Lunch on a Summer Day! Panda Rice and Ramen Noodles by Ainna

I don't really know how to cook.
Whenever I make something, I just kind of wing it.

A long time ago, I remember seeing rice and seaweed shaped to look like pandas.
My siblings and I were hungry so I decided to make us lunch.

I would give you a detailed recipe but I really just improvised with what I was able to scour from the pantry.

First, I made some rice. I wanted it to be soft so I put 2 cups of rice and almost 4 cups of water in the rice cooker.
While this was cooking, I started on the shapes for the "rice panda." I used scissors to cut these shapes out of the seaweed I found. It became very tedious but it was definitely worth it.

 They looked like this.


I cut the seaweed into strips first. This made it easier to cut the shapes out and waste less of it.

By the time I finished cutting, I decided to start on the ramen noodles. I don't really need to go into detail with that, but here's a picture because it looked tasty

The kind of ramen I cooked was the Lucky Me Instant Pancit Canton (Chow Mein).

My favorite from the Lucky Me brand is the calamansi flavor, but we didn't have any.

The rice was a bit difficult to work with!

I didn't use the Sushi Powder Vinegar we had because I didn't even know we had it until Buzzer handed it to me. I just took about 3/4 of the rice I made and put it into a blue container, adding a little bit less than 1/4 cup of white vinegar. I kept mixing it until the rice became sticky. I shaped them to look like this.

 There was enough rice to make about six more after I made six. I would have continued but my siblings and I have been snacking on the rice while waiting anyway.

I added the eyes, nose, and ears but also cut strips to horizontally fit the back of the panda and the butt of the panda.

They were really cute to look at.

I don't know if anyone will ever try this after reading my post, but it was fun anyway.

I'm a happy rice panda :)

Voilà!

Old CD-R in the Storage Closet!

          Today I found an old CD-R in one of the storage closets in my room. It read, "Ainna, Buzzer & Ponchay PICTURES" in Ninang's* handwriting. First of all, my little brother's name is Ricardo and my little sister's name is Ysabella. I'm not quite sure how they ended up being called "Buzzer" and "Ponchay" but they just did. No, "Ponchay" doesn't translate to anything in Tagalog. I popped the CD into the computer and the pictures I saw brought back memories.

          The awkward girl (yes, girl) in this picture is me. The day this picture was taken was the first day I learned how to ride a bike. It wasn't even my bike. I remember wanting to learn how to ride a bike while I was living in a small subdivision in the Philippines. The old bikes we had weren't exactly ride-able but it didn't matter because they were too high anyway. The neighbors to our left had a son named Joshua--he was the "Little Joshua" my family knew, not to be confused with the "big Joshua" who lived a couple more houses to the left. "Big Joshua" wasn't exactly "big" --he was fairly tall but he was my age. "Little Joshua" was closer to Buzzer's age.

          Little Joshua had a bike. I remember watching him ride it down the streets to the tindahan* while I sat outside. One day, one of our ya-yas* asked Little Joshua's ya-yas if we could borrow their bike. They said yes but also let us know that Joshua fell from it not too long ago, causing one of the training wheels to break off. I remember feeling a light sense of fear--which was soon masked by how excited I was to finally be able to know what it's like to ride a bike.

          I remember feeling so tall while riding that bike. I kept looking down because I couldn't believe I was actually doing it. Looking back at the picture, the bike looks much smaller than I remembered it. I know I grew and everything, but if the bike was even just a little bigger, maybe I would still feel as valiant as I did on that day.

Even though it may seem much more humble now, I think it was a feat I can still be proud of.

***

*Ninang -- this is similar to "Aunt" in Tagalog.
Fittingly, I found a picture of us on the CD also.

She's still as pretty as she was years ago.

Farther down is a very recent picture of us.

Hopefully I age as gracefully as she does.
She's definitely my favorite Ninang.

*tindahan -- small neighborhood store
*ya-ya -- family helper, nanny, caregiver, etc.