There are times when I am more comfortable cooking alone. During our New Year’s day get together with my mother’s relatives I did the cooking all by myself. I was up as early as 6 am and cooked all the meals for our 30 guests. During these times I am in my element and my adrenaline is high since I want to beat the lunch deadline. A lot of times I would ask my yaya to leave the kitchen, sometimes I find it bettter to cook alone.
Somehow in my other cooking stints, women from my family from my sisters to my aunt and to the househelp would ask what they can do to help in the cooking. They sometimes try to volunteer to cut the vegetables, cook the stock etc. The same way that women are drawn together to cook in fiestas, weddings or anything that require extra help. When I was in Australia, women gathered to make desserts for my cousin’s wedding. Such was also the case when I was in Cuyo, Palawan. Where the movie - Ploning was shot. It was a shock for me that I would be cooking for 100 people from the cast and crew everyday. But the load was eased as women from Cuyo started to help. Just like Mrs. Medina who always volunteered to cook the rice and two more ladies from the area would help in cutting the vegetables.
Usually there was small talk, starting from the weather and the prices of the produce that came from the market. Sometimes we would talk about their children and some snippets of their lives. They asked me about my life in Manila.
It was a surprise for me that when I watched Ploning. In the movie, four women gathered in the kitchen too to make Cashew Brittle. Cashew brittle is a native delicacy in Cuyo. The women of Ploning (Celeste - Mylene Dizon, Alma - Meryll Soriano, Nieves - Ces Quesada and Ploning - Judy Ann Santos) each had a story to tell but the one thing in common about them is their friendship and the bond is strengthened everytime they gather around to crack cashew nuts or cook the Cashew Brittle.
For more details about the film log on to www.ploningthemovie.com
