The Family Style Meal 

Gliding back to the first dinner I spent with my relatives in Kunming (southwest part of China) the past summer, a dinning table was enriched by stewed chicken accommodated by nutritious herbs; edible tree fungus blended with soy sauce, vinegar, pepper and fennel for the final decoration; pepper fish fired up by the most elegant spice from Sichuan province, the slightly salty but sweet sauce balances the dry hot from the spice just enough; dry fried string bean incorporates the crispy texture from the boiling oil as well as the salty and spicy preserved fermented bean, the concentrated flavor expedite the completion of a bowl of rice. My entire family welcomed my return with all these delicately made food and my stomach encountered the most exciting and enjoyable meal in his life. Food strengthens the relationship in my family, and food delivers the most cordial love from my family to my deep heart.

Coming back from an exhausting day of school, my grandma always adore the dark brown wood dinning table full of colorful dishes to energize my body. The stemmed egg, fried pork cake, cold blended cucumber with pepper and soy sauce, and pan fried beef with green pepper, all are my favorite dishes from my grandma. My grandma spoils me the most because I carry the family name, she alternates the food menu for me everyday so I won’t grow bored eating the same food over and over again. Mushroom prospers in the summer season; my grandma always purchase the most fresh GanBa mushroom from the farmers live in the mountain and cook it with green pepper, salt, and vegetable oil for me. The chewy and hard texture of GanBa mushroom accompanies with the dense pepper flavor enhances the appetite of the entire meal. All the flavorful dishes prepared by my grandma spoiled my taste buds, the food she cooked draws me to visit my grandma very often. Chinese culture defines a good child as who possess the quality of obedient to the parents. Carrying the grocery bags for my grandma every Saturday morning becomes my routine. Grandma’s food connects my family together, and the gathering of entire family in the eve of spring festival brings every family member’s heart together to help grandma make the first genuine meal of the year to pray for the family’s fortune. Mean while, emulating grandma’s attentive gesture and swift cooking motions during my leisure always stimulate my memory cells in the brain and stomach to remember the every single meal grandma dedicated to make for me.

Uncle Dong owns the first car Mazda in the family. Almost every weekend, he will drive my half year older cousin WenBo and me to eat various foods in different places he has discovered during his business trips. Remember an extremely hot summer afternoon, we drove 100 kilometers (60 miles) to a city Yuxi to attempt some spicy eel ricenoodle and ice porridge. Freshly made ricenoodle is steamed in boiling water till it looks like a bundle of shinning yarn. Adding the secret ingredient in the eel, hot pepper powder, soy sauce, chives, and bean sprouts conclude the eel ricenoodle. While chewing the slippery and smooth ricenoodle covered in concentrated eel juice that provides the sensation of volcano eruption in the tongue. Sipping the liquid in the ice porridge suddenly alleviate the burden on the tongue to battle with the strong spice. After the cease-fire between the tongue and spice, sitting down and eating the porridge with the brown sugar liquid as the dessert, which draws a conclusion to the end of dinner. Uncle Dong passed away in 2006, left cousin WenBo and aunt Ping alone. Our journey to search for gourmet around the city stopped at the same year. However, every time I come back form America, cousin Wenbo and I will visit the same eel ricenoodle restaurant to commemorate the time with uncle Dong through food.

Since uncle Dong’s death, a 3 years older cousin, QinYang, a fashion boy, takes the responsibility as the big brother seriously among three of us. The past July, QinYang introduced us to eat a new cooking style of dried hot pot instead of traditional boiling soup. The hot pot we ordered includes duck tongue, crispy skinned sausage, bean sprouts, crispy tofu, tofu skin, and celtuce. We accentuate for insanely spicy! The duck tongue is the protagonist in the hot pot. It has a alphabet “Y” like shape, the top part is two skinny soft bone branches enclosed by rigid skin tissue, the actual tongue connects on the bottom, half of it is soft muscle tastes like squid, and the other half has the same texture as the top two branches. The process of peeling meet off the tongue is the essential aspect rather than devouring enormous chunk of beef. End of the dinner, numerous pieces of bone disseminate on the dinning table, and drops and drops of sweat dripping down everyone’s cheek, we all leaning back on the chair and look at each other with satisfaction and sense of brotherhood. Hold on, that’s not over yet, the Sharp Joy Cup’s cold bubble milk tea and fruit pudding are our dessert for the night. The sticky and slippery bubble leaping around the month like an intense ping-pong game. The fruit pudding offers the vitamin that body needs and also helps to cool down the remaining spice in the esophagus. Before farewell, we always decide the kind of food we are going to enjoy the next time, we all agreed to eat Kantongness seafood when I come back from college.

The origin of life belongs to water, and the continuation of life belongs to diversity of food that the earth offered to human. The significance of food develops beyond the physical needs to the spiritual stage. Grandma’s food delineates the broad love of motherhood, uncle Dong’s enthusiasm of food reminds the importance of the existence of family members, and cousin QinYang’s humor hooks up the friendship with my siblings. The temptation to slip in the kitchen and grab the memory recipe assembled by my family adorns my life.