make it double

our family had a food fair today.  you bring your specialty dish, the recipes of which will be compiled in a cookbook.

my mom cooks really good adobo, not the dark one but the light.  she calls it adobong puti.  i thought that was what she was going to bring to the get-together.  (uhm, i'm admittedly no cook so i just brought my camera.)  guess what, yesterday she was cooking menudo.

eh?  my whole life (i'm the eldest) i've never associated her with the dish.

me:  'why menudo and not adobo?'

mom:  '<aunt> will already be cooking adobo...'

me:  'it's okay to have the same dish...  you won't have the same recipe anyway...'

mom:  'i'll just try menudo...  anyway i told them if it does not pass our taste test then i just won't bring it...'

ok.

first tasters:  her laundrywoman and i.

the laundrywoman was polite:  'it's good but it needs to be a little more tender.'

me:  'mom, this is tough!  it's rubbery!'

mom:  'i'll have to cook it some more so it will be tender...  but then it has liver...  the liver will get tough if it's overcooked...  i'll have to remove the liver one by one...'

me:  'ouch!  why don't you just drop it?  you don't come up with a signature dish in one day...  specially if it's going to be included in a book...'

mom:  'i'll just try...'

okay.

ta-daan!!!  the re-cooked menudo was now tender.  my dad liked it.  my sister-in-law who is a very good cook liked it.  my nephew liked it.  my sister liked it.  i must say i liked it, too.  (the laundrywoman had left so she wasn't able to try version 2.0.)

it passed our 'committee' so she cooked a second batch for the food fair.  well, at the food fair, it even elicited some praise.  i ate my words, literally.

still i think she should have brought her adobo.  yeah, her menudo was good.  but her adobo is better.  so what if there'd be two?  there's always room enough for everyone's best.