TO EAT IS TO LIVE

Food is a matter of perspective and I'll always prefer Kazutoyo Koyabu's stoic silence and crisp one liners over Jayson Yeoh's monologues.

For a former child soldier and prostitute, a dark meal of potato leaf curry with rice in Liberia is almost as good as a fancy bacon and egg spaghetti, and I can confidently say that the feuding gangs of LA South Central would prefer Granny's fried chicken and pilaf for their last meal over a chef's kapitan curry chicken, crispy fried fish and risotto with squid. 

Even the Nine Emperor Gods will stick to their usual vegetarian turtle buns and longevity peaches if offered an exotic torch ginger flower, crab and star fruit salad bowl.

That is why Saturday morning nourishment for the Phantom Bikers will always be goto with burnt tokwa bits and slices of pale biko. 

But in Vladivostok, an ex-convict would gladly trade macaroni and ofal for a once-in-a-lifetime dinner of cured meat claypot rice, just as the stranded refugees in Croatia would be happy with a side dish of baby goat meat with petai-so to go with their usual fare of curry flavored tomato sauce pasta.

Back in LA, a gourmet mushroom soup can elevate a prison-inspired wet burrito but the cremators and pandhandlers of Nepal will have to do with bean and grass curry.  

E kasi nga, Sunod lang ang multo ni Olivia kay Eman nang isagawa niya Ang Pangarap Kong Holdap dahil love ni Ben si Jen Through Night and Day samantalang Jane is surviving On Vodka, Beers and Regrets.