Ketchup Philosophy 番茄酱哲学

“Finding joy in life’s small, quirky surprises.“
在日常生活的小点滴中学会欣赏与珍惜。“

oil on canvas
46×46 cm

There was never a recipe for my comfort food - my mother’s ketchup fried rice.

Ketchup and fried rice sound like an unlikely pairing. Perhaps even wrong. Fried rice is supposed to be savoury, smoky, seasoned with salt and sesame oil. Ketchup belongs on fries and burgers.

But my mother squeezed it generously over leftover rice, tossed in an egg, whatever vegetables were in the fridge, and called it dinner.

To me, it tasted like home. A particular smell, a familiar taste, something that takes us back to a time when someone was taking care of things.

I sometimes think life is like my mother’s fried rice. We imagine we know what it should taste like. We have our own recipe for how things are supposed to turn out – we season our plans carefully.

Then life adds something we didn’t ask for – a little too much salt, some sweetness, and a whole lot of unexpected ingredients.

Maybe that is what I have learned from this peculiar little dish: life will not always be seasoned to our taste. Sometimes we have to live with the ingredients we are given, and learn to make something of them.

Yet even in the imperfect and unexpected, there’s room for curiosity, humour and a touch of delight.