Taste of home

Strangely enough, even though I've been away from my hometown for a long time, the flavors of its food remain deeply etched in my memory. The dishes from my hometown, imbued with the hardships, simplicity, and the faint scent of burning fields, along with the warmth of human connection and the aroma of the earth, linger in my childhood memories to this day.

Taste of home

-Illustration: LE DUY

Growing up in the countryside, my memories are filled with simple things. Back then, when life was tough, our daily meals consisted mainly of vegetables and fruits from our garden. Whatever was in season, our grandmother's garden always had plenty of everything from water spinach and jute mallow to gourds and pumpkins... Especially in the summer, the loofah vines would bloom with bright yellow flowers, illuminating a small part of the yard.

We often played under the gourd vines, watching Grandma chew betel nut, as if seeing a fairytale scene not so far away. The countryside evening was peaceful. We could faintly hear the lullaby intertwined with the creaking of the hammock rocking the cradle. The scent of our homeland, carefully preserved and permeated by the hazy evening smoke, filled the air. The vast fields of egrets stretched endlessly, bathed in sunlight.

In my hometown, crab soup was a familiar dish during the summer. We usually caught the crabs ourselves while roaming the village fields. Back then, the fields weren't yet contaminated with chemicals. In the summer, the water was so hot it felt like steam was coming out of the water, and the crabs crawled all over the surface. Sometimes they hid in burrows along the edges of the fields; you could easily catch them by reaching in, but you had to be careful to avoid being pinched. Every time we went out to the fields to catch crabs, the village children would carry baskets, their faces smeared with mud, but their laughter would always echo across the fields in the breezy afternoon.

Freshwater crabs can be cooked with many kinds of vegetables. They taste delicious with spinach, water spinach, or even with zucchini. My grandmother's crab soup was very elaborate. She meticulously washed each crab, peeled off the shell and gills, then crushed them and filtered them with water. She said that filtering the crabs had to be done thoroughly until the water was completely clear. I often helped her collect the crab roe. Looking at the bowl of golden crab roe, I could imagine a pot of sweet, fragrant crab soup on a hot summer afternoon. Sometimes, glancing at my grandmother's increasingly gray hair, my heart ached, and I feared that one day...the white clouds would return to the sky.

I love my grandmother's crab soup with loofah. She often tells me to pick some flower buds to make the soup more fragrant and colorful. After carefully straining the crab broth, she simmers it until the crab meat is cooked and floats to the surface, then adds the loofah and flower buds. Cooking crab soup with loofah requires high heat so that the loofah retains its green color when cooked through and doesn't become too soft – that's what makes it delicious. Crab soup is usually served with pickled eggplant, and my grandmother adds a little shrimp paste for extra flavor.

After the hardships of everyday life, the whole family gathers around a pot of crab soup, enjoying it and praising its delicious taste. At such times, Grandma smiles warmly. Perhaps, the older we get, the more intensely we miss the flavors of the past. In the city, every time we look into the distance, the taste of home is deeply felt. Those warm country meals of yesteryear are like a radiant light in our memories. There, we have a complete family; a love that stretches across our memories; and the aroma of gourds and eggplants mingled in the crab broth, soothing even the scorching summer heat.

In today's fast-paced life, we are often swept up in the hustle and bustle of work, and sometimes even meals are rushed. Not only my family, but perhaps many other families also sometimes choose simple, quick meals to save time.

But deep down, I still crave and miss those simple country meals, I miss the taste of the crab soup from those days... I remember my childhood days with my grandmother, meticulously preparing freshwater crabs with her... and how she cooked those simple, humble dishes that tasted so delicious, so unforgettable.

An Khanh

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