Brunch, dunch, linner, dinper, supner

Dinner time came and went and I hadn't eaten a bite. Naturally, I'd started whining. But the project at hand was important so I'd stopped myself from grabbing dinner (also, to save money).

When we ended our discussion, it was already 9pm. I reiterated my whining about our lack of dinner and my Malay friend commented, "Is it a Chinese thing? That you must have dinner at dinner time? Because I realized my other Chinese friends are the same."

Which led me to ponder: is it really a cultural difference, or just disparities in our upbringing?

I replied without much thinking, "Maybe it's because my family has always made me eat at certain timings?" To which my other groupmate rebuked (albeit jokingly), "Eh what are you trying to say? Our families don't feed us?"

For most Chinese families [that I know of] it has always been this way. We had to eat breakfast in the morning; lunch at lunch time; dinner during dinner time. Any meal skipped or had in between those timings would be considered "不三不四" ("not three not four" which basically means "neither here nor there").

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that Malay families are more relaxed about meal times. For example, my groupmate's family wouldn't get angry at him if he ate lunch later than they did; they'd just be chill about it. Most of my Chinese friends' families (including my own) would throw a bitch fit. It's a crazy thing to be angry about, really, but I'm just so used to it that when I'm out with my friends, I feel compelled to get food into my system when meal times hit. (Yes, I am aware that that is also just my personality.)

It's interesting to note that this could be a cultural difference and not just a personal thing. Makes me feel like less of a glutton, probably.

But I have been adopting this "eat when you can" philosophy instead of my usual "eat when it's time" recently, and it drives my mom mad. On Sundays when I wake up in the late afternoon - too late for lunch, too early for dinner - my mom is so livid at me that she goes off on a tirade about how I'm killing myself and at the same time getting fat because I screwed up my metabolism. I just go, "LOL Ma. You're overreacting."

Not a smart thing to say to an overreacting mother.

So now I have learnt to wake up at a time that's still acceptable for lunch. Or dinner. Nothing in between. It's like a minefield of meal times.