When my mother and I talk about my childhood
the first thing she usually says is that I’ve always been interested in food.
The second one is that I used to like trying different types of food, but: What kind of food exactly?
About this topic I have to
tell you that I’ve my own funny memories that have been also confirmed by my
mother’s.
A hungry child: chubby and
dangerous
The fourth of five children, I was the only
one with a constant appetite, my brothers and sisters, in fact, used to be
quite fussy about food.
I remember they would rarely
leave their plates empty and it was hard for my mum make them try new recipes
or fish. My elder brother Giuseppe, for example, ate only frozen fish sticks,
instead of fresh fish until he became an adult. Nevertheless I was there to
help them and so I would finish their portions even though I had just finished
my huge one two minutes earlier.
With such a hunger it’s not hard to believe
that I grew very well and also that I was a little bit chubby at that age. But
it wasn’t my figure my mum was worried about but rather the anxiety that I
could have choked myself during one of my “eating experiments”.
Those experiments, in fact,
were made with a particular kind of food which was completely tasteless, very
hard to bite and of course impossible to digest: objects!
My poor mum, indeed, had to
hide from my view not only the appetizing titbits like candies, chocolate bars,
but also some objects in the house which could resemble things to eat. This is
because she had found me sometimes eating this kind of “food”.
Eating or playing?
My
earliest memory concerning my “eating habits” is when I was just two years old.
Even though I was so young, I still clearly see that scene: I was sitting on
the big couch in the living-room and watching the soles of my new pair of shoes
when I suddenly took one of the shoes straight into my mouth. The soles, in
fact, looked exactly like my favourite types of biscuits “Plasmon” and my
thought in that moment was probably like: Why did mum put my biscuits under my shoes?!
Unfortunately I also have the
vivid memory that the taste wasn’t as good as Plasmon biscuits!
Another time I almost ate a broken
necklace. I remember it was made of many little, white, round pearls and my
mother had put it into a drawer in her bedroom.
She hoped she could repair it sooner or later, but when I found it I
must have thought it was very similar to rice grains!
I don’t know how my mother didn’t
panic when she found me next to her bedside table eating piece by piece one of
her favourite necklace.
Fast-cook vs. fast-food
In
spite of my dangerous eating experiments, I must say my mother is a very
talented cook and she was also when I was a child.
I really love eating her dishes
and to me every single recipe made by her represents an important piece of my
childhood. But there’s one thing that I’ve never understood about her way of cooking,
and it still surprises me today: how can she cook so well by spending a very short
time at the cooker? (Being a working-mother of five children is probably the
right answer to this question).
I can safely say, in fact,
that my mother is a real fast-cook who doesn’t cook
fast-food, but the most
amazing traditional Sicilian dishes, like my favourite one: Caponata!
Antonella
Grippi
