Food Memoir
Braised beef, that’s the first word that came to my mind when I know our assignment is food memoir. I guess the only reason that I choose to write about braised beef is because that’s used to be the only dish that my father can cook, and also the only dish that I can eat from home for most of the time.
Braised beef are like an important symbol in the relationship between me and my father. My father used to work a lot when I was a kid, and my mother cooked for a long time since they got married. My family was like in the stereotype way, father work outside and mother do all the housework at home, and we live like this until I got into middle school. Because my mother also started to work, so there is no one handling the food problem anymore, and I began to eat some take-out food at home. My father finally realized that is unhealthy for a growing-up boy to eat take-out food everyday, and he began to cook for me.
It’s not easy to learn cooking, I know that because I’ve tasted a lot unsuccessful dishes from father. The learning process was just like a clip of montage in a family film, time passing by, after hundreds of experiments he finally can cook some delicious dishes. Braised beef, it’s one of his most successful experiment. It’s a main dish and easy to cook, you just need to put everything into the pressure cooker and wait for it to be done. Because it’s easy to cook, so he cooks it over and over again. Until I don’t want to see it anymore, sometimes I will compare my mom’s dishes with his dishes and that can make him unhappy. He would say: If you don’t like my cooking than don’t eat it. But what can I do? I was a young and naive boy who do not show my expectation and my feelings in an appropriate way. The reaction of me when I saw the braised beef is just like how the brother feels when he sees the fish in the Simple Recipes. Madeliene Thien makes it clear of a young boy shows his negative attitude with a dish: “My brother kicks at a table leg.” and “My brother glares, just for a moment. Then he begins picking at the dirt on his arms.”(92) While we know the brother doesn't like the fish, but he can’t do anything with it because the father always the authority. So he tries to use some way to escape from the fate that he has to eat the fish, but unfortunately, he picks the wrong way.
In fact, writing a food memoir about braised beef is like letting me to reconsider the relationship between me and my father. Braised beef is not only a dish for me, it reminds me to accept the imperfect part of my father that he is not a thoughtful person. But he is a responsible person who can stand out for his family, although braised beef is not that tasty for me but that’s what my father can give to me. I shouldn’t let him to do something out of his ability, and I started to regret what I have done to him. But I guess that’s what we need to live through, because over time, we meet new people and new things, we taste all those delicious food, and finally we realize how precious for people who are around us. Fortunately, it’s not too late.
Citation:
Thien, Madeleine. “Simple Recipes.” The Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories. Ed.
Jane urquhart. Toronto.Penguin Canada,2008. pp.88-96.
2019-9-12