The Feast of St Valentine 2.0.1.2

I know many people have different opinions about Valentine's Day and this whole celebration of LOVE thing. However to me, Valentine's Day is just an extra special day that you must honour it for love, like your birthday ... when everything is all about you. It is not written in the law that people must celebrate birthdays or Valentine's Day ... but when it became a tradition, a norm or maybe culture ... it is a special day.

Many associated Valentine's Day with Christianity due to the fact that the early Roman Catholics observed it in honour of one of Christian matyrs named Valentinus. But honestly, in my 35 years ... never once I ever heard the Feast of St Valentine's or being taught by the church to observe it as a Christian Holy Day like Ash Wednesday, Easter, Good Friday, or Christmas. In fact, I think this festival of Christian origin has become more of something cultural especially in the West, just like how the Chinese celebrate Mooncake Festival (a festival of Chinese folk religion origin) or in modern Bidayuh context, how we see Gawai Dayak Harvest Festival - a festival in honour of our culture and tradition.

I can accept it as something Christianity especially on the honouring the Act of Love as it is written in the Scripture - Between love, hope and faith, love is the greatest of all. However, to first associate Valentine's Day with something immoral, lustful and then link with Christianity ... that angers me ... there I said it.

For the year 2012 and the years before, I celebrate LOVE, non LUSTfully (never pun unfortunately). Instead, it was more towards GLUTTONY. I asked myself earlier today ... How shall I love thee? True, there are many ways of showing that you love yourself, however I decided that I should love myself like how I love a child or how I spoiled members of my family. Yes, I show my love through food. 

Being brought up in a conservative Asian family, food is something many household tend to revere most. My late grandmothers from both side take food matter very seriously. Do we have enough rice to feed everyone? Have you taken your lunch/dinner? Make sure you finish your plate. Make sure you have something before you go ... those were their words that still ring in my ears. Despite now that many of my family members and relatives have turned obese (myself included) ... I still could feel their fear till their final days that we might not have enough to eat.

Unconsciously, I do fear that I might have not enough to eat ... and so do my mum, my dad and my aunts ... just look at the food stocks that we have in our kitchen. But at least, I love to cook ... and so does my mum, my dad and my aunts. Cousin Ruby came last weekend and brought my aunts shopping at Sunshine Farlim. I was so amazed when Auntie Rose told me that Cousin Ruby has tasted, tested and experimented with all sorts of food products. From rice grains, to pasta ... even to which brand of cheese nice to eat with what.

Ruby initially couldn't understand my love for wantan mee, always advising me to try other Penang hawker fares. But when I explained to her that my wantan mee got ranking and my benchmark is the Caunter Hall stall .... she somehow could relate to it, telling me how she was so crazy of Assam Laksa but couldn't find one that tasted quite right in Parit Buntar. But once she finally know how to cook the Assam Laksa correctly and at par with Grandma's and Auntie Rose's ... she could finished the whole pot of Assam Laksa gravy all by herself. Hahaha ... the story about her finished a whole pot of assam laksa was a legend in my family.

So commemorating today's LOVE theme of SELF Indulgence and EATING WITH PASSION ... I wandered to my green pasture ... the City of Georgetown, Penang. Forgetting for a while the expanding waistline and my recent recovery from tonsillitis. A total bliss! Happy Valentine's Day everyone ...

Breakfast of Kuey Teow Soup Utara and Air Bandung @Astaka Tanjung Selera.

Coffee break with Penang Coconut Jelly and Rojak Buah.

Dinner with Penang Sar Hor Fun and Teochew Chendol at Georgetown White Coffee.