Chefs in crisis

MILLIE: Recent events in our lives have caused a great stir and a drastic change in lifestyle. Dad was diagnosed with cancer of the gingiva. Early symptoms were his inability to chew properly and we thought it was a denture problem, so visits to Dr. Larry Mallari were arranged. We normally used to eat out practically every evening but in recent months, he would often request to go to a Japanese resto and order sushi because it was easier to swallow if he could not properly chew. As months went by, despite the many popular Japanese restos we regularly patronize, sushi was coming out of our ears! Believe me, there’s nothing as depressing or painful as seeing someone who loves to eat reduced to a mere watcher.

Dad would have cravings for lechon or Peking duck, but complained that the scrumptiousness and joy of savoring a bite of Peking duck was not commensurate to the pain and discomfort he felt. That was alarming. It took 11 other doctors’ opinions before a biopsy could be performed. Praise and thanks be to God that the dreaded disease was caught at stage one and so accessible that his doctors are very optimistic and are going for the cure.

KARLA: The situation was further aggravated when our kusinera suddenly went AWOL. I ended up taking charge of daily meals for Mom and myself but that was the easy part. Since Lolo Joe could not eat much and had specific must-haves ordered by Dr. Jaime Flor, which were broccoli, yogurt, bananas and apple cider vinegar, I had to be creative.

At first we were serving him congee mixed with blended broccoli until Dr. Flor mentioned that it was important for him to also have some protein to be strong. But when it was becoming difficult for him to chew, we eventually resorted to serving his meals Osterized. So I’d make broccoli soup for him using low-fat milk and fresh broccoli from Bukidnon. Apparently, broccoli is an antioxidant and it’s important for lolo to eat lots of this. We learned to blend steamed broccoli with whatever his Osterized meal of the day was. We worked on a menu cycle with dishes such as chicken tinola, beef with broccoli, pancit lomi, versions of sinigang and other dishes.

I would often catch lolo staring at what I was eating and imagining he was eating it the way I was. I guess this is where you can say that I started to appreciate feeling the texture of the food and the actual biting or chewing into food more as part of the overall experience of eating. I can imagine how much lolo wished he were eating normally again. Shortly after he started eating Osterized meals, we would see him tearing up tissue and rolling them into little tissue balls. This was his way of humoring himself and keeping track of how many spoonfuls he has eaten. It started out as rolling balls until recently we noticed that he had changed the shape of his rolled tissue, which now look like mini

Sea King Roll, a healthy dish made of steamed fish fillet, shrimp and kani crabstick with broccoli and wrapped in cabbage from Han Pao

bow pastas. When I asked why he changed the shape, lolo mentioned that if he makes it bow pasta, it means the food is harder to eat than the tissue balls. Poor lolo!

Yogurt is an anti-cancer food. As mentioned in our past article about Yo Swirls, for yogurt to actually be considered yogurt, it must contain at least 100 million live cultures per gram of yogurt to be able to maximize the health benefits of the product. Because of lolo’s diet we’ve been buying fresh yogurt from either former Senator Jun Magsaysay’s Holly brand or from BTIC. We mix the yogurt with his banana and papaya shake for breakfast or salad with yogurt dressing for lunch and dinner.

Another recommendation of Dr. Flor is apple cider vinegar and we use the brand Bragg’s. Lolo uses this to rinse his mouth as a sort of disinfectant to prevent infection from the mouth sores. We also mix this with 2 tsps. of Palawan honey, and have lolo drink three full glasses a day of what we call his chilled apple cider vinegar juice! Mom also discovered that it was good for the throat when she decided to try it once when she had lost her voice. I discovered that it makes a great vinaigrette dressing for a mesclun salad or avocado and crabmeat salad.

The fun part also is cooking for Mom and me and the rest of the family for Sunday dinner. It’s wonderful feeling to see my cousins gobble up a huge platter of penne pasta with creamy chicken and porcini mushrooms cooked with low-fat milk and sprinkled with an overdose of freshly grated Parmesan cheese!

We tried to serve favorite family dishes, from sinigang to sukiyaki, or whip up innovative creations to whet his appetite. We brought home dishes to delight him like the healthy Sea King Roll from Han Pao, which is steamed fish fillet and kani crabstick with broccoli wrapped in cabbage. Mom’s siblings took turns sharing their own specialties on potluck nights like my Tito Ray’s latest barbecue dish, my Tita Marijo’s healthy vegetarian dishes, my Tito Gerry’s Wagyu beef mechado and baby back ribs and Tita Dorcie’s home-cooked humba and pasta with tuyo flakes.

But the best part about lolo’s diet is that Dr. Flor said that chocolate is also an antioxidant. And being the chocolate monster and sweet tooth that he is, this information made his face light up. So when I visited Singapore end of August, I brought home a giant Hershey bar (his favorite!), which I hand-carried on the plane.

MILLIE: Probably the best thing that has ever happened is the family bonding as we prepared home-cooked meals together from scratch or potluck for Sunday dinners.

The downside was seeing Dad suffer as he was not enjoying his meals due to mouth sores that had erupted and for a while could not even talk as his vocal cords were affected by the radiation treatment. His doctor prescribed a boost of multi-vitamins and food supplements, which he calls astronaut’s food, to keep him healthy and strong. Our role was to pray with and for him, surround him with love, boost his morale and keep his sense of humor alive. So we would crack jokes during meals or guess riddles and talk only about pleasantries. The high spirits and positive attitude gave him the strength to fight.

Now that the radiation treatment is finally over, we can only pray that he is completely healed. Perhaps God gave us this time for a purpose, to allow time for the healing of past hurts and relationships to happen. It has allowed Dad to seek forgiveness as well as to forgive. Above all, Dad was able to express his gratitude and praises to the Almighty for all the many blessings he has been showered with. God is good!

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