Missing Mom's snacks

In the past, we only went to school in the morning. After our afternoon nap, there was always a snack that Mom would leave on the dining table or in the kitchen. Snacks in those days were not only for children but also for adults and the elderly. Around the snack, there were many stories that Mom or Grandma would tell her children and grandchildren.

One day, Mom would display a basket of green mangoes, sliced into pieces, a bowl of thick fish sauce and sugar, and a few crushed chili peppers, and eat them while sniffing. After eating all the jackfruit, Mom would save the seeds to boil, or a basket of boiled sweet potatoes or taro. Another day, Mom would make a dish of bean dregs stir-fried with bean sprouts and chives, served with grilled rice paper. In the season of shrimp paste, there would be shrimp paste stir-fried with bean sprouts and eaten with grilled rice paper. Or Mom would boil a basket of snails and sit around picking the snails with safety pins, dipping them in ginger fish sauce, it was so delicious! Popcorn with fish sauce or candied with sugar, grilled corn drizzled with fish sauce and scallion oil or fish sauce, shredded corn coated in flour and fried with green onions and spices, all delicious. Simpler still, a few boiled corns, roasted peanuts. The time when a bowl of flour mixed with sugar was so delicious that people fought to scrape the pot...

The thick rice paper, instead of being grilled, is dried in the sun, and is crispy to eat. Sometimes Mom grilled the rice paper and poured it on a layer of sugar water, and it was a paradise. Or rice paper dipped in soy sauce and chili; a basket of hot noodles freshly out of the oven eaten with chili and garlic fish sauce; a hot bread dipped in sweetened condensed milk... also delicious. Mom diligently made shredded cassava, rolled it into pieces, and fried it with scallion oil. Boiled cassava dipped in sugar was also delicious. If she was a little more diligent, Mom made peanut salt, added some shredded coconut, and it was absolutely delicious! Shredded sweet potato mixed with flour and fried it was also delicious. During Tet, there were so many bananas that she couldn't eat them all, Mom made dried bananas, put them in a jar to eat gradually.

Banh can, banh beo, banh xeo... were also prepared by my mother in the afternoon, when everyone was excited and hungry. One day, my mother made papaya salad. It was just shredded papaya mixed with chili and garlic fish sauce, a little dried fish on top, herbs, and eaten with grilled rice paper. Then there were sweet green bean desserts, green beans cooked with wood ear mushrooms, jelly desserts, black beans, broad beans cooked with sticky rice, white beans, lotus seed desserts... There were so many, recounting them was like wandering around a precious culinary treasure that might only remain in memory when now afternoon snacks are as diverse as: fried fish balls, mixed rice paper, fried dough, wontons, dried beef salad, grilled sausages, lemongrass and lime chicken feet, salted egg sponge cake, grilled banana cake... sold all over the streets, in fairs, and culinary neighborhoods...

Every era is different, in our time there were not many snacks sold so only my mother diligently made them for her children. Food is a memory. Warm, dear memories of sweet childhood that make me miss it so much when now it is hard to find snacks like the ones my mother made with so much love.

DAO THI THANH TUYEN

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/van-hoa/sang-tac/202510/nho-nhung-mon-an-xe-cua-ma-e093144/