Friday Night Dinner
It has been said, "if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life." When I was a sophomore in high school, my mother wanted to make sure that both I and my older brother knew how to "fish" before we left for college. This meant learning how to cook (which I never got to do while I lived in the dorms). When I look back at my and my brother's childhoods, we've always been somewhat involved in the kitchen. We knew how to cut up onions, peel shrimp, and perform other menial tasks (we actually got quite good at that kind of stuff, I suspect it's because my mom didn't want to do those tasks herself so she made us do them). However we never had to take a meal from grocery shopping to prep work to execution to eating. In order to teach us, she made us make a full meal about 2-3 times/month and always on a Friday night. Over the 3 years I did this, it grew to be a popular social event among my friends and laziness in creating the Facebook invitations branded the event as FND for Friday Night Dinner. As it turns out, good food often leads to good friends. I learned how to organize and plan a meal and my time spent in grocery stores looking for ingredients gradually declined. I learned how to prepare many of my mother's family recipes and try to avoid chaos and her yelling at me in the kitchen. Although the meals were often tasty, I still haven't mastered the whole avoiding chaos and yelling bit when I go home and cook.
My favorite part of FND happened each time just before the food was set on the table. At this time, I would look around and see myself surrounded by friends and family all sitting down together for a meal that I toiled over for the past hour or two to prepare. Funny stories and good conversation were about to be passed along with a side of gai-lan or mashed potatoes. Although sometimes days would start out rather unpleasant or stressful, at the end of the night, after being with good food and good company, I don't remember ending a single one in a bad mood.
While in high school, my parents footed the bill for each of these dinners (which sometimes fed about 20 people), needless to say, these did not continue after I graduated from high school. However, this summer FND has been resurrected and re-adapted as TND, Tuesday Night Dinner. Last Tuesday, July 6, was the first one. My brother and I cooked Char Koay Teow for a few friends. We created a running tab where we can track how much each meal costs and how much everyone owes. With different friends and different food, I personally am excited to see this tradition carry on. Next week we will be having German food prepared by my brother's roommate's girlfriend. There is nothing quite like making friends over a good meal.
My favorite part of FND happened each time just before the food was set on the table. At this time, I would look around and see myself surrounded by friends and family all sitting down together for a meal that I toiled over for the past hour or two to prepare. Funny stories and good conversation were about to be passed along with a side of gai-lan or mashed potatoes. Although sometimes days would start out rather unpleasant or stressful, at the end of the night, after being with good food and good company, I don't remember ending a single one in a bad mood.
While in high school, my parents footed the bill for each of these dinners (which sometimes fed about 20 people), needless to say, these did not continue after I graduated from high school. However, this summer FND has been resurrected and re-adapted as TND, Tuesday Night Dinner. Last Tuesday, July 6, was the first one. My brother and I cooked Char Koay Teow for a few friends. We created a running tab where we can track how much each meal costs and how much everyone owes. With different friends and different food, I personally am excited to see this tradition carry on. Next week we will be having German food prepared by my brother's roommate's girlfriend. There is nothing quite like making friends over a good meal.
