Way back when I was disillusioned by the robotic sweatshop of a theatre's costume shop, I considered going into culinary arts. I even sent for an info packet from the
CIA. Sure, I love to cook and entertain, but after reading how many hours you have to put in at a restaurant, I decided just live vicariously via
Top Chef. Plus telling people that I
sell sex toys for a living is way cooler.Now that I'm finally in my second trimester, I can actually eat again. Whew! I lost 8 pounds thanks to first trimester queasiness and lack of appetite. When I'm not feeling well, there's nothing like good old Vietnamese food to comfort me. I ate a lot of
pho. Thank goodness there's a pho joint in walking distance. My absolute favorite is something you can't normally find in Viet restaurants,
bun rieu. The pork and crab/shrimp meatballs in a tomato-shrimp broth topped with fresh cilantro and bean sprouts over bun noodles. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
My mom didn't enjoy cooking when I was young, so she discovered many shortcuts to her favorite dishes. I have no idea how authentic these dishes are with the shortcuts, but they're the flavors I grew up with. Heck, even my non-Viet hubby loves these dishes. I'm just amazed how resourceful my mom was with her meals. Both she and my father worked long hours so it was a necessity. She taught me how to cook rice (on the stove not the rice cooker) when I was 10 or 11.
Growing up, our family was pretty close. My mom had a gazillion brothers and sisters and they in turn had a gazillion kids (ok not that many but a lot). Our family was on the small side since my parents only had 2 kids. Every Sunday, we went over to my oldest aunt's home. The women would cook enough food to feed us all day. Every week it was something different, but sooo yummy. The men would sit on the floor in the living room, drink, eat, and gossip. The women would sit with the kids, always serving themselves last. After we ate, the oldest girls did the dishes (meaning mainly me).
Then we'd pull out the cards or the Viet bingo cards and spend the rest of the afternoon gambling, laughing, and nibbling on leftovers. As we older kids became teenagers, these afternoons weren't cool enough for us, of course. We didn't get together as often anymore. Family started to move more further away. That magic seemed to dissipate. I guess that's just how things evolve.
Even though we're too far away to join my parents for their monthly family gatherings, somehow eating my childhood Vietnamese comfort foods make me feel closer to them. Especially as DH, Sophia and I sit at the dinner table together. Sophia loves pho and many other Vietnamese food. I'm glad to be passing on this tasty part of her heritage to her.
What's with all these thoughts about comfort foods? Over at
Silicon Valley Moms Blogs, we're reading
Kate Jacobs' newest book,
Comfort Food and talking about comfort. Check it out!
Photo from sushi4viki via Flickr.
The best of both words! One of my friends I've know since college.
Adam, who was twittering the crawfish boil and taking pictures of himself.
Look at that monster crawfish! Run for your life!
Don't mess with the hubster. He's tough! He's going to take down that monster crawfish. We're all safe.
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