In every person’s life, there is definitely a dish that is remembered forever. It may not be the most delicious dish, but it appears at a very special moment. After more than 40 years of existence in this world, I can no longer remember how many dishes I have eaten, both domestic and international. However, if someone asks me which dish is the most memorable, I will immediately say it is the snakehead fish braised in coconut water on Tet holiday that year.
That was when I was about 12 years old. My mother went to Can Tho to do business to support my siblings in college, while I stayed in Chau Doc with my father to study secondary school. Before 1975, my father taught high school. Later, for many reasons, he did not continue to teach at public schools but only taught in supplementary cultural classes for poor students and young people who had dropped out of school. That job did not pay, only a small subsidy from the ward. He made a living by teaching martial arts. It was said to be a living, but in fact the tuition fee was only a very small amount, enough for tea and water, and most of his martial arts students were poor. My father and I lived in extremely poor material conditions during the subsidy period.
 |
| The braised snakehead fish dish I made for my mother this year still cannot be exactly the same as the one in my memories of Tet in the past. |
Nguyen Huy |
No matter how poor we are, we must prepare properly for the fourth day of Tet, at least we must have a decent meal. That year, my mother and siblings were also working hard so they did not return home early like usual. My father took care of the food preparation for Tet, and I waited to be ordered around. The 27th of Tet had passed but my father still could not find the money to buy a kilo of pork belly and a dozen duck eggs to cook the traditional braised pork and duck eggs dish. My father was worried, sat down and stood up, but could not remember who could lend him some money. At a loss, my father and I focused on cleaning the house. My father went down to the wharf and asked some girls in the countryside to send down some banh tet and some fruit. After the 28th of Tet, my father said: "Well, let's use whatever we have this year, next year will be better."
Just when we were preparing for a Tet without the traditional “fatty meat, pickled onions, and red parallel sentences”, one of my father’s students came by and gave us two snakehead fish, each weighing about 2.5 kilos. This student usually worked as a daily laborer on a fish farm. He worked hard until the 28th of Tet, and the owner of the farm let him take a day off and gave him a bunch of delicious fish as a Tet gift. He remembered his teacher and sent his feelings. My father looked at the two giant snakehead fish, both happy and embarrassed, because in my hometown, no one had ever cooked fish as a special dish for Tet. Thinking it over, my father said it was better to have food in the house during Tet than to have nothing. So, my father carefully and thoroughly cleaned the two fish. He asked his neighbor, Auntie Five, how to cook braised pork with eggs and coconut water. When he got home, my father invented the dish of braised snakehead fish with coconut water.
He marinated the fish with shallots, garlic, chopped chili, a little caramel, fish sauce, MSG and a little sugar, then left it there for about an hour to absorb. When he put the pot on the stove to cook for a while, he added coconut water and lowered the heat to low. The flower snakehead fish looks a bit like the wild snakehead fish but is larger and has white and black dots on its body, so people call it flower. In particular, the fish's intestines are big and thick with fat, so after cooking for a while, the fat will cover the whole pot and the color of each piece of fish will gradually turn to a shiny brown. The smell of fish and spices mixed together and filled the whole house. While helping my father clean the house, I swallowed my saliva. My father's eyes seemed to have a satisfied smile.
On the morning of the 30th of Tet, my mother and siblings returned to their hometown, bringing with them some rat droppings and 2 watermelons. At that time, the market was closed, so we couldn't buy anything else. My father said, "Every year during Tet, we eat duck eggs and braised pork. It's a bit boring. Let's change the taste this year." My mother smiled and agreed, although she knew that in those days, people only took advantage of Tet to have a chance to eat pork, and they didn't have the opportunity to eat that dish all year round, except for a few rich families. In fact, snakehead fish is quite an expensive fish.
Normally, only rich families eat this kind of fish, while poor families like us have to deal with linh fish, long tong fish, ba ky fish, ba sa fish, tra fish, and sac fish. So, on Tet holiday, being able to eat snakehead fish braised in coconut water is considered a consolation.
On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, after finishing the offerings, my father asked my second sister to prepare the first meal of the year. The family of five gathered around the pot of hot rice and a bowl of fragrant snakehead fish. My mother peeled a red watermelon and cut it into small pieces to eat instead of cucumber. That was the first time in my life I ate snakehead fish braised in coconut water with my family. I don't know if my father was skillful or if the snakehead fish meat was naturally delicious, but I found it satisfying every time I ate it. The fish meat was rich and sweet, the fish broth was not salty, but very mild, and I could eat it over and over again without getting bored. Every now and then, I dipped a piece of sweet watermelon into the fish broth, feeling the cool sensation on the tip of my tongue.
Mom divided the large intestine into many parts, she folded a piece for me, I immediately put it in my mouth. Oh my, it was fatty and fragrant. In those days of lacking protein and fat, eating a piece of fat was so delicious. Dad and Mom ate slowly, only looking at their children, but we forgot to eat, to the point of being full.
Many years later, we have gone through many full Tet holidays. Some years, we celebrated Tet in a place other than Vietnam. But absolutely, there was no Tet season that we ate snakehead fish braised in coconut water again. Sometimes, when I had free time, I wondered why such a delicious dish was not cooked by my family. I answered myself that first of all, it was probably the so-called customs that were passed down from generation to generation that people remembered. For example, the dish of braised pork and eggs on Tet holiday, and the dish of snakehead fish braised in coconut water was just a fire-fighting dish for my family at that time of hardship. Once it is called a fire-fighting dish, it is only temporary and fleeting.
But because it was a unique, unrepeatable moment, it remained deeply in my memory until now.
Source link
Comment (0)