prito? nu-uh!

"i'll never make "prito" again, ever!"

last night, i almost got our condo unit (and who knows the whole building?) burned because i was trying to fry some fish! the last thing i remembered was putting the fish on the frying pan with oil and the next thing i knew i was holding a frying pan ablazed (while screaming my lungs out, like it could do something!). of course, that happened right after a huge blaze caught up the range hood and i was able to grab the pan away from it in probably less than a nanosecond.

when my housemate saw the kitchen and this huge fire (with me behind it), the first thing that came into her mind, that i was already burning. thank God it was just the pan! all happened so fast, but still what i had in mind was never ever to put water into the blazing pan. thank God i was still able to think about that one thing that's never to do in situations like this. who knows how worse the situation could get? what happened next was just screaming. i was screaming, my housemate was screaming (since she was as shocked as i was). but our screams of shock must have frightened the blaze since the fire started to let low until it finally was put off.

then there was a moment of silence. a state of shock. what had just happened?

when all our senses returned, we looked about our kitchen that was a mess. but everything seemed alright. well, except for the range hood that i thought i'd be spending much for repair services! the foam with all the black thingies that are like charcoal (which was supposed to absorb the odor from cooking) just got all burnt out, and all those little charcoal things just filled the whole kitchen and most of the floor. but on the other side of that mess, the kitchen cabinets didn't have any burnt
traces, the kitchen tiles just turned slightly gray and plastic food containers thrown to the floor. i must have reacted so quickly to be able to avoid any big damages. but then, that was adrenaline soaring high! for which, i'm still soo grateful! i've just been thanking God for saving me for whatever bigger damages that incident might have led to.

looking back, this happened to me the second time already. the last time was in our own kitchen back in bohol where i tried to fry some "chorizo" myself because i'm sick of everyone in the house bugging me for not knowing how to cook. see where my own pride brought me? an almost burnt kitchen, and no trace of "chorizo" to eat. but i was just 14 then, and i remembered swearing to never ever cook again.

it was a good thing i was able to overcome that fear. right after college, i started to learn how to cook. but making "prito" wasn't really that much of a favorite dish (to cook). in fact, it's one of the most difficult dish for me to make (aside from cooking monggo and anything with squash on them).

from now on, i'm taking my swear back. with having that up-close encounters with fire, i'll never have the strength to make "prito" ever again.