grilled pork belly, arroz caldo and fringe

05.48PM, 02.28.2011. what i thought was just a sniffle last tuesday turned into a bout of sneezing, dripping and runny nose and colds wednesday dawn, with sudden joint pains and fever later that day. after emailing my boss, i slept from thursday through saturday morning, with a brief lucid moment to accompany my wife for her doctor's appointment (and side trip to outpatient for myself).

at the hospital, the little girl two seats left of me in the waiting room said i snored like her dad. i wasn't so sure if she meant he snored loudly, or that he slept in a waiting room with feet splayed and without a care in the world, or both. the appointment, though, boded good news, but more on that later.

i didn't even mind when a thoughtful intern asked if i would like it if he and his two classmates would accompany me to the outpatient clinic as i was burning up a fever and the chills were quite apparent. a few minutes later, the diagnosis -- caught the damned flu, so said she, and sent me home with a prescription of medicine and complete bed rest. nothing serious was prescribed, simply OTC. (i will say one thing: neozep forte really knocks people out and i now understand why the pharma company came out with the no-drowse version; and regular self-medicated doses of 1000 mg of ascorbic acid works.)

i have missed a total of three days of work and an equivalent of five whole days. i missed multiple deadlines (and informing the people i work with about my condition), going online, and watching UFC 127 yesterday. but i did get to see the reruns: bj penn, you're my hero, but what happens now? and michael -- oh sweet, arrogant, caught-in-the-moment michael: for shame.

(penumbra: update on this issue here. the fight lawyer gives his take on the whole affair, as well -- a must-read.)

most especially, i missed my wife. oh, she was here physically, taking care of me and making sure that our family dogs didn't use me as furniture to sleep on. she woke me every 6 hours for my meds, and woke me as maki, our 1-part chihuahua and 199-parts aspin, made use of my right foot as a pillow and when dash, our mad labrador used my dangling left leg as a back scratcher. but i still missed her.

when she woke me early dawn today for my meds, my wife discovered that my fever had broke. i could finally take a chills-free shower for the first time in five days. foodah, the aspin princess of our canine tribe, looked at me with a critical eye as i exited the shower and huffed. i took that as approval for my improved condition.

joyce wanted to celebrate my freedom from a flu-ridden and medicated state of stupor and thought that grilled pork belly would do to mark my recovery. my sister-in-law chipped in with her arroz caldo (and seeing as i may have given her and her hubby the flu, i felt truly lucky). that, and a marathon of fringe sums up my day. i'm still burning a little hot but so was lunch -- and good thing my appetitie was returning. fringe, on the other hand was most interesting. what heroes lacked in exposition and coherence, fringe perfects. kudos to the writing team!

the great thing about marrying into a cooking family is how the simplest ingredients can turn into an amazing meal, and a balm for a healing body. for the grilled pork belly, buy the freshest portions you can find ("it's best if it's less than a day dead," -- dr. walter bishop, fringe tv series), and just salt and pepper for your seasoning. if you have a little olive oil, that will be great, so as long you use only as little as as possible. and make sure the grill is hot. for the arroz caldo, wash the rice in clean running water twice. then, use the broth you boiled the chicken in for cooking the porridge. one kilo of high-grade ivory yields 4-5 cups of goodness. muy sabroso!










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