 |
Special occasions in our household tend to be characterized by a particular dish. Whether it be birthdays, Christmas, Lunar New Year or Easter, there's one dish that will surely, inevitably, most certainly, be on the table.
It is a dish friendly on the wallet, easy to prepare, versatile with the dips and one that everyone in The Family loves.
Okay, maybe me most of all, but, never mind.
After all, no one's complained about having steamed siew mais at birthdays and Lunar New Year, much less at Christmas and Easter.
The warmth that this simple, heartwarming dish brings is representative of family ties, family togetherness, and just being there for each other (in one way or another).
It is a dish that we have all come to expect at special family meals. One Parent heads down to the supermarket and comes back with whichever brand they have decided for the occasion. The Other preps the rice cooker and rummages out the special dish that has been carefully measured to be large enough for x number of siew mais. I do the washing up.
This Easter we decided that we'd combine two of my all-time favorites into the dish and steam it up in the rice cooker. So one half of the dish had siew mais. The other half had cuttlefish balls. Along with all the balls we tossed in cherry tomatoes (for the juice and the color) plus one random scrap of lettuce that somehow wouldn't fit into the bowl of soup.
It made for a very pretty picture.
And I received special instructions to please take picture of the brand also together with the dish of siew mais because #supportlocal and in case next time we forget what we got the last time and end up buying a different brand. (Yes, The Parents are particular like that)
So lunch this Easter saw quite a spread on the dining table. We had hard boiled eggs, steamed eggs, siew mais, cuttlefish balls, soup with lots and lots of lettuce, chili brinjal, braised potatoes, fish cake (by the request of One Parent), century eggs (by the request of the Other Parent), a bowl of specially prepared har mee and chocolate eggs from Cadbury for dessert.
As much as a spiritual occasion it is, what it also meant to us all was the fact that the celebration resounded deeply with each of us, that we knew what the celebration was about, and we were equally thankful in our own ways.
I'm happy.
I'm thankful.
I'm blessed.