chicken green curry for the soul

I don't cook. My mom cooks, my dad cooks, my grandma, and my three brothers, heck even my li’l cousins cook: everyone in the family cooks. I, on the other hand, don’t. I only fry or reheat, never cooks…

‘Till today.

Yesterday, I decided to cook real food. A challenge and a way to focus my passion into something, it was a toss between Gaeng Kiaw Wan and Adobo. So after downloading, the recipe I went to the mall with a friend, Jay Jay. Who just like me, recently suffered from a gruesome heartbreak.

The best aroma ever

Chicken Green Curry is an array of mixed herbs and spices, the only curry I know that isn’t red or yellow. The green curry itself comes from lemongrass, green chilies, shallot, garlic, galangal, ginger, fresh coriander/cilantro leaves & stems, fresh basil, cumin, white pepper, fish sauce, shrimp paste, lime juice, brown sugar, and coconut milk. That of course, is for the curry paste alone. The brew of the paste smells like heaven, but the taste would make you scream as if you’re in hell. I only eat spicy food, this is what I blame for my hyperactivity and libido. I would easily compare the curry’s characteristics to that of a lovelife; it smells great but once you put it inside you, you’ll get burn.

Spice with a kick

So what makes it spicy? Curry and green chillies. I’m probably a masochist. I can’t eat unspicy food. I adore the heat it generates on my emptiness, the stinging pain in my taste buds, just as I continue enjoying love from a person who’ll never holler back. Spice = unrequited love.

Green

I’ve always liked the color green, when I was in high school, I even saw myself wearing FEU’s green pants, just because it’s my favorite color. Green, of course, is favored by well-balanced people. Green symbolizes the master healer and the life force. It often symbolizes money. It was believed green was healing for the eyes. Egyptians even wore green eyeliner. Green eyeshades are still used which claims to have soothing effect. Eating raw green foods is scientifically proven to cause longer life. Maybe, it’s the same reason why I always liked green, it feeds my longing for this balanced lifestyle I could never attain.

Cooking and depression

Cooking does help a person focus, with the crazy time limit and precise measurements: you need to be focused. But after you eat what you cooked, what’s left is nothing. You’re tummy maybe full but you’re soul isn’t quite fed as you’ll expect. For what it’s worth, having the Green Chicken Curry as my first cooking experience is great: it’s enough to feed and fill up a dozen hungry drunkards, but still fails to feed a person’s soul.