Ahh! it was great staying with my folks for a few days. It's so restorative to touch base with your family, play at being the kid again, and eat wonderful food and laugh loudly with your mouth open. Both my parents are wonderful cooks, but my mum takes it to another level; she cooks and bakes for fun, for her church, and for her friends neighbours and family. She also teaches Chinese cooking (so I guess that's where my love of teaching comes from).
Fresh out of the oven coconut, sesame, and peanut buns and Wendy waiting patiently for them to cool down.
Food is so integral in Chinese culture. Different ingredients, cooking methods, and dishes have: symbolic meanings, can bring good luck, fertility, and even symbolize wealth. Many foods are medicinal, both preventative and curative (some of those medicinal brews are pretty whiffy!) What I find interesting is that Chinese people regularly eat and drink a lot of preventative medicinal food throughout a given week. For instance they'll make soups which are good for refreshing and cleaning out your system, or good for cleaning out your lungs, or your liver and so on. Some of these soups taste pretty good!
Chinese family meals are always eaten together at the table. As you probably already know there will be a whole bunch of dishes set in the middle which usually consist of a meat dish, a fish dish, some veggies and maybe some tofu as well, and a soup which is enjoyed at the end of a meal. Each diner will have their own bowl of rice and they will select the morsels of food that they wish to eat from the dishes in the middle.
The sharing of food in Chinese culture is a very important way to show your love and respect for someone. This gives the activity of eating a ceremony all of it's own. For instance before I would start helping myself to food I would select a nice cut of meat or fish (or whatever) and place it into my Grannie's rice bowl for her to eat, then I would do the same for someone younger than me (say a cousin, or sister), and then I would do the same again for my Mum and my Dad. The etiquette is you serve oldest generation first, then the youngest, and then the generation above you before finally serving yourself. In this way you are showing that you care for others by wanting them to eat well - before you do. This way of eating sounds time consuming (which it is because meals can take hours) and chaotic, but it actually works brilliantly because everyone else is serving each other in this way and throughout a meal and throughout the years everyone gets a turn at the nicest cuts of food.
Here are some pics from a Lam family bun fight;
My parents live close to a large fish merchants (where posh restaurants in London; such as Le Caprice, The Ivy, The Oxo, source their fish from). The fish is always fab quality and because my Mum regularly brings around her tasty food for the fishermen she gets really fab deals on the fish (and lobster) as well.
Dad always does a wonderful job of cooking the lobster...
This may look like a scene from one of the Alien movies, but I can assure you this dish was deeee-lectable. The sauce was flavoured with a little chilli, spring onion, and ginger...mmm!

Peking roast duck is absolute pain in the...to make from scratch (I've done it once and I vowed never again). So it's really handy that Mum knows how to make a perfect job of it.

Groovy apron eh? Chinese clothing manufacturers love to print random English sentences on their clothing. It doesn't seem to matter whether it makes any sense or not, but over the years the grammar has improved somewhat :)
Am drooling on keyboard...
Homemade Tofu with a minced pork & prawn topping (the same stuff as the filling for wontons).
Here's the food...
...and here's some of the family. May I introduce (anti clockwise from bottom right): Dad; Sister; Mum; Greedy guts; Grannie; Friend, Aunty, and Aunty. Chinese home meals are typically messy affairs and they take a long time to eat, but that's OK - everyone looks happy!
Thanks Mum and Dad; Beanie and I had a lovely time! XX
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