WE still have a landline at home and it seldom rings now. But when it does, I shout at it: I have a mobile! Call my mobile!
Who wants to touch that landline? It’s dusty, so I hold it like it’s contaminated, which makes it difficult to hear the caller’s voice. That caller, by the way, always hangs up the phone after an exchange of hellos. I say, “Hello?” He/She says, “Hello.” And that’s it. What the…? Is this some kind of song, “The trouble with hello is goodbye”? But did the caller say goodbye? Nope. Just “Hello.”
Perhaps he/she prefers Adele: “Hello from the other side.” Or Lionel Richie: “Hello, is it me you’re looking for?”
There was a time, eons ago, when the word “phone” always referred to the landline. There were no other kinds of phones then. And everyone at home would use that one and only landline. Each time it rang, the call could be for anyone in the household—Dad, Mom, Kuya, Ate, Bunso, or the househelp. And even for the next-door neighbor. Imagine a barangay with only one landline. And then, there was the party-line user begging you to please hang up your phone so he could make his more important and more urgent phone call.
Those days are so gone. Everyone has a mobile now, and that’s the smartphone that can do everything. No need to use a megaphone so the househelp can hear you while you’re upstairs and she’s wherever she is. You now communicate with each other through texts and mobile calls: “Good morning, Yaya. My brunch for today: fried lapu-lapu and two fried eggs. Thanks.”
For a Sunday brunch, though, I imagined having my most favorite champorado, bulad, and boiled eggs while savoring its low-carb version: no-sugar-added chocolate ice cream, fried tamban, and fried eggs. The original plan was to have fried tamban and fried eggs only. The idea to add the choco ice cream as a substitute for champorado came in later, while I was already savoring each bite of the fish and eggs and started thinking, Murag naay kulang. Aha! Chocolate!
Like the balance of the wet and dry seasons, my low-carb meals also have their wet and dry parts. I pair anything fried with sunny-side-up eggs. Soup with boiled eggs. Adobo with scrambled eggs. Because anything fried plus boiled eggs would be too dry. Soup and sunny-side-up eggs—too wet. Adobo and scrambled eggs—just right.
All along, I thought I’d feel deprived of high-carb food. It’s actually the taste I look for, that’s why I can have the no-sugar-added chocolate ice cream instead of champorado.
Yes, I’m still a foodie. But whenever I indulge in a high-carb goodie, expectation usually exceeds reality now. It’s not as yummy anymore as it was during my high-carb days. My taste buds are changing, or is this somehow connected with my age? Hmmm.
Since the mobile has made it easier for the foodie to order food online, a low-carb goodie is always a message away. So, what to order next?
