Questa è Enida

The more I deal with difficult challenging people, the more I learn about myself. About my patience and about my capacity to restrain myself from saying something outrageously smart, or more often than not… painfully obvious.

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Just yesterday… I learned that I am actually very particular when it comes to cooking vegetables; leafy green vegetables, specifically speaking. Not many of them need cooking much anyway, except those that are exotic like tapioca leaves, the edible ferns and the pumpkin leaves.

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Kailan, bak choy, spinach and kangkung are among the very delicate green vegies that wilt very quickly. That was why when I bought the three ‘ikat’ of kangkung at Mercato yesterday, I knew what I was going to do with it. Tumis belacan or taucu. And I was going to do it my way.

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But when everything was ready and prepared by my helper, she started talking about how she would usually cook kangkung dishes back home. Like this lah, like that lah. And since she doesn’t eat my cooking much – I noticed, perhaps she doesn’t like my Chinese-style cooking – I decided to let her do it her way.

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So my helper cooked the kangkung her way.

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Halfway through, I reminded her to not let it simmer too long or the leaves would wilt. She added COLD water for more ‘kuah’, waited for the kuah to boil and turned off the heat, put the lid on and let it sit.

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I took a very very deep breath, said nothing, and went on YouTube to look for a soothing song like “Didn’t I Tell You” by Rumi. It was actually a poem with a background instrumental song I have grown to love over the years. I so needed some distraction! This kangkung challenge was really making me think of how to make my helper realize that she was overcooking the vegetable!

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It wasn’t her. It was me. I don’t speak my mind very well. I either cut like a knife or burn like wildfire. But I remained silent.

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Little that I knew… God was listening. And He did all the speaking to my helper when she was scooping the kangkung from the pot into the serving bowl. “Kelayuan ini kangkung, Buk. Malah kebanyakan air. Nanti kalo masak ini lagi, saya coba, jangan kelamaan di api. Saya tuh senang sama yang kraok kraok kraok kalo dikunyah.”

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I just smiled.

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I thanked God last night – more than usual – for the strength He gave me to hold my tongue.

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