The trouble with getting my paycheck seven days early is that it gets spent earlier as well. I have to stretch the meager remainder until the 15th, and I still haven't paid the electricity bill yet. *headboink*

Because of this, I'll have to make frugal bento for 2 weeks. Today I brought fried eggplant and salted egg. Yumyumyum! I've been craving for fried eggplant since the new year. (I think this is my body's way of telling me I'm on meat overload. ;p) I think I'll bring the same thing tomorrow. It's super-cheap, too: P10 for 2 eggplants and P9.50 for a salted egg. Rice is free since we get paid in rice for renting out our garage space to a neighbor with no garage and a shiny new car.

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Speaking of bento, I've been watching the bentolunch community for a while, and I noticed I can tell a bento-maker who grew up in a culture where rice is a staple food, from those who are rice newbies. Rice newbies usually look for flavor on their rice -- they sometimes add salt or soy sauce; and even if they try to become purists and eat their rice plain, they treat the rice like some sort of side dish. Mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, buttered corn -- these are side dishes. They're optional. Rice isn't. At least, not for native rice-eating people.

The rice newbies don't have the concept of "kanin at ulam" (we usually translate "ulam" as "viand" but it really is a whole 'nother thing), so therefore can't appreciate how almost impossible it is for us to swear off rice for long periods. Rice newbies can enjoy their viands/food without the side dishes. But our ulam can never be complete without rice. Can you imagine adobo, sinigang, kare-kare without rice? (Even hotdog feels wrong without rice, for me.) Rice is part of the overall taste of the dish, and that's why it can never really be classified as a side dish.

Ever notice how, when native rice-eaters are asked to name their favorite dishes, none ever thinks of including rice on their list, even if they eat rice every single day? Because rice is always there. Like air. You take no notice of it when it's there, but would absolutely die when it's gone. Only when a non-native rice eater starts to feel this way will they be able to experience rice the way we do. :)