Food Is Love!

Recipe 36: Chalkboard

Roadtrip Day 11
Location: Sto. Tomas, Batangas.

Alice Flonne's POV:

Ugh!!! It's sooo hot!!!

We arrived from Dagupan after five hours of trip and this is already the situation! I can't take it anymore! I'm gonna make some halu-halo...like the one's I've created last week!

Let's see...Kidney beans, kaong, macapuno, langka, pinipig, gulaman, nata de coco, sweet potato, cheese, and bananas...all that we've brought from Dagupan...wow! I never thought I brought these in just one stall there...I will just combine all of those ingredients here in a cup...mixed with evaporated milk and sugar...and topped with shaved ice, leche flan and coconut milk ice cream, my specialty! Hehehe! Lalalala...Yaay! It's done!

There! My very own halu-halo. There's nobody can stop me from digging in into my own precious and sweet creation...huh?

"Umm...excuse me...can I have am order of that?" A female high school student randomly appeared before the food truck and pointing to my halu-halo. Dang it! I'm busted! Anyway...

"Alright then, one halu-halo, coming right up!"

Well, I'm alone here in the food truck at this point of the day...Claire and Alex is busy buying more ingredients for the next part of our roadtrip while Danica? Umm...actually I don't know...though she said to me that she will take random pictures of the town. I don't know why but...well, I let her go for a while! Hehehe!

"Here you go, one halu-halo for you, ate!"

I make another halu-halo, but this time I made it special for the student that orders it...knowing that she is working very hard to graduate with flying colors...just like me! Hehehe! Don't you know that I'm a consistent honor student since high school? I even managed to be a cum laude during graduation as a culinary arts and entrepreneurship graduate! Hehehe! Aah...school life...

"Umm...Ate...can you help me out?" Suddenly, the high school girl pleas to me.

"Oh...sure, why not?" I smiled back at her. "I still have lots of time to help you...so go on."

"I'm struggling to answer this question in mathematics..." The student gets her notebook from her bag and flips it over until she stops on a certain page. "I've been writing in papers all day just to find the solution for this question...can you help me?"

Hmm...I've not very bad in math..nor very good at it...but I've seen that equation before...something that I've always memorized the solution everytime it shows in academic examinations...to be exact, it shows up in every final examinations in high school...and the first two semesters of college...hmm...let's see if I can remember that...aha!

"Here's what you gonna do..."

I'll just summarized what I am doing right now...I just taught her the simple and proper solution to the mathematical equation which seems to be difficult to her...we're just substituting numbers with another set...changing the position of the numbers and canceling the x and the y by dividing by itself...and finally arranging the final answer from the highest to the lowest terms...voila! We're done!

"Yaay! Thank you so much, ate!" The lady student smiled brightly at me...while returning to tasting my sweet halu-halo. "Say, ate. Your halu-halo is so sweet and so cold enough to replenish me from this hot weather."

"Oh...re-really? Ehehehe...thanks." Recalling my grim memory with this desert in Pampanga, I smiled at her in relief. "Well, why did you say so?"

"Hmm...let's see...I've tasted so many deserts here for the last week but I only found them very dull and sometimes tasteless. Yours is truly different...you have crafted it like you have a sweet tooth! You got all the crunchiest beans...the juciest jellies and sweets...and you even added a special twist! You should know that for me...coconut milk ice cream is more delicious than ordinary ice cream! You're such a creative person, ate!"

Well...I lost the words that I wanted to say to the girl because of all the praises that she's given to me. It's like a thorn from my past memory in Pampanga has been removed...and now I feel a little great right now. And the only thing that I could do for now is smile at this little high school girl.

"Oh, I know! How about you could help me in my other problem?!"

"Huh? I thought that math problem is the only one that worries you?"

"Of course not! I'm the student council president, you know! Hehehe!" The student boasted at me and giggled. "And I have something that can make this business popular with my students. That halu-halo is all what they need!"

Hmm...popular...with students?!?! Yes! Another chance to prove that my cooking is better than Alex's fastfood! Hehehe!

"Hmm...that's actually a good idea! But I need you for a special plan..."

I whispered to the student's ear my proposal...which is to make the usual competition with Alex in front of the high school students...the student council president smiled at me when she got the idea...

"Oooh! That's great! Home cooking versus fastfood cooking...that's not a bad idea! I like it! Well then, I'll better inform my council right now!"

The lady student runs back to her school to finalize the ide-wait! I didn't know her name yet...so I could identify her once the competition started!

"Oh...hey! Wait!!!"

The student stops running and turns back to me...wondering...

"Oh...what is it?"

"Can I know your name so we could find you later?"

"Oh, certainly! I almost forgot about that! Hehehe!" The student council president scratched her head in embarrassment and finally stood up and introduce herself to me.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Rhizza Jenny Dela Cruz. I'm the student council president of the Santo Tomas National High School. See you later, Ate...ehehehe... What's your name, by the way?"

"I'm Alice Flonne Molina! Nice to meet you!"

"Flonne, huh? What a cute name! Hehehe!"