Dried Fish on My Dinner Plate

Dried fish, daing, tuyo, bulad—not one Filipino (even the well-off ones) would not recognise this food. Although considered as a poor man’s food, most Filipinos from all walks of life have had this on their tables.

Before migrating to England, I find nothing special about eating dried fish or bulad as we call it in our native language. This had always been an easy option whenever we ran out of food in the fridge or when we were out of budget. My mother also used to retail dried fish as a source of income to help support our daily needs, so just imagine the bulk of packed dried fish often stored in our kitchen to be distributed to her customers. I got used to the smell of it, which is not very pleasant to many.

A few weeks ago, as I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed, I saw a few friends posting pictures of dried fish on their plates. It made my mouth water, I even craved for it! It's very hard to ignore your cravings when you're pregnant but I had no choice. It was not like before when I could just run to the nearest sari-sari store and buy dried fish. "How cruel of them to post those pictures," I thought. But oh well… (sigh)... I just shifted my mind into thinking about other things.

A few days later, however, one of our friends who went on vacation to the Philippines brought back some dried fish, and they gave us some. I could have cried of happiness! Well, that's me exaggerating but I was really happy, though.

Now let’s skip to the part when I was sat on the table with dried fish on my dinner plate. Not only was I elated, but it also made me reflective. I wouldn't ever have thought how such a simple food could make me ponder so much about life. Here's my train of thoughts.

We don't always realise the importance of ordinary things until they are gone. Whatever state of life we are in at the moment, there is always something that we want. Sometimes it is by wanting so much that we fail to appreciate what we have.

There is joy in simple things. Most of the time, the things that could bring us true happiness come in simple packages and sometimes they even come naked to our eyes. We are just busy looking for the glitters and shines that we forget to be thankful about the simple joys. “All that glitters is not gold.” That’s Shakespeare telling us not to be deceived by what most of the world deem great.

There is no place like home. Oh yes! Believe me in this. You might be dreaming of travelling to different places or living somewhere else where the grass is greener, but you will never find another place where your heart belongs.

You don't always have to understand straight away. If I were myself three years ago, I would not understand the essence of what I am writing right now. "Why be so sentimental about dried fish?" I would imagine my old self asking. In life, we would not always understand things, why they happen and what they mean. That is just fine. We don't have to know everything. That's why we must always leave some room for ourselves to explore, make mistakes, and learn. When we do, things will all make sense.

I never thought I could write this much about dried fish. Is it just my pregnancy craving satisfied or have I gone beyond sentimental? :-)