Nourishment of Body and Mind
I don't usually know what I'm going to write whenever I start blogging every Saturday. That is why I begin in the tone of a diarist, noting where I am and what I'm currently doing. It's kind of a warming-up and throat-clearing routine I do before I begin my rambling for the week. And today is no different: I'm at Coffee Bean, EasyHome Mall (formerly Da Men), having just met up with some old friends for lunch and coffee.
The week has been another exhausting one because I've been working non-stop on my coding projects. I seem to be spawning off new projects every other day! Thanks to the help I'm getting from Claude Code and Codex, I've been progressing leaps and bounds too. One of my projects involves vector-embedding my 23 years of writing into a database and allowing AI to thoroughly analyse the themes and topics I've touched. The results have been interesting.
A practical use of this system I've created is that it enables me to expand the scope of my writing. I could now easily identify all my favourite themes, and maybe cover fresh areas in future blogging sessions. Today's blog title is one suggested by the AI system. It has clearly identified my 'style' of writing--the usual cafe setting, the reflective mood and the pedagogical inclination to leap into idiosyncratic, metaphor-laden life philosophy. So I'm being true to myself again today in this blog post, with food as the topic, one which I admit I don't cover very often.
Now, I'm definitely not a foodie. And there are tons of those around in the social media space. I do enjoy good food, but I enjoy the company and setting even more. I've mentioned before that I'm not fussy about food. Ever since my disastrous attempt to cook rice as a scout during camping, I've learned to appreciate food differently. As long as the stomach is hungry, it is actually quite difficult to find any kind of cooked food unappetising.
I also choose to do my Meatless Monday, not for health reasons but mostly as a kind of spiritual discipline. I say spiritual because there's nothing religious about my weekly vegetarian practice. So no, I'm not a health freak, and I don't particularly go out of my way to choose so-called 'healthy' food. I'll eat whatever is available because food is always a blessing.
It's the durian season now. I see Malaysians flocking to durian stalls sprouting up everywhere. I enjoy eating durians, but I have no craving for them. Food is just an excuse for me to enjoy the company of good friends. If I'm eating alone, it becomes a good opportunity to read.
Food fuses me with the mood and memory of a place and time. Travel is remembered through meals. Nasi timbel will always remind me of Bandung; lamprais of my visits to Colombo, and burritos of California. I remember not too long ago, I left my book (Bernard Lewis's Middle East: A Brief History of the last 2000 years) behind on a chair, after a meal of nasi kandar at the mamak restaurant in my neighbourhood of Subang Jaya. Only the following day, when I wanted to resume my reading, did I realise that my book was missing.
The book has some sentimental value to me because I had bought it some 20 years ago here in Malaysia, an expensive hardcover copy, which for various reasons, I had not gotten around to read. Luckily, the restaurant workers had kept it safely for me at the cashier counter, and I was able to claim it back the next day. It was a truly enjoyable book, made even more memorable by this experience, which I then managed to finish reading from cover to cover.
Food and books go together very well -- one nourishes the body, the other the mind. I'll always look forward to more lovely meals in the company of close friends and good books, leaving neither behind again.
