Self-coined term: riceosophy – a combination of words ‘rice’ and ‘philosophy’. Which really just mean the philosophies of rice. Don’t think too much into it, though. If I sound illogical or incoherent, I probably am. 😛

Here are some sayings I grew up with that are related to rice, each of which encapsulates the philosophies of life in its own unique way:

1. Finish up every single grain of rice on your plate, or else whatever is left on it will resemble the acne/pimples on your future husband’s face. You don’t want that, do you?
2. I’ve consumed more salt in my lifetime than the total amount of rice you’ve eaten up in yours.
3. It’s a sin to let your tears fall into your plate of rice. Go cry elsewhere, then come back to your food. 
4. Too late… rice has turned into porridge. (There’s no turning back.)
5. The rice won’t cook itself. (Quit talking and go do some real work.) 
6. Best remedy if you choke on fish bone – swallow mouthful of rice. 

Recalling all these “quotes” reminded me of all the assortment of emotions, mixed with mouthfuls of rice and downed with the help of soup (or very rarely, tears–even when my parents forbid me so). For I’ve eaten it in contempt (not because I was eating it), in sadness, laughter, tears, rage even. I grew up eating rice; and it really was the hard work of those farmers that fed me and made me into this five-feet-four girl, molecule by molecule, over the span of two decades and few more. Yet I don’t think I’ve stopped to think about them often enough, and thank them for the grains of sweet rice I get to enjoy every single day. So today, as I wrap up my 30-day food diary project, I shall dedicate this post to all the farmers in the world who worked so hard to allow billions of people the pleasure to enjoy these grains of happiness, these fruits of their sweat and labor. Thank you all for such blessings that have been taken granted for and dismissed so easily.

So! what was on the list of my last day of food diary?  Let’s see:

With that. I’m proud to say, I’m done with my first project! 🙂 Looking forward to many more to come. Many thanks to Jun, Chean and Mandy for helping me out with the guest posts. And to the rest who accompanied me along the way. 🙂

Nasi lemak for breakfast, with extra sambal on the side, and the extra ikan bilis (anchovies) and cucumber that I managed to sweet-talk the nasi lemak aunty for. Oh, and more gravy for the rendang. Yum. 🙂 Then I’d go about my daily activities and before I knew it, it’s lunch time. Between chicken rice and chap fan, I decided I prefer chap fan, with lots of greens on my plate and either sesame chicken, curry chicken, or sweet and sour pork. With probably just 3 spoonfuls of rice.
Then comes tea time! My favorite time of the day. I’d drag my mom to get some pisang goreng from the best pisang goreng stall in the whole wide world, 2 pieces of pisang and 1 ubi keledek for each of us and grandmother. Mmmm look at the sizzling golden brown items, taken out directly from the huge wok of oil. Can’t wait to sink my teeth into them. Rush home to make coffee, and enjoy our afternoon chat with the glorious snack. It’s either that, or I’d have jawa mee if pisang goreng aunty decided to give herself a day off.

Oooh dinner time. What next? Probably my chap fan aunty. Yes rice again, but with a huge variety of delicious home-cooked dishes to go with. The only challenge I face is what I should have with my rice: sting ray, otak-otak, pork and potatoes in black sauce, fish curry, different kinds of greens, or tofu dishes. Cheap good food. *drooling* For the amount and quality of food I’m getting, I don’t mind facing this dilemma every day. 😉

Head home after dinner. There are always so many things to do at home. TV, piano, laptop, books. Disturb my brother. Or, clean the house (unlikely, but definitely a choice). Settling for a book… but of course, the phone buzzes. Ah friends calling to go out for supper later. What else – teh tarik and garlic naan/roti canai as we catch up on all the lost years, of course. 😉 

Only, they were as good as my bubble thoughts. Roommate came out of the room, greeting me ‘good morning’; her chirpiness just burst my bubble and I came crashing down into my reality. Splash! Smash! Crash! Clank! Clonk! Ouch. I gaze down at my plate and see the crumbs from my bagel that I just ate… Where’s the nasi lemak??!

Sigh, dissipated into thin air the moment my bubble thoughts were burst, that’s where.

Instead of all the above, here was what I had yesterday:

I want a vacation, pronto! (Who doesn’t?!) Good news is, I’m getting one! Not to the homeland where I can get all those food, but still. 2 more days!! 🙂

Don’t know what to think. Or write. It’s one of those blanking-out days. Dazed in my own maze.

Could it be the lack of nutrition?

2230: 10pm at night and just in time for work. Can’t function without you-know-what. So yeah, MORE coffee. And cereal in it. 🙂  Glorious cereal, love it!

Sorta miss my camera, haven’t had a chance to play with it. But classes are ending soon, so I’ll have more free time to explore the city and snap some pics. Then again… knowing me, I’ll be looking for something else to keep myself busy.

Andddd… I got another friend to guest-blog for me! Saved by the email again. 🙂  This friend of mine was trained under a reputable chef in Aussie (of whom I regretfully forgot the name) and was working with her for a while. Though she’s not in the food biz right now, I do hope she continues to hone her skills so she can cook me a six-star meal some day. *ahem, hint hint* 😛  Who knows, maybe someday she’ll own a restaurant (and I’d get free meals whenever I visit her). Hee hee. What a cheap friend I am! XD (No, of course not! I’ll be nice and wash the dishes, I promise.)

So here’s her food diary. Enjoy! 😉 

Uhm. She’d be disappointed to see what I’ve been eating these days. Ahem. So much for giving advice to people, hah! But to be fair, that was a long time ago though – about 4 years or so ago?! That’s how long I haven’t seen all my friends back home and abroad elsewhere.

Anyhow. I’m trying to eat better lately. Had some vege soup for dinner yesterday, so that’s a start! And I finished my jar of peanut butter. NOT buying anymore of those… at least for the time being. 😉

Now off I trot! Have a lot to do today!

The homeless guy went missing for two days, and I found myself wondering where he had gone. Maybe he has another “spot”. Or maybe he went off on a ‘weekend trip’, to the beach or something, you know, for a change of environment. 😉

Everybody needs time-out every now and then. The homeless dude, myself. I’m getting a wee bit sick of the PB-pizza-cereal-noodle routine, so I treated myself out for a late night supper last night. 🙂

Ze list:

Oh I’ve been deprived. The late night meal made up for past week of odd combination of stuff I’ve had though! It’ll last me for a week I bet, after which I’d be on the hunt for some real food again… but by then my FD project would be over and I won’t be boring you all with my PB-pizza-noodle diet. 😛 (I must add, I’m usually healthier than that… with lots of tofu and broccoli as my dinner. But it doesn’t go far from there. heh.)
Righto. Off to read up for class later!

Long time ago I experimented a different way of eating cereal and came up with the oddest combination. It was a lot of fun eating it. Now I certainly don’t have the urge to eat my cereal that way every single time, but I wouldn’t say it tasted horrible either. Years later, I’ve yet again tried something new with cereal, and it’s definitely much better than the first ‘invention’. At the very least, it’s less odd. 😉

Yesterday’s food consumption:
0130: “Lunch” break at work – had a Nutrigrain cereal bar.
0150: Still on my break, had my boiled carrots and black fungus (aka cloud ear fungus). Jun said it’s good for slimming, so maybe I should go get more of those and have it every meal. 😀
0250: An orange and coffee.
0900: Back at home, catching up on class readings – had apple cinnamon fruit crisps (not enough), had rice with kimchi, and chamomile tea (bad idea – it made me feel so sleepy I conked out!).
1930: My “breakfast” at dinner time – more rice with kimchi, and some tofu this time! Love it. 🙂
2200: Work time! It’s become a habit of mine to have coffee before I start a night’s work, so as usual, I’m sipping my coffee and binging on my cereal. Then it hit me – why not eat cereal with coffee? Hehe. And of course, I did. 🙂

It didn’t take a lot of persuading to get my ex-roomie to write me a food-diary post. She lives far far away from me now, so I have one less buddy to hunt for desserts and coffee. Actually, she was the only constant dessert buddy I’ve had over here–here as in the U.S. So now I’m down to none. 🙁

Anyhow. If you think what I eat throughout the day was weird, you should check out what she eats every day. 😛 With that said, I’m sharing with you my darling friend Chean’s food diary. You can take a sneak peak of what she writes (only awesome and entertaining stuff of course) at her blog, whose blog titled “Because Chocolate Can’t Make You Pregnant” says A LOT about her. 😉