Additive of Warmth and Care

 

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An Analysis of a 21^st Century Philippine Literature entitled

Family Cook

by Alma Aileen Joy Anonas-Carpio

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Introduction 

This analyzation piece will show the deepest meanings of Alma Aileen Joy Anonas-Carpio's flash fiction story, the "Family Cook." You will discover how magnificent love is, that can conquer everything and will stay forever in the deepest part of our hearts.

"The most important ingredient in any dish is love, even over salt." The story tells about how Saling cooked her last recipe with the affection she felt for the family she served for decades. During midnight, behind the darkness, Saling left home without notifying the family. The sadness of it floods all over the entire literary piece that gives emotional feedback to the readers.

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Background                                                                                        

              Authorial information:

o   She is Alma Aileen Joy Anonas-Carpio from National Capital Region, Philippines

o   Studied AB Journalism at University of Santo Tomas, S.Y. 1994

o   Won Palanca Award in 1994

o   Her grandmother, Tia Conching Tan-Yngson, was the Tan clan’s kitchen doyenne.

o   Her first book was a cookbook. She also writes the How to Tame Your Tikbalang Without Even Trying (2015) and Maligno Unbound (2017)

o   She’s a member of the Unyon ng Manunulat ng Pilipinas (UMPIL), Asia Pacific Writers Network, Manila Critics Circle and one of the Philippines Graphic Magazine’s two Associate Editors  

            Textual information:

                        o   Family Cook was written on December 17, 2016

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FAMILY COOK

            All Soul’s Day means the family will be over to partake of the family feast of favorites. Lolo Cholo’s caldereta, Lola Ninay’s Sinigang na Ulo sa Miso. Tito Pascualito’s Beef Tapa con Ampalaya will make its first appearance at the table this year, beside the box of Krispy Kreme chocolate donuts young Paquito used to scarf down when his chemo permitted.

Saling set a furious pace for herself. She had kare-kare from scratch to prepare for the clan and she had but a few more hours to get it done as she’d always gotten it done: Perfect, hot, served with spicy shrimp paste she’d sauteed from scratch with bird’s eye chilies from the backyard.

There’s the leche flan to chill yet, she thinks as her cook’s knife decimates the banana hearts on the chopping board. Her hands fly over the talyasi in the yard sitting on its roaring wood fire, testing the heat before she begins the process of making the perfect oxtail in peanut sauce stew. The family will want this dish as she makes it each year: The meat fork-tender, the sauce rich and sinful. After all, this is the one time in the year she gets to make it for everyone.

Decades of love in a huge wok, the simmering heart of her, this is the best expression of love Saling knows—and she never fails to express it with piquancy, with heat, with all her heart and soul poured into every morsel and drip of sauce.

Saling pops the flans in the ref and moves on to the sink to wash up. It just wouldn’t do to leave the care of her precious cookware to the kids. Might as well do this while the stew simmers.

Somewhere in the yard, a time-addled rooster crows at the witching hour. Saling turns her face up to the ebbing moonlight filtering into the outdoor kitchen.

She closes her eyes as she calls the names of every clan member over the slow-bubbling kare-kare, dropping the okra and pechay in carefully, giving the lot a final firm stir before setting the lid on the huge wok.

             Saling takes a few minutes to look at each window of the old house where she’d spent the happiest moments and some of the most difficult days of her life.

Breaking her reverie, she ladles the stew into large clay pots and sets them and the little sauce-bowls of sauteed shrimp-fry out on the buffet table set up in the ancestral home’s sala (the family always set that up ahead of time, of course), her smile tired, but so very satisfied.

She sighs and fades slowly as steps out of the front door, out onto the porch where the winds scatter her image into the fading night.

“Enjoy the food. I love you.”

Her whisper permeates the house and touches the slumbering family within. It reverberates in dreams that connect all her kin. It is the kiss that never fades, though the memory of her face will.

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Analysis

  Literary Genre

Flash Fiction is a genre of fiction, defined as a very short story. While there is no set word count that separates flash fiction from more traditional short stories, flash fiction stories can be as short as a few words (while short stories typically run for several pages). Flash fiction is also known as sudden fiction, short-short stories, microfiction or microstories. Three of its common characteristics are brevity (ranges from six to around 1,000 words), a complete plot and a surprise (twist or an unexpected last line).

Family cook is a written flash fiction of Alma Anonas Carpio. It only consists of 501 words. It gives a complete plot despite it being short. And, there's an unexpected twist in the ending where Saling left without notifying the family she served for years.

 Analysis Guides

The following paragraph will help us realize and appreciate the flash fiction story “Family Cook” by Alma Aileen Joy Anonas-Carpio. Let’s explore the analysis of the Family Cook.

    Reader Response

We like the story. It is because the story shows how Saling, the family cook, express affection to the family she served for years. We responded to the work of literature by feeling how Saling felt when she was leaving the family she had served after analyzing the parts of it.

        Tone        

            The author's attitude towards the subject area was positive. It is because the memories of Saling as she left the house that makes her whisper permeates the house and touches the slumbering family within that reverberates in dreams that connect all her kin.

 

        Point of View

This the flash fiction story is a third-person point of view. It is because instead of using first-person pronouns such as I and me, the writer uses third-person pronouns such as she and her.

 

Diction and Style        

 The writer uses informal words in the story. She uses phrases such as 'so very satisfied' and 'set that up' that can both be read in the ninth paragraph of the story that was considered as informal words or phrases.

 

        Images and Symbols

Pictures that can be created by the readers while reading the story was a night, full of misery and loneliness when Saling left home that was created in the last part of the story. The symbolic object that may see in the story is a scenic view of an All Soul's Day as it was mentioned in the story that it was All Soul's Day when Saling cooked her last dish for the family she served for years before leaving without consent.

 

Theme        

The main point of the literature is how Saling is a servant. She loves cooking as well as those people she'll serve. The family remembered her as a good cook that even she's gone her love will always be remembered.

 

Contextual Analysis

Using the biographical context, it can be concluded that the story “family cook” is all about a story of a cook that is written by Mrs. Aileen Anonas-Carpio a cook herself. She wrote this kind of story because she was remembering her grandmother, Tia Conching Tan-Yngson— the Tan clan's kitchen doyenne, that passed away. It is why the story happened on All Souls' Day. It looks like she's offering the story for her Lola.

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Summary

"Family Cook" is the story of a cook, Saling, on how she prepares and cook for All Soul's Day where the whole family joined in. She starts with all the favorite foods in the family Lolo Cholo’s caldereta, Lola Ninay’s Sinigang na Ulo sa Miso, and Tito Pascualito’s Beef Tapa con Ampalaya. She had kare-kare from scratch that she'd always gotten perfect. She pops the Leche plan and washes it because she can’t leave her precious cookware to the kids. She most expresses her love by cooking. And somewhere in the yard, Saling faces the moonlight filtering into the outdoor kitchen. She closed her eyes as she calls the names of every clan member. Taking a few minutes to glimpse at the windows where she'd spent her memories. After losing in her thoughts she serves the stew with her tired smile but satisfied. Slowly she steps out of the front door, whispering “Enjoy the food. I love you.” it echoes. It is the kiss that never fades, though the memory of her face will.

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References

            Below is the table of the reference where we get the story.

	AUTHOR/S	TITLE OF THE BOOK/WEBSITE	TITLE OF THE ARTICLE/TEXT	PUBLISHER & PLACE OF PUBLICATION	WEBSITE LINK
1	Alma Aileen Joy Anonas-Carpio	The Manila Times	Flash Fiction Stories		https://www.manilatimes.net/2016/12/17/weekly/the-sunday-times/flash-fiction-stories/302322/