Skip to main content

Matabang

The Mild Fiancée and I have a very interesting relationship to food. Between the two of us, we will eat just about anything and seek out interesting food. We also spend time a good amount of time cooking an interesting diet, so things are never very dull in our kitchen or at our table. Basically, there's always a laugh or two to be had.

The latest turn of events is that we've noticed that the Mild Fiancée likes to season her food a bit more than I do. Neither of us add so much that the food tastes bad, but it's readily apparent who adds more spices to the food. I don't just say that to avoid getting dirty looks; other people have complimented the Mild Fiancée's cooking for a very long time. She knows what she's doing in the kitchen.

So, perhaps it's more appropriate to say that I add less seasoning to the food than the Mild Fiancée. I appreciate flavor as much as the next person, but I just prefer a bit less seasoning. There's no accounting for preferences, I suppose. Of course, it didn't take very long for us to realize this fact about our cooking, so there has been so friendly ribbing over this. I poke fun about the Mild Fiancée's extra seasoning, and she accuses my cooking of being bland. Specifically, she uses the Kapampangan word for "flavorless," matabang. Let's just say that the word has been used in enough jokes that I now remember it.

Better yet, the whole thing came up when we stopped by to visit the Mild Fiancée's parents. The Mild Fiancée and I had gone to a Filipino restaurant that we really liked, largely because they did a really good job of seasoning the food. Unfortunately, it's far too common to find places that simply throw seasoning at the food, so that it ends up tasty too greasy, too salty, or too something. We had been very impressed with that food, so we were recommending it to her folks. That's when they threw out this gem:

Parents: "But, [Mild Fiancée], you like the food matabang."

I couldn't help it, I just started laughing. When I caught the Mild Fiancée's eye, she immediately knew why I was laughing, and she had to explain to her folks the backstory. I don't remember the exact comment, but it was something along the lines of, "you think I'm bad? He likes it WAY bland." The tone in her voice was probably the best part. It was part accusatory, part pleading, part conspiratorial, and all laughter. Everyone had a good, hearty laugh about this (myself included).

Who knew learning bits and pieces of another language would be this much fun?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

All Good Things ...

August 8, 2009. Over twelve years ago, I started blogging with this simple post . I didn't really have a great reason for starting the blog, other than I wanted to try it out. I wanted to try writing and putting it where others could read it. I don't know, it just seemed like a new adventure to try. Along the way, there have been all sorts of posts and all sorts of life events, but through it all, I kept writing. It just became a part of what I do at some point. It wasn't a matter of whether I was going to write a blog post, it was a matter of when. The Mild Wife has described it as a "writing practice," and it was one of the reasons why I kept writing. Honestly, it's good practice, and it gives me an opportunity to hone my craft. I'm no professional author, but we all have to write stuff in our everyday lives. Why not give yourself reps to get better at it? However, I think it's time for that practice to change. My weekly anecdotes sure kept me amused...

Waiting for the Suck

I've mentioned it before, but I like to watch some Netflix while I do the dishes . I don't remember when I started the practice, but it's become a routine at this point. It gives me something to focus on while I do chores, and it makes the whole experience more enjoyable. All in all, it seems like a good idea to me. Now, I know that my screen time is limited. I'm certainly not going to wash dishes for two hours, so I can't watch an entire movie in one go. Heck, half the time, I can't even watch half of a movie in a single session. Ultimately, that drives my viewing preferences, so that I tend to favor episodic shows. Basically, that's how I watch some show or another: one dishwashing session at a time. Recently, that's been the Star Trek: Enterprise show. I never watched it when it first came out on television, so this is my chance to see the whole series. As with many series, there are some good episodes and some not-so-good episodes. Still, it's a...

An Excursion: Getting Home

So, in the ongoing saga that I have been writing about the last few weeks, a perfect storm of random occurrences led me to taking a trip to the office. Once there, I went about my day, but leaving led me to wander through a mine field of geese and goose droppings . Incidentally, I also happened to mention this to my coworkers, and one of them introduced me to the nickname that Canadian geese sometimes go by: the " cobra chicken ." All in all, that one day led to much hilarity. Still, at this point in our tale, I wasn't home yet. The Mild Wife was out and about that day, so we had agreed to carpool. I was going to hop on the bus, and she would pick me up from a BART station. We've actually done this a bunch, and it had become my go-to means of transportation before the pandemic started. It saved me from having to deal with rush hour traffic, so I was actually a big fan of this process. I expected far less traffic on this day, but even so, it was a sound plan so that...