Table manners
MEDIUM RARE
As a “food-obsessed” people, is it true we eat six times a day?
Which would put snacking as a national pastime. And yet we have laws against donating unconsumed food to charities like orphanages, homes for the aged and such. It’s also true that whatever food is left uneaten in the restaurant, it is usual for diners to tell the waiter, “Please pack the leftovers in a doggie bag for me to take home.”
Legends, like habits, grow over time. Many of us of a certain generation or generations were brought up supposing that people in certain countries in the Far East and South Asia were “starving” – an unfounded rumor that mothers and grandmothers unfairly passed along to teach their young why not to waste food. Nonetheless, it is assumed that we do waste too much food. If you ask your friendly waiter, he’ll probably confirm your worst fears: 30 percent of water and 20 percent of food are left unconsumed on the table in a typical middle-class restaurant.
As a happy people who celebrate by eating and feasting, we are forever on the lookout for new restaurants. When Tikya discovered that a newly opened restaurant was in her neighborhood, she invited our so-called eating club to join her and “give it a try” – which we did.
The restaurant is named Thai Siam, and true enough, it serves Thai food. Happily, it does not lack for Siamese local color. The waiters and waitresses wore aprons in violet and purple, with a printed pattern of elephants on parade. At the end of the meal, the chef, Thai born-and-bred, came out to pose for pictures with Gringo Honasan.
It was then that the easily recognizable Gringo, “cashiered colonel,” former coup leader, senator, and cabinet secretary (Communications and Technology) confirmed that he’s running again for senator in the 2025 elections. Another former soldier and secretary, Ping Lacson, will come out of retirement to join the race.
The initials of Gringo’s party, PRG for People’s Reform Group, are tattooed on his right hand, between the thumb and forefinger. It took the tattoo artist two hours to do the job. Was it painful? Yes, but soldiers are expected to be brave.
Gringo: “You cannot give what you do not have.”