Tastes Like Home – Fond recollections as I eat

Hi Everyone, Have you ever sat down to a meal and as you are eating, you think of others – be they family or friends – that you think might enjoy the meal and wish that they were there to share it with you? That’s what happened to me this past Wednesday.

All week long I was walking around mumbling that I have no idea what to write about in this week’s column. With each passing day my deadline drew nearer. On Wednesday, instead of trying to focus (i.e. sit and stare at the computer screen, fingers poised over the keyboard willing them to move), I went into the kitchen to cook the day’s main meal. I’d bought some baby-back pork ribs that I was excited to cook with black-bean and garlic sauce and I had one of my favourite veggies to stir fry, baby bak choy. Hey, I did not realise that there was a theme there – baby back ribs, baby bak choy.

I braised the ribs in the oven and reduced the sauce until it was thick and glossy. Cooked some rice, the bak choy and I even made dessert. I sautéed some apples and Bartlett pears with a little butter, cinnamon sticks, whole allspice berries and some sugar. To wash it all down I had my choice of homemade beverages – ginger-lemonade, grapefruit-raspberry drink or cherry juice. I chose the ginger-lemonade.

As I tucked into my meal, I thought of how Chinese-influenced it was with the black bean and garlic sauce flavour, the stir fry technique used to cook the bak choy and how crunchy it was… I smiled, then I stopped eating and I got a little sad. I thought of my dad and my uncle Freddy, both departed, rest their souls, and how much they would have enjoyed the meal. They contributed significantly to my food influences.

Both my uncle Freddy and my dad liked simple food, done well. It was my uncle Freddy, along with my auntie Betty, who introduced me to Chinese food; and my dad loved all vegetables but pak choy was by far his favourite. I used to love listening to my dad eat his favourite vegetable – pak choy (aka Chinese Cabbage). My mom would cook it in such a way that the crispness of the white part of the cabbage would still be present. Daddy would put some of it in his mouth and you’d hear this wonderful sound as he bit into the white crisp part, the juice bursting forth in his mouth. When I was a kid I never liked pak choy but I always wanted to eat it because of the sound I’d hear from Daddy’s eating. Unfortunately, I never heard the sound from my own eating; I could feel the sensation but could not hear that magical sound. I’d ask my sister each time I took a mouthful if she could hear the sound like Daddy’s, her answer was always no. I’d lament that she was not paying enough attention, but then again, who wants to pay attention to someone else’s chewing when they have their own food to eat!

I think my dad would have just loved to have the rice and stir-fried bak choy. As for uncle Freddy, he would have swooned over the ribs cooked in the black bean and garlic sauce. And after making them such a meal, I’m positive that there is nothing I could have asked for that they would not have readily agreed to get me. Oh how I miss my dad and uncle. I miss them for who they were and what they represented. They were both gentle men; fun to be around and they knew how to spoil a girl. And every girl needs to have a dad and father figure to spoil her.

There are so many things I never got to say to them or to share with them. They were taken too soon… but I take comfort that they’re up there together making everyone around them laugh, and cooking up a storm all the while watching over us, their loved ones who they have left behind.

Happy Fathers’ Day!

Cynthia

tasteslikehome@gmail.com

www.tasteslikehome.org