Aside from forcing people to stay indoors since mid-March, the pandemic has also forced me to really fend for myself.

Though I’ve lived on my own for over a decade now, I saw no need to learn how to cook. Just around the corner from my old apartment near Timog Avenue, Quezon City, was a carinderia selling delicious home-cooked meals like pinangat na bangus and pork binagoongan. I’d order a viand, some rice, and eat at home.

If I had a craving for something more substantial, I could always walk the two blocks to Tomas Morato Avenue, the original restaurant row.

Before I moved into my own condo four years ago, I told my interior designer that I saw no need to have a kitchen installed. Why waste space that could otherwise be devoted to storage? Breakfast was often either oatmeal, or fruit and coffee. I had a rice cooker and a microwave oven, and I thought that would be enough.

Once a week during the first two weeks of the enhanced community quarantine, I would wake up at 6:30 a.m., walk around 20 minutes to Farmers Market and carefully load my backpack with fruit and vegetables. My last purchases would be a loaf of bread from Bakers Fair and frozen siomai or squid balls from the CDO outlet.

I’d be back in the condo, safe and sound, around 8 a.m. After a quick and rousing shower, I would turn my attention to cleaning the produce under running water, sprinkling salt every so often to further clean the vegetables.

Recently, an online palengke selling fruit and vegetables set up shop at the lobby of the condo around the corner. Though I could easily have my vegetables delivered, I prefer to visit twice weekly and choose whatever’s fresh instead of stocking up for the week.

Hearty soups

I’ve been using my trusty rice cooker also to cook hearty soups chockfull of vegetables and squid balls, sinigang from a mix again packed with fresh veg (talbos ng kamote, kangkong, tomatoes and onions), pasta with olive oil and cracked pepper, and pancit (dry egg noodles) with flaked lechon manok.

I’ve also steamed frozen siomai, hotdogs, green beans, eggs (12-14 minutes for soft-cooked, 18-20 minutes for hard-boiled) and talbos ng kamote—apparently my favorite vegetable.

Ripe tomatoes and firm cucumbers are two more favorites and are delicious in simple cold salads, sliced and paired with slivers of salted egg. I also use tomatoes to make my version of tomato rice.

The ones I’ve seen on YouTube often require two tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper mixed into already washed rice with the same amount of water you usually use to cook rice.

I make mine with two tbsp of coconut oil, a tsp or two of Sinigang sa Sampaloc mix, pepper and a ripe tomato placed in the middle. Once the rice is cooked, I carefully mash the tomato into the rice, allowing the juices to mix with the sinigang-flavored grains.

I’ve had more hits than misses since I started cooking at home, but the one thing I plan to do once quarantine is lifted is feast on Korean barbecue—and not have to worry about washing the dishes.