Spaghetti and Brisbane Nostalgias

photo credit: Andak Cebu Adventures

This afternoon I'm having a takeaway spaghetti bolognaise from our local Pizza chain delivery service. It's been a long time, years, to be exact, that I've had their spaghetti, and the taste brings back so many fond memories.

Years ago, back when I was still a college student in Brisbane, I lived homestay with a friend's family. Her mother used to cook spaghettis weekly, or bi-weekly, when she didn't run out of recipes. Her spaghetti was special, so similar to the restaurant's special pasta, that all of us devoured it for breakfast, dinner and winter.

Lately, I've also been having flashbacks about Brisbane. The spaghetti reminded me of a cold winter day in July, stepping out of my room and finding a bowl of cold, cooked plain spaghetti. Beside the bowl was always another bowl containing Bolognaise sauce. Winter made me hungry and I ate a few times daily, so I would always microwave it with a large slice of cheddar so it would melt all over the minced beef. That was how I liked it.

Her pasta was cooked with perfect timing, not too mushy and not too hard. The minced beef was straight out of a supermarket butcher, the sauce out of canned instant sauce available just as easily. But there was something about the taste, that one thing that reminded me of home when I was so far away.

So today, when I bit into my lunch and immediately felt every memory flood back... it's like sometimes I miss those years when I was just a kid, dressed in brights and pastels for summers, and hoodies and jackets for winters, walking to the bus stop every morning, with an umbrella in my bag, and cold spaghetti on the dining table. I was also home, in Brisbane, more than I realized it.