A New Year's Resolution and an Old Year's Confession

Happy New Year! Four days into 2009, I'm finally posting my first entry of the year . . .

My parents' parol, Makati City
After two weeks of Christmas revelry in the Philippines, Mr. Noodle and I returned home just in time to usher in 2009 by loading the washing machine with a massive pile of vacation laundry, stowing away the luggage and sifting through a passel of pasalubong. While I'm happy to be sleeping in my own bed again, I'm also feeling the pangs of post-vacation blues: I already miss my parents and our extended family who went out of their way to make our visit incredibly special. It was a marvelous trip that ended much, much too soon.

But now that we're back, I'm ready to blog again! When I started this site last October, I conceived of it as a way to disseminate my passion about food and its cultural meanings. I originally didn't intend to post recipes or photos of dishes in the belief that my skills at writing about food far outstripped my abilities at actually cooking it. In truth, I was missing an opportunity to add dimension to my posts because the creation of a dish is as integral to understanding the meanings behind food as its consumption. So as I wrote my blog and read others, I was inspired to at least try immersing myself in the joy that is cooking and to record in words and images my efforts, successful or not. The lesson learned? Nothing ventured is nothing gained and in that spirit, I therefore declare my 2009 resolution:

I resolve to make a sincere effort at bringing each personal goal (or hare-brained idea) to some sort of fruition rather than succumb to self-doubt and the fear of failure. So, I will submit my articles to national publications, as I've always dreamed of doing; I will try at least one new recipe a week, as I've always hesitated to do; and I will constantly remind myself that if I fall flat on my face, I can simply pick myself up, blog about it, and then try again.

Our Philippines trip has yielded a trove of family stories, fun photos, and delicious recipes to share with you in the coming weeks. I hope that it will also spark in my mind some ideas for food and culture articles that might catch the interest of editors willing to give this aspiring food writer her first break. Wish me luck!

Ready for lunch at Salcedo Saturday Market, Makati City

Now, with the resolution out of the way, let's move on to the confession: [deep breath] I love airplane food! In complete contrast to fellow blogger Forays of a Finance Foodie, whose most recent encounter with plane food involved chicken strips of dubious quality (read her post here), I quite enjoyed my recent meals courtesy of Northwest Airlines. Ranging from appetizers of beef tenderloin and chilled seafood to entrees of spicy chicken curry and yellowtail teriyaki, the food served during our flights went well beyond the cellophane-wrapped sandwiches and mini bags of pretzels that I remember from travels past.

Appetizer of grilled scallops and marinated baby lobster
Tokyo to Manila

Of course, back then we were coach-class denizens. Using our hard-earned frequent flier miles, Mr. Noodle and I upgraded to Business Class for our 3-stop, 20-hour, trans-Pacific journey from Minneapolis to Manila. The real draws were the funky, pod-like seats that fully reclined and featured individual screens with video-on-demand but, honestly, the food was pretty good (I can sense the collective eye-rolling now rippling through the universe).

Shrimp oshizushi
NWA WorldClub Lounge at Narita (Tokyo) Airport

How good was it? Better than just edible but short of gourmet, I will concede. As shown by these pictures, some dishes were attractively presented. However, it wasn't the sensory qualities of the food - taste, texture, presentation, etc. - that I found most appealing. Instead, it was what the act of eating represented: a natural, comforting activity in the midst of the most unnatural and uncomfortable situation, that of voluntarily enclosing oneself in a fallible metal structure as it hurtles through the lower atmosphere at over 500 mph. I don't know about you but I'm chowing down whatever is placed in front of me if it will take my mind off that little factoid.

Raspberry tart, chocolate mousse cake and sweet biscuits
Tokyo to Portland

If I'm completely honest with myself, however, I must admit that I also liked its implication of exclusivity - how 'we' in business class were served food that was arguably of better quality than those in coach class. The fact that 'class' is used to categorize passengers makes a Boeing 747 something of a microcosm for social-economic structuring, with onboard dinner serving as a primary status marker (blue cheese-crusted beef tenderloin vs grilled chicken breast). I enjoyed my fleeting moment in the upper echelons (or rather, the forward cabin area) of society because I know that, barring a tremendous financial windfall, my next plane meal will likely center around a plastic cup of ginger ale and an extra bag of pretzels filched from the cart while the flight attendant is looking the other way.

Salmon & lemon-chive crostini, Asian beef tenderloin skewer, & mixed nuts
Portland to Tokyo

So, yes, I love airplane food. I loved that the little container of nuts had all the best kinds: Brazil nuts, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts and nary a peanut in sight. I loved that the folding tray table is covered with a white linen napkin and that I can use real tableware rather than utilitarian plastic sporks. But even if I were to get only a sad little cup of soda and a salty snack, I still love that by focusing on the aspects of eating, I don't think about the odd sense of suspended reality that is overseas air travel, leaving me discombobulated at the point of arrival as I find myself in a new land surrounded by strange faces, where time itself has jumped ahead 14 hours and I stumble down the jetway, confused by the timewarp . . .

. . . oh, wait. Maybe I'm just tipsy from the complimentary sake.

NWA-branded sake