Food and Family
May 9th, 2011:
I haven’t seen Felicia grandparents since just after our wedding almost 2 years ago, but as the two most charming and in love 80-something people I know, I was excited to see them again. It turns out Mama was excited to see us again too – she almost never cooks for the family anymore because after she fell and broke her hip a few years back, standing for so long is hard on her – but I guess Felicia and I are special because when we showed up at her house she had prepared a feast of deliciousness (seen below) to celebrate us coming back to Singapore. I, of course, did my part and devoured as much as I possibly could in order to maintain my status as Super-Grandson-in-law.
Even after I had eaten WAY too much, Mama still insisted on feeding me more: she figured that since I was so big, I couldn’t possibly be full yet. Right? I’ve learnt that no matter the culture, old ladies love to feed their families – and since I lost both my grandmothers about a decade ago I am thrilled to have another.
I asked her about the recipe for creating the sauce for the fish dish (at 12 o’clock position on the lazy susan) and she rattled off a list of standard ingredients (soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil…) then gleefully pulled out a bottle of VSOP Courvoisier. “And XO!” she said. That’s right grandma, you can’t go wrong with alcohol!
After dinner I hacked up the awesomely fragrant durian we had brought and enjoyed its foul smelling fruit with the family. Mama gazed at me as I wrested the thorny shells open, and she said with a hearty laugh to Felicia, “Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that there would be a white boy in my house, opening durian for me!”
Christina (Felicia’s Mom), Nick (Felicia’s Brother), Yeye, Mama, my wife and I – a couple days later when we all got dressed up and when out for a 7 course Chinese seafood feast.
And finally a random picture Felicia took that she says makes me look bad ass, she also insisted that I put it up to maintain some manly credibility after all the recent sappiness on the blog.
Facebook Comments:
