Rules, actually

Mary Ann, do you have many rules in your house?" my charming sister-in-law Maribeth asked.

"Rules like…?"

"Table manners rules. Like in my mom-in-law’s house, the children are always called last to the buffet table," she answered.

"That is very similar in my grandmother’s house," I thought. "Of course, guests come first, and then the oldies before the children," I said. "And if there are priest guests, they must go before everyone else."

"And always the ladies must go first," she asked.

"Yah, the ladies go first to get food for their Kapampangan husbands," I thought, amusing myself. As they say, Kapampangan men (OK, not all, thank God my hubby Claude is not) are señoritos, and they always expect to be waited on by their lovely wives. My sis-in-law is from Laguna and Mrs. S., her gracious mom-in-law, is from Negros. Both are, too, far from Pampanga.

Her very beautiful mother Mrs. B has a no-talking-in-front-of-the-buffet-table rule. If you have something urgent to say, you must turn around before you speak, because your saliva might shower the food. And that is why she will not eat in a food court. And you cannot dip your hands into her cookie jar or even her casuy jar unless I guess you have just sanitized them with alcohol. You must use a spoon or tongs, and if you touch a cookie or casuy, you must not put it back. That is why when she offers me food, I am so sure it is clean.

Claude once had seven chi-chi lady guests from Makati. They were shocked and their eyes almost popped out when Claude came out and set the rice cooker on the lazy Susan.

"It is unthinkable for me," said Mrs. C.

"I have never seen anyone put out a rice cooker before," said another. The elegant ladies giggled nervously, as Claude has obviously violated their no-kaldero rule.

A rice cooker is, of course, just a modern-day kaldero. Claude, on the other hand, always wants to keep his rice warm, and for him, the rice cooker is the best option. He was inspired (or is "challenged" a more appropriate word?) by them that after that lunch, he designed and made cedar wood rice buckets as a solution. He sold so many till he ran out of cedar wood.