My 4-month pregnant wife has been craving for fish ball for how many weeks now. Not just any fish ball, the kind that is being sold in schools. Yes, the street food kind. She even went to her old high school to find one. But the then old reliable vendor is no longer there. I didn't really pay much attention to her craving because she did not ask for me to find her fish balls. I know it's a husband's duty to search the ends of the earth for what the pregnant wife is craving. Mea culpa. Today, however, she told me that she still hasn't been able to eat the fish balls she has been craving for a long time. so I told her that we'll try my old high school. I went to a public school so the likelihood to find fish ball there is higher than in her old private high school. Lo and behold, indeed, we found the much coveted prize.
Being nostalgic and all, I also bought some for myself. It's been a while since I've tasted fish balls (the street food variety) and I am pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it. I'm really picky with what I eat and I usually go for the "sophisticated" foods. I love pasta, herby pizzas, etc. Not the usual Filipino food. Not very affordable, too. But having tasted the 5-peso fish ball, it made me realize one thing. I used to enjoy simple uncomplicated things. I may have morphed into this picky person that I am now, my palate, it seems, is still able to enjoy life's simple pleasures.
I've become the expensively demanding bloke that I am today and although I am contented (and sometimes proud) of that, this experience has urged me to also go back to my roots. No, not my high school. But my old simple self. The Ron who enjoyed simplicity. The Ron who was uncomplicated. The Ron who enjoyed (and still enjoys) fish balls, the street food variety.
After writing this, I am closing my expensively complicated MacBook and buy me some more fish balls. The inexpensively simple fish ball.
