So home, so cosy

"It's raining outside, Aki inside, tôm rim is tasty mum."

My son has stirred up my feeling about HOME with his description of the discourse, as pure and truthful as it was happening, of the scene, the affection, participants (including human and non-human) and their inner feeling. If going further, the statement of my son can bring you to his motherland, where dinner with all family members under a roof of torrential rain outside is cherished, where tôm rim (caramelised prawn) and steamy rice on the table are treasured when winter is in its full swing, and where no other thing on earth can pay for a cosy time of parents and children around a meal of dishes made out of love.

Family meals in our country are valued in their own way. Of no expensive or rare food, a Hue family meal is memorable for its affection steaming in each plate. It is the food shopping basket of mum in the rain, the young fresh greeny tips of kumara plants or water spinach, the fresh water fish caught in a flood, steamed fish paste in harsh days, all of those seasonal and local stuffs, with mum's hand, would become something warming up all the family's hearts in winter. Yes, winter, simply because it is a season of coldness, and thus of family gathering and extra care family members give to each other.


While a daily three course meal in a Hue family including soup (canh), simmer (kho) and stir (xào) is held for value because it speaks for a stable and basic material life, a family winter meal with fewer things due to the harshness of weather is memorable because its meaning goes beyond the everyday material value. Fish paste, which is kept for ages, duck eggs, whose delivery does not much depend on weather conditions, fish or prawn, which are caught in flood (and of course sold in market), and veggie, the staple major second to rice, all of those seasonal stuffs come a long way throughout the coldness, the wetness, and the harshness to the dining table to fill each stomach and heart with warmth. It is that long way in that condition that makes the family meal more than precious. It is also that long way in that condition that leads to a new world of recipes, uniquely and meaningfully created by mum.

No heart-made dishes would ever be born outside the roof of family I believe.

Photo note (from top to bottom)
1. Tôm kho rim (Caramelised prawn)
2. Gỏi rau muống (prawn + raw water spinach)
3. Giá trộn (Mung bean sprout salad)