Free Food!

O If from my mother and mother in law, yes I receive a lot. Also from my relatives. There still a strong family tie here in Malaysia and if we are very close, we do not mind give free food to our relatives. Today, we receive a whole chicken from my wife aunt. Before, we also give chicken curry to them. My uncle also like to give me a barbecue lefover when we barbecue at his house. Yeah. We practice those here.

Yes, from food to clothes to furniture.

Well yes, from my mom’s house. We stay pretty close and my son spends a good part of the day, so I often get freebies from them. Just the other day, Dad came with a bowl of cooked fish…this fish is seasonal and a delicacy and a Bengali favourite…so you can well imagine how expensive it is. Also, we have to buy the whole fish which becomes all the more expensive. So sometimes Dad just buys the whole fish himself and Mom cooks it and sends over some to me.

My brother, 2nd brother diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes, he and his girlfriend gave us all kinds of food because they wanted it out of the house so he wouldn't be tempteed. I can have sugar, but not salt. My husband can have everything. So we took it all and they started over. We get lots of food from people who have gardens and they can't use it all. This year I received 3 quarts of green cherry tomatoes before a killing frost. I also received 6 beets. My brother gets venison from hunters who get sick of eating it before the deer is done and want to have room in their freezers for other meat. Where we live, people give each other food all the time. One year I made and gave away a bunch of jams and jellies. One year we gave away grapes. We had 3 bushel and I got sick and tired of making things with them. This year, we had a huge crop of apples. I filled the bottom 2 drawers of our refrigerator and gave at least that much away again and then picked more and put two bags worth in our freezer. One year, it was blackberries. We seem to be a one crop wonder here!

Occasionally a neighbor lady gives my daughter a lasagne and it is quite a treat. Those are very expensive. She gets them cheaply somewhere and is nice enough to share. Rather than that we get food baskets that are nice too. Some places have fruit and vegetables and we can chose what we would like.

Sometimes we do receive free food or food treats either from friends, relatives, or our neighbors. I think it is quite a custom here in the Philippines to share and give food to your neighbors when there is a special occassion in your home. It may not be a huge party, but the neighbor perhaps cooked something extra. If the quantity is too much for them to consume, they prefer to give some to the neighbors rather than let it spoil and throw it to waste. We also practice this as well. It is a form of goodwill towards your neighbors. I am delighted to receive food from our neighbors because a home cooked meal is always good.

It doesn't happen that often but I have bn gived free food every so often...alot of our neighbours will bring over their unused & uncooked meat for us to give to the dogs...I have been lucky enough to get some unwanted food through freecycle too.

Hi hvedra~ I love shrimp and your stir fry sounds delicious. I'd like to know how to make creole. I love learning new ways to make shrimp. I don't buy it too often, because it is expensive. But, when it's on sale a big bag of frozen shimp can make quite a few meals over rice or pasta so it kind of pays off. My favorite is shrimp scampi over rice. I'm making myself hungry! I don't think there's a shrimp sale, but I might go grocery shopping tomorrow and might treat me and the bf! Will let you know!

A lot of times. Here in the Philippines we like to share whatever we have. When I buy something, I always buy extra so that I can share my blessings. My aunt likes to send food over at least once a week and so we always have extra food. Probaby because we are a third world country and we are intimately acquainted with "not having enough" and so whenever we have extra, we tend to share. Most foreigners find it amusing when they pass Filipinos eating and that person would always offer to share what he is eating. When we are eating and someone comes in, we say to that person "let's eat" even if we don't know the person. Even salesladies who would eat while minding the store do this to shoppers. I guess the more surprising thing about your story is that it was your mother-in-law who gave it to you.

So nice of your mother in law to give you the shrimp. She might be buying them for you and pretend she does for her maybe? My mom used to do that a lot. She'd buy stuff, then gave it away to my brothers or sister or myself saying she changed her mind but we knew she did it because she wanted to. It happens to me all the time. Whenever family comes over for dinner, they'll bring soup or desserts even if I tell them NOT to as Ive made some. They say "keep it for this week" lol. My SIL is always giving me eggs as they now have chickens and she has more eggs than she can eat or sell. I do the same too all the time when I cook, I always make sure I make extra for dad. And whenever I have family over, they nearly always go back with something. Its great to be able to share. And I feel the food we're given always tastes so much better!!

Wow that's great you have your free food. Hopefully I can also avail that free food. I want also to have that free food of yours. Well maybe when our freezer also will be broken. Just enjoy the moment when you have your free food.

A good interaction is cute between your mother in law and you.The last time i cooked with my mother is 4 years ago on the birthday of my father.Fish,chicken and lamb was cooked.And a big cake was prepared.It maybe the most delicious dinner in my life.

Oh yes! Isn't it great when kind people give you foods/things which can be quite make a dent in your budget if you bought it yourself? My mother, aunt and grandmother always give us shrimps and rare fish (even crabs sometimes)that I am so thankful to them because those are really my little daughter's favorite. What's even better is that the food is already cooked when they give it to us! Thank God for angels like them!

I rarely get anything free, and even if I got free shrimp I'm not sure I'd consider it a blessing :P

I do not remember the last time I had such a nice free treat. It makes me want to go out and buy some shrimp this morning. I would not get it used up, though, because I have too much other food thawed. It is funny that your mother in law buys it, but never uses it.

not like that but my inlaws often give us food. they had a roast but only ate a bit of it and gave us the rest. they also pay for our deli bill because we take them shopping.

Anytime u can get free food u are lucky especially something like shrimp. It is very expensive. I love it! My neighbor gave me some deer burger the other day. They don't like it but i do.

Hvedra- What a lovely treat! The last thing we got as a treat were some delicious brownies from my husband's work. They had extra and the nurses told my hubby to take them home to the family! They were those really nice decadent ones! We don't do a lot of shrimp because I'm allergic but I do get it from time to time for the hubby and kids. As you say it's expensive so I always end up going to Aldi's and buying the pre-cooked ones and using them in dishes. They are small but the kids seem to be ok with that. Namaste-Anora

Usually it's our next neighbour who would generously give food to our house. Mostly veggies. She plants veggies on her front yard, where she make a small garden for them. Since she's living alone, those veggies are more than enough for her. Instead of throwing away or even sell them, she often give them to our house.

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