cooking and family tradition

[leque]

Jeff and I recently made a sort of pact that between the two of us we are going to carry on the proud tradition of my mother's amazing cooking.  If you have ever been privileged enough to eat her food, eating Asian cuisine after eating her food is mostly a big disappointment

Comments

[shimmin]

A really good cook really does require a committee for a successor. My mom can do most of the dishes that we remember my Grandma Tribbey by, although she consults the family cookbook, while Grandma worked off memory. However, only Uncle John can really reproduce Grandma's pie crusts. Her other children know in theory how it's done, but only John can pull it off most of the time.

[leque]

At least you had a family cookbook! My mother doesn't really measure anything, so keeping a recipe is an exercise in guesstimation of quantity.

And sometimes ingredients is also a guessing games. Her names of produce especially are sometimes a little confusing. We agreed we need to go with her on shopping trips so as to see what the grocery stores labels her produce and not go off of her names for the items.

[shimmin]

The family cookbook is a great help, although it was not widely distributed until after Grandma's passing. Prior to that, it had existed in its most complete form in my mom's recipe card box. Most of the relevant recipe cards had been written by Grandma for my mom either when she was leaving home for college, or just before she got married. Grandma taught home ec for a time at a community college. I think her recipes were reduced from feel to measurement at about this time.

As for produce names, all I can do is sympathize. Most Chinese greens have two or three Chinese names, some of which may well be applied to a different vegetable in a different part of China. Then each of these names have been romanized in various ways, and then again western produce suppliers, hoping to get around this muddle for the few Chinese varieties that are widely grown and distributed in the states, have often applied their own names, but then again without talking to each other. The result: "Chinese cabbage" could be just about anything green and

[leque]

LOL. Yep, "chinese cabbage" always seems to look a little different every time she talks about it.

[honey_mustard]

That sounds so fun! Let us know once you've perfected things, and we'll make a special trip to Minneapolis just to try it out.

[leque]

absolutely! that's a great motivator. :)

[leque]

yes, exactly, i appreciate things as an adult i just didn't appreciate as a kid! glad my parents are still around while it happened. :)

[semiprosaic]

I think that's a great idea! I'm impressed. And food traditions are some of the best ones to keep :)

[shimmin]

There was a funny 80s movie about an advertising firm. One of the better moments in it is the advertisement they make for Sony, explaining why the Japanese make higher-quality electronics. The greater stature of Caucasian workers, they claim, places their eyes too far from the conveyor belt to properly see what they are doing. The ad closes with something like, "Sony ... because Caucasians are just too d--- tall."

[leque]

I don't know the movie, but the last line is great. :)