Snakes on a Plate

In my life, I never thought that I would be given the chance to eat a dog, a frog or a snake. In just one weekend, call it luck I suppose, I was able to try and eat all three animals, cooked in different ways from one another. This was because during this weekend, I was at my immersion in Tarlac wherein we lived within an aeta community and it was here that I watched how they cooked these dishes and later on, I excitedly consumed these interesting dishes to my sheer delight.

 The dog was simply added to a pot of water along with some vegetables without any other ingredients. The pot was placed on top of some rocks while a fire was burning underneath it. When the meat was tender enough, it was finally time for lunch. The frog on the other hand was simply barbecued. After they caught it from nearby, they placed it beside the fire and waited until it was ready. Although no special sauce was added before cooking it, the frog still had a nice flavor to it, making you to just want more of it with every bite. It did not taste like chicken but even the burnt part of the frog’s skin, was still very appetizing.

 The snake was the most interesting dish I tasted. Again, there was nothing special with the preparation. It was simply “grilled” then placed in water to create soup from its meat. As I chewed on its tough and scaly skin, I could not help but cringe during my first few bites. However, the more I chewed, the more I enjoyed its exotic taste. It was kind of like eating a tire. Moving on to its meat, I liked it better than beef because although it was boney, the meat was so soft that it seemed more like fish than snake. Looking at how these dishes were prepared, I would say that despite how simple it was to prepare them, and despite the meat being more alien than familiar to the tongue, these dishes gives one the satisfaction that would equal probably ten McDonald’s value meals or five boxes of Yellow Cab pizza.

This makes one wonder that if anything else was added in the mix, would the dishes be better? Would salt or sugar make it taste better than it already is or would it ruin its flavor? It is kind of how our lives are right now. Our lives are so fast paced that have we ever stopped to wonder if our lives would be better with or without what we have now. Does everything we know now, like science, religion or politics deprived us of our happiness? Have technological advances like the cellphone or the laptop, placed so much clutter in our lives that we have not been given the chance to breathe in the air and feel refreshed? Sometimes we just have to keep our lives as uncomplicated as we possibly can. Why? This is because each of our lives are as exotic and distinct as the dishes mentioned earlier. If we are to fully appreciate its taste, we just have to cook it without much of any other ingredient. This is so that we can fully appreciate our lives and live it to the fullest because all other distractions are gone. There would be no salt to make our lives bitter. There would be no sugar to make it seem sweet even though we know it really is not. We take our lives for what it is and enjoy it as much as we can. We are able to savor its flavor and its flavor alone. This is why we should, every chance we get, reflect on what we have, and take away the things we absolutely do not need. If you do this, you will learn that life does not always taste just like chicken and that, we do not need to make it taste like chicken either. Sure enough, once we accomplish this task and learn these lessons, our lives will be simple, and yet full of happiness with satisfaction guaranteed.