What is the importance of food in this essay?
In this essay we read about a family being brought back together by cancer being brought on to his mother. He has been away from home for 10 years and he is now back taking take care of his ill mother. He has left home at 15 when his mother had sent him away at a boarding school. As a kid the biggest memories of him and his mother are her cooking dinner for him. They never really shared feelings are talked. She was always cook up something special for her family encouraging him to go outside and play and when he refused and wanted to watch he would learn little secrets about her recipes and would be his most treasured memories to hold on to.
When he had written this essay you can tell how much he had learned from his mother making authentic Korean recipes that she had perfected and speaking very well with all the cooking terms like “mincing” “julienne” and “roux” all are important words in knowing how to be a chef. Mincing is a very defined cut in maybe cutting garlic. Julienne is a specific cut for maybe a bell pepper or a carrot a long thin cut. A roux is a mixture of easy materials that you can whip up like a spaghetti sauce. The only reason I had learned these and more is because I took culinary arts throughout high school. To me this shows how much love he had for his mother that he wanted to take her most prized position and keep it close for him to hold on to because that’s all he had between them.
Hi Samantha,
ReplyDeleteDo you think food is a way for him to keep the memories of his mother alive? What is it about the food that is important to him? You mention that they didn't talk much. Do you think food is the way his mother showed him love?
Take care,
Samantha,
ReplyDeleteI think cooking was their language, and it spoke for them even when they didn't physically speak much.
I speak to my mother all the time, but when it comes to cooking, its on and on. I too try to learn to cook the way she does. She taught me so much when I was younger. It was our bonding time, she was teaching me how to be a good future wife, and how to cook by taste not by measure. I guess it must be an asian thing where measure has no meaning to our cooking. Till this day I still have that kitchen bond with my mother. When we're in the kitchen, there's never a time where I've been taught enough. There is always so much to learn. I would have to say the kitchen is my mother's lair, her sanctuary.
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI agree with all your questions in feed back that it was how he kept his memmories of his mother alvie and kept up with cooking not for the passion of doing it but to remeber his mother.Thanks!
samantha
I agree with how food was the bond between Chang-rae and his mother. It was how they communicated to each other and what he remembers the most. The food is how Chang-rae will remember his mother and how he will keep that connection. I only wish I could have some of those recipes to try out.
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