My parents had to work hard and be resourceful to provide for seven growing children, and to give them a good education. Besides helping my father provide food and clothing for the children, my mother also had to open a small grocery store at home to earn some extra money.
In addition to the seasonal foods that are bought in bulk to sell, my mother often makes ready-made foods to help people prepare them after hours of working hard in the fields. On the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, my mother often makes fermented bean curd and soy sauce to sell for vegetarian meals; on normal days, with melons, papayas, and white eggplants available in the garden, people often make pickled fish sauce. Everyone in my neighborhood is fascinated by the pickled fish sauce made by my mother's diligent hands, especially during the rainy and windy days of September and October of the lunar calendar.
To make the pickled fish sauce that people often say is “a dish that lasts for a long time”, my mother had to buy anchovies to salt in March in earthenware jars. She gently washed the fresh anchovies, scooped them into a basket to drain, and mixed one bowl of fish with two or three bowls of salt, then put them in a tightly sealed jar.
On sunny days, anyone who comes to my house can see dozens of brown earthenware jars being laid out to dry in the sun. Taking advantage of the clear weather, my mother slices eggplant, melons, and papaya, dries them, washes them in salt water, and squeezes them out with a towel; then puts them in a glass jar, presses it tightly, and slowly pours in the fish sauce.
After a week, my mother scooped the soaked pickled eggplant and papaya into a basin and crushed the chili, garlic, and sugar together, then packaged them and sold them to everyone. The basin of fish sauce looked eye-catching with the white color of eggplant, papaya, and garlic; the light green color of the melon; the red color of the chili…
A bowl of hot rice, a few chopsticks of boiled vegetables and some fish sauce and pickles, and the pot of rice is gone in no time. In the past, people worked hard but ate simply, just white rice with fish sauce and vegetables was considered luxurious.
My family's fish sauce meal has become a thing of the past because adults nowadays rarely crave fish sauce for fear of high blood pressure, while children enjoy modern dishes... As for me, every time I want to eat fish sauce, I can find it at the market or supermarket, but the fragrant flavor and crispy, salty eggplant pieces of the past cannot be found anywhere.
The flavors of the old days, though far and very far away, but every time I remember them, I feel a stinging in the corner of my eyes, hear somewhere the lullaby from the hammock of my hometown, hear the sweet breeze from the hand waving the fan and crave to eat a bowl of hot rice with the pickled fish sauce that my mother made that far away day...
Source: https://baodanang.vn/mon-het-com-ngay-mua-dam-3306714.html
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