Offered a Bowl of Ginataan in the Midst of Manhattan's Chinatown!

My roommate, Karen, knocked on the door of my tiny bedroom one late lunch time, and in her broken English, gave me a small bowl of ginataan to eat right away while it's still hot. So that was what she was busily preparing while we were talking earlier about our lives here in NYC as immigrants. I went out of my room, and shared time with her as we both eat ginataan in the tiny space in our apartment where dining, cooking are done in a tenement-fashioned housing here in Chinatown. It's her own version, which reminded me of what we would have back in the Philippines. She's Chinese-Malaysian, and apparently have strong memories of this kind of snack (merienda) fare as well in Malaysia of which she prepared this time. Her ginataan's got the usual coconut milk, with some tapioca, sweet potato (camote) but without sago (that main ingredient that makes up pearl drinks some people rave about during hot summer days!) as she explained that if she put sago, the whole thick dessert soup would be reduced by half as sago absorbs much water when cooked.

I felt blessed, as I have not had ginataan for over 4 years or so, after transplanting myself here in the US. Karen must have heard me telling me details of my eating habits nowadays that have become more American (as unclear that notion can be) in taste. I usually won't be having regular meals following the usual daily schedules. I've grown to eat whenever I'm hungry, or when I'm with friends and other people. Eating indeed has a strange way of connecting people, as obviously all of us living beings eat as long as we're still alive! Praise God!