Dad's basket of fish

When I was young, my seven brothers and I lived together in an old tiled house. We were poor, had many children, and our meals were mainly from the fields and gardens. We grew up and went our separate ways. At that time, my father was known as a "fish killer". Almost every day when he came home from the fields, he had enough for my mother to make several salty and soup dishes. I loved to see my father's fish basket every time he came home. There were all kinds of fish in it, from snakehead fish, catfish, perch, loach, and even crabs, snails... Braised river fish or cooked in soup with giang leaves were all delicious. My hometown is in the East, giang leaves grow wild in abundance, if you want to pick them to make soup, you just need to go to some vacant land, termite mounds... and you will find them. My family often ate them, so my father dug up the roots and planted them, without much care, just needing the rain and sunshine to have leaves to cook soup all year round. I don't know since when my father's basket of river fish became the main source of food for my family. If I am happy every time I see my mother coming home from the market, I am just as happy when I see my father coming home with a basket of fish in his hand.

What I remember most are the afternoons when the water was so heavy that it covered the floor of the house, and the banana garden was also flooded, so that the roots could not be seen. My father waded through the yard, holding a basket full of snakehead fish, catfish, and sometimes crabs and frogs. Usually, my father caught a lot when it rained. Holding the basket of fish that my father brought home, my mother went to the gutter to clean it. Even though it was pouring rain, my father did not forget to go to the backyard to pick some giang leaves, a bunch of sweet potato leaves and a few chili peppers. The fish were so fresh, my mother divided a bunch into braised fish sauce and another bunch to cook soup. When the braised fish smelled, the pot of soup on the stove boiled, my brothers and I could hear our stomachs rumbling.

The rice and soup were cooked, Mom served them on the table, the fish was still boiling in the clay pot, the aroma filled the air, the bowl of fish soup with giang leaves was steaming. The fish was "kho quet" in the old days because it had a layer of salt on the side of the clay pot, each time you took a piece, you ate it with a bowl of rice, it was both rich and spicy, with boiled vegetables for dipping, it was the best. After eating the salty dish, you drank a bowl of sour soup, the sweetness of the freshwater fish, the sourness of giang leaves combined with the spiciness of chili made a rainy afternoon warm. The more you swallowed, the warmer and sweeter it became. My brothers and I ate and wiped our sweat, after swallowing, the taste still lingered on our lips.

A hot meal filled the hearts of poor children on a rainy afternoon. The meal made from my father's basket of fish, cooked by my mother's hands, was deeply ingrained in my childhood memories and followed me until I grew up. My father is now old, he has not gone fishing for a long time, my mother has also passed away, the meal with my father's basket of fish is only in my memories....

Hello love, season 4, theme "Father" officially launched from December 27, 2024 on four types of press and digital infrastructure of Radio - Television and Binh Phuoc Newspaper (BPTV), promising to bring to the public the wonderful values of sacred and noble fatherly love.
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Source: https://baobinhphuoc.com.vn/news/19/172815/gio-ca-dong-cua-ba