Walk in Shadows
Lie in Wait
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