little bitty girl

I love the 3 F's - Food, Family and Friends. Not in that particular order.

This last trip was a combination of all three. We ate at Republic (my NY staple for noodle soup), Nyonya and Dervish. I got to see - Boutsy and Murat from Vancouver, Carmen, who recently moved back to North America from a five year stint in Switzerland and my big brother, Ken.

Whenever I think of food, I cannot help but think of family and friends. It may be something to do with my family. We were never asked how we were, the first sentence out of my grandparents mouth whenever they saw us was to ask whether or not we had eaten. Being Chinese and having so many traditions and celebrations where food was the main feature probably is another reason as well. I can always see at the back of my mind, many generations of family gathered, laughing, chopping, dicing, picking amidst the smell of spices cooking in air. A lot of my memories are tied to food.

The meals we had on this trip were in some way like reminiscing about our past. Boutsy, Carmen and I went to university together and we spent many a time at Salad King. Our favourite dish is Street Noodle Soup. Which also happens to be Ken's favourite meal there as well. The only thing Ken seems to be homesick for is Swiss Chalet and Street Noodle Soup. At Nyonya, Ken and I got to introduce our friends to Malaysian cooking, which as far as we're concerned is never as good as the food back home but the food at Nyonya definitely is pretty darn close. Murat, who is from Turkey then introduced Boutsy and I to his native meals at Dervish. All around, it was a great sharing of memories and culture through food.