More Memories of My Mom

 


This is an odd thing to remember perhaps, but in Spring I always do.  

Back before my mom was married she worked as a nurse's aide in one of the hospitals there in Southern California.  One of her coworkers was a Japanese lady.  My mom must have spent quite a bit of time with her both at work and away from work, because she seemed to have made an impression on her in the culinary department. 

As a child I remember my mom always had a pair of fancy chopsticks in the kitchen drawer.  She taught me how to use them quite early on, as soon as I was coordinated enough to learn.  

We had chicken rice often and I soon mastered the art of eating it with chopsticks. Much, much less frequently she would fix chow mein.  There were no kits back then so it was all from scratch.  Some of the ingredients were more difficult to find where we lived, but she would get them and make it.  She didn't do so often because of the amount of steps to prepare it properly.  But it was always a memorable meal and I loved it.

In spring she would get some sort of sprouts from the grocery store, chop up some of our green onions fresh from the garden and mix them all up with beaten raw egg.  Then she would make what I'd call a sort of egg pancake thingy, but she called it "egg foo yung.".  I loved that too.

In the many years between then and coming here to grow my own green onions I would on occasion run into a dish by the same name, egg foo yung...or maybe young?  But I was always disappointed because it was never, ever half as good as what she would prepare.  

So now every Spring I snag my own green onions from the garden and make it for breakfast and remember my mom.  

I guess perhaps it isn't really odd to remember this since so much of our memories are triggered by either smell or taste.

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