Laing (Ginataang Gabi): Our Lunch Today! A Free and Delicious Meal from My Mother's Garden

Hello, everyone! How are you today?

For me, one of the things that makes me think every day is food. Haha! Sometimes, I am still eating my breakfast, but my mind is already asking, “What will I cook for our next meal?” As a mother, I always think about what to prepare for my family. We need to eat every day, and buying ingredients can be expensive.

But today, I am happy because I did not spend money on our main dish. Guess what? I just went to my mother's garden!

My mother has gabi or taro plants in her garden, so I picked some taro roots and stems to cook for our lunch. Here in the mountain, we need to be resourceful. If we have vegetables around us, why not use them to prepare food for our family? We do not need to buy everything, especially when we can harvest something from the garden.

After picking the gabi, I cleaned the leaves and stems and sliced them into pieces. Haha! Do not expect my slices to have the same size because I did not measure them. For me, what is important is that I clean them properly before cooking.

I also grated a coconut to get fresh coconut milk. We have to do some work before we can enjoy our food, but that is okay. This is part of our simple life here in the countryside. After preparing everything, I was ready to cook our laing or ginataang gabi.

While I was cooking, my neighbor and friend suddenly arrived. She brought me a pasalubong from Iloilo, and I was surprised because she gave me a lot of dried fish! I felt so happy because even though she went somewhere far, she still remembered me.

I also gave her some vegetables from our garden as my way of saying thank you. I believe that sharing does not always have to involve money. Sometimes, the vegetables we grow ourselves are already enough to make someone happy.

By the way, have you heard people say that when a selfish person cooks taro, it becomes itchy? Haha! I do not know if that is true, but maybe I am not selfish because our laing did not become itchy! Just kidding!

Finally, our lunch was ready. I served our laing with fried dried fish, and we enjoyed eating together. What a simple but satisfying meal!

I am happy because I did not spend money on our main dish today. Thanks to my mother's garden and my thoughtful friend, we had a delicious lunch.

Living in the mountain teaches me to appreciate simple things. If we have a garden, we should take care of it because it can help feed our family. For me, having food to serve on the table without spending much money is already a blessing.

Thank you for reading my story. This is my own picture and the lead photo was edited in chatgtp to inhance the image.

Have a nice day. 💛