Back in my school days, living with my parents—I had various stuff inside the fridge. There's always a plastic wrapping filled with loaves of bread. Bought from a Hypermarket; a while's drive from home. My family stock in many stuff in one go. The bread, since it's cheap enough and has a lot per package--we usually brought two.

The first time I visited was during my childhood, I couldn't get in due to my lack of height. I grew tall enough over time and able to get in; following behind my parents while gazed curiously at how big the entire store was.

Bread was more of a side-meal. We primarily ate rice, although, for school lunch, my mom made me a fried egg, sandwiched between two loaves of bread; with butter on its inner side. With no fried eggs, she put cheese slices. She didn't want me eating the cafeteria meals—she felt it's unhygienic.

There weren't a lot of memories of going to the cafeteria. At one time I ordered a bowl of meatballs; accidentally poured to much tomato sauce—it was sour as fuck.

There's also the time I ordered some cheap 'pizza' meal and it's already run over by ants. Man, that shock cause me to throw the box straight away. I guess Mom was right.

Even the allowance itself wasn't much. Just to cover the bus trips from home to school back-forth; left me with a bit of an extra. It's until I was in college, and especially when I graduated and had a job—I experienced having so much money at once. I mainly spend it on meals, but that's another story.

Speaking of bread...

The way I ate it was kinda simple. At times I just like it raw. The taste of plain bread itself was nice enough.

There's also the whole wheat variant with a tough, hard texture. I brought them since I heard it was good for health, but didn't see any difference.

My favorite bread so far was the Premium Toast. It's so big and fluffy, which had a faint taste of milk when I caught a whiff. The moment I chewed on it, the texture was so soft and it's reminiscent of eating a good pizza.

Chocolate loaves were also nice to eat raw.

Better than the bun types with chocolate inside, although recently I brought one from the bakery—that one's adorned with a triple layer of choco goodness. The outer parts covered in chocolate paste, with the crispy choco atop it. The inner filling brought nice, creamy, bittersweet treat across my tastebuds.

The other kind was raisin loaves. Basically plain bread but you could see some patches of raisin atop. Pretty nice, although if you're tired, it might look like bread with mushroom infection. Typical if it were way past the expiration date and forgot to put it inside the fridge.

My favorite condiment for bread was mayonnaise. It gave me the sensation of eating a delicious ham without having to buy it. I rarely ate anything with ham cuz the meat's expensive.

Before that, I tried eating it with tomato sauce. The sour and sweetness were pretty nice with the Premium Toast. After a while, I got bored with it, but not mayo.

I also spread the butter, just like how people usually eat their bread. I remember always getting the ones with non-trans fat, canola oil kind. Whenever we attended wedding parties at some decent star hotels, we also brought back a few 'high-class' butter packs home. Although those butter didn't give me a lot of impression in the end.

For jam, I used chocolate, strawberry or peanut. Other times, whipping condensed milk and playfully made patterns atop the bread. For the taste, I've tried the vanilla and chocolate. There's also one of vanilla mixed with honey.

It tasted pretty intense when you added just about enough and eat in one loaf by folding the inner sides. Love it.

At times, I used chocolate sprinkles and careful not to let it spill onto the floor—ants can be really nasty in my old home. Mom would often be mad when I did.

It works well with condensed milk.

I remember it having two kinds of sprinkles. One of a chocolate hue, and the other of varying colors. They tasted roughly the same as long as I remember.

Nevertheless, I generally prefer meaty taste than sweet ones. I didn't add a raisin to my bread as well. When I brought raisins I just eat it directly from the pack.

As for the toppings, it's either egg or sliced cheese; sometimes grated cheese. Mostly coated with butter inside, I remember it having mayo at times.

With toppings, both of them were on par.

We also had special bread like mantou. Had a really different feel when we eat it raw, compared to fried with butter coating.

My family didn't bake our own bread since both my parents had day jobs, and were often too tired for all the complicated stuff.

We still made some 'baked' sandwiches from time to time. We coat the bread with some butter and sugar and put it inside the sandwich machine. It was made to press the bread tightly, forming triangular shapes. It took several minutes before it was ready—then we cut it and share among the family.

Which reminds me, I never really felt satisfied eating to utmost full, cuz I always have to share with someone else. When I got to spend money by myself, I learned the joy of capitalism. I could always buy things and gobble it, without having to share with anyone.

While I went outside the house and having to stay in my own place, I didn't really do a lot of mumbo jumbos. I was lazy to cook the entire time. For bread, I just bought the assorted buns and eat the plain ones raw.

...though during my college days, I experienced something interesting.

I was attending a seminar with that one successful motivational speaker—nationwide. I first heard of the news when I visited the bookstore in my usual shopping mall. At that time I still went around buying books—most end up untouched.

I went and brought the ticket early. So I got like 90% off the original price, although that one was a marketing ploy—I didn't care—as long I could attend the seminar at an affordable price. It's also a good thing for me to buy the gold ticket instead of the regular one.

Even with the gold ticket, my seating was the fourth row from the front. Just enough to get the gist of everything.

The platinum ticket offered me the chance to have lunch with the speaker...but yeah, I think, the price was a bit too expensive, even with the huge discount.

Even now, I didn't regret it. After all, it's just lunch. Regardless of my admiration, a mere lunch isn't going to make me some genius moneymaker.

I used to admire the guy a lot. Brought one of his books and read them through when I was in high school.

While many advices there weren't applicable, he's one of the people who planted in me a desire to live my own life. To know what I want; to know what kind of person I am--my talents and stuff—how to live life in a way I'm most suitable with. He planted all that knowledge quite early. Although I wasn't able to become rich, cozy and free—my life itself wasn't all that bad.

When I look back, I don't regret my choices—even if some of it was dumb. They're already a thing of the past. If I can't use it to motivate myself, I'd just see it as a fleeting memory and move along.

So, what does attending the seminar had anything to do with bread?

Actually, the shopping mall in which the seminar was hosted was relatively small.

At lunchtime break—all restaurants in the mall were full.

I found no other place to eat, so yeah, I went to the department store. Brought plain bread and cheese slices. I went back early and ate on the auditorium

I still remember the speaker himself staring at me with a pretty strange expression, when I ate the bread as he talked.

...overall, it was a great seminar. Even if I didn't end up becoming someone, at least not now—it's still an experience I felt worth sharing.

Maybe, when the speaker remembered me, it'd be due to the bread I was eating nonchalantly.