Saturday, May 7, 2011

Family Dinner



Last night I was at T's house for dinner.  It was awesome on several levels.


First the food was incredible.  


It started with an appetizer made with the tiniest baby clams I have ever seen.  Add in some curry, some kind of small nut (soy nuts I think), a leafy herb and served with rice cracker.  It looked something like this.




I LOVED this.  I actually could not stop eating it.  Luck for me, his mom made a lot of us.  After the 5th bowl of clams (small bowls) I figured I'd better stop, because there was a second course. 


Next with spring rolls like the ones in the first picture.  Fresh cooked shrimp & beef, noodles, herbs, apples, with some fish sauce for dipping.  I did pretty good rolling all the ingredients into a roll (just like a burrito) and that was really good too. (Not as good as the clams though.)  I ate 3 of them and thought I was going to explode.


There is one other thing.  Chanh muối (salty lemonade).  I know, it sounds gross, but his mom makes it and I just can't get enough.  I was over at his house on Thursday too and his mom made a point to tell me that she was making it for the next night.  She probably would have made it whether I was coming or not, but for her to point it out to me, shows she remembered I like it and was thinking about me.  


So the food was great, but that was not the best part of the evening.  While I have always felt welcome there, today I felt more like part of the family.  Maybe it was because they put me to work, setting up the dinner.  Because there were more people than usual, dinner was at a larger table down stairs.  I was busy carrying bowls and plates up and down the stairs.


T's brother has a son about 5 years old.  When I come he wants to play to play with me.  Today was more that usual.  


There was a lot more conversation in English than usual and I was able to feel more included.  I'm not sure exactly what it was, but I really did feel more included and accepted than ever before.




It was a perfect family dinner.  The only part that was not wonderful, was when I had to leave a drive back to my house.  But even then, I did it was warmth in my heart.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

T has a brother? That wasn't mentioned before.

Buddy Bear said...

Sounded fantastic! I'm thinking that T's mother (or perhaps both his parents) might not verbally say to you "I accept you into our family" or perhaps even "I love you." They might only express that emotion by doing things for you such as preparing a fabulous meal.

My parents are like that, typical of their ethnic group; they express how they feel by doing things for you, rarely verbally.

T said...

I think Jim will feel more included if he share some or all of my chores, like cleaning the bird cages, digging holes for my plants...I just bought a whole bunch of plants today, fixing my irrigation system, and, let me see...a lot more...:)

T said...

On second thoughts, I think Jim should do all of my chores while I'm directing him on how to do them.

T said...

Actually, I should receive the fence materials for my mom vegetable garden in a few days. Would you like to be included, Jim?
:D

T said...

so excited about Jim's doing my chores, i made some grammatical errors...LOL...
my mom can show you how to cook...
actually, i'm glad you enjoyed dinner last night