Not content with figuring out that lasagna automatically makes me warm
and fuzzy, W noticed that I often snacked on the instant arroz caldo
mixes that I was thrilled to find at a nearby No Frills supermarket.
He then set about figuring out how to pronounce it (important first
step!), and how to prepare it. We ended up combining several recipes
from the Internet and throwing in *way* more garlic and ginger than
the Westernized recipes called for. We put in too much chicken meat
(will fix that next time), but the rest of it was just perfect –
glutinous rice dissolving into a chicken broth that had simmered to
perfection.

The only point of disagreement came when I sauteed the garlic
yesterday. I chopped up the garlic and threw it into the pan. W looked
at me in surprise and threw in the sliced onion as well, explaining
that he usually cooks the onion first in order to avoid burning the
garlic. I pointed out that the recipe specifically called for the
garlic to be lightly browned first. We compromised by cooking the two
separately in the same pot, and the dish wasn’t affected.

When I fried garlic again today, though, the reason for this
disagreement came to light. Aparently, Western cooking hardly ever
lets the garlic color. In fact, recipes often make a point of it. For
arroz caldo, though, you *want* crunchy golden garlic. With that kind
of clarification, we came to full agreement.

But look! Arroz caldo! Isn’t he so sweet? And now he’s looking up how
to make champorado, even though he can’t believe that chocolate rice
porridge is supposed to be a breakfast thing.

The way to someone’s heart is through their stomach… =)