Back to mom…

My mother was a hard-working peasant woman who had never known what a birthday was, had never received a romantic rose on a holiday, and had probably never worn a brand new shirt to celebrate Tet properly. Her life was a series of months of hardships to raise us to adulthood.

Illustration photo

The family had many children, life was lacking in many ways, so my mother had to save every little bit. Money was even tighter, the whole year only depended on the coffee harvest, so in one year my family had several "famine" seasons. My mother took a few coins to the market but had to "carry" dozens of mouths to feed. Therefore, the main food was vegetables my mother grew in her garden, wild on the coffee plantation, each season had its own food. However, sweet potato shoots and hot peppers were well taken care of by my mother all year round, my family almost never lacked them.

The meal served with boiled sweet potato shoots dipped in fish sauce and chili has become a traditional family dish. Although the family was poor, the children in the family never got tired of eating it.

In the past, my mother used to say: "Sweet potato leaves look like that but they are very picky about the heat. If the heat is too high and uneven, the vegetables will easily turn black and tough, and if boiled too long, the vegetables will be mushy, crumbly and have a bitter taste. Only when the heat is just right will the vegetables be sweet and rich." I noticed that every time the water boils, I put sweet potato leaves in the pot, my mother often sprinkles a little salt and adds a little cooking oil to make the vegetables green, crispy and sweet.

When she got tired of boiled sweet potato leaves, she switched to stir-fried sweet potato leaves with garlic, then sweet potato leaves cooked in soup with a little minced meat. In general, our whole family got to enjoy her “all-around sweet potato leaves”. Dad added, “Eating sweet potato leaves is good for your health, kids.” Only Mom smiled and said, “When you’re hungry, eat vegetables, when you’re sick, take medicine. I really want to change the menu, but…”

Another “specialty” dish that my brothers and I could never forget was my mother’s chili leaf soup. Usually, it had no meat, no shrimp, and was not complicated, just a few young chili tips picked from the tree, put into a pot of boiling water, and a little “spice” of my mother’s love. Yet, throughout our childhood, it became the dish my brothers and I craved the most whenever it rained.

If sweet potato leaves, as my father said, “are good for the bowels,” then chili leaf soup eaten in the afternoon will… remove worms from the stomach. In the past, when we had many siblings and our family was poor, our parents did not think of buying medicine to remove worms periodically, but a pot of chili leaf soup was “a dose of soup instead of a dose of medicine.” I don’t know if it’s true, but a pot of hot soup, spicy taste, sweet water, slurping to let the spicy flavor penetrate the tip of the tongue, it was delicious. On “more luxurious” days, my mother added a little beef to cook with it, needless to say, the sweetness was delicious, the children in the house were happy to eat any piece of beef they found.

The hot pot of soup served with rice has a sweet taste, the characteristic aroma of young chili shoots. Occasionally, when biting into a spicy chili that has just ripened in the leaf axils, the pistil and the strong aroma sink into the body, the spicy taste melts on the tongue, making everyone in the family sweat, eating and enjoying because of the deliciousness and spiciness.

In addition to the specialty dish: sweet potato leaves with chili leaves, fish sauce with chili are two spices that are always available in the house. My mother is from the Central region, so almost all the dishes she cooks are spicy. The house always has a jar of salted chili to eat on rainy days. Especially to remove the fishy taste of fish sauce and to make the food more interesting, chili is even more necessary.

We, the children of the farming family, all knew how to eat spicy food since we were young. But in fact, everyone in the family understood: Knowing how to eat chili is just to trick the tongue, eating spicy food is to trick the taste buds, to forget the frugal life when in need!

The hardships of the past have passed. Mother’s sweet potato leaves and green chili shoots raised us to adulthood. My father often laughed and said: “From the sweet potato leaves, chili leaves, and fish sauce jars your mother “carries”… 6 university degrees.”

But when the 6 graduates graduated and started working, the image of mother working hard by the stove, cooking poor family dishes was no longer there.

Mom is far away, but the poor family's food is always in my heart. The longing is always in my mind, never fading.

As time passed, when we had our own families, we still couldn't help but remember the dishes of those days, the taste of when our mother was still around. Occasionally, we would try to find the ingredients, cook a meal with boiled sweet potato leaves, chili leaf soup, a bowl of fish sauce... to feel like we were back with our mother.

These are not delicacies, but simple, rustic dishes, cooked with the diligence of a farmer mother and the love she has given us that we have eaten. They are culinary masterpieces in the heart of every farmer's child.

...This October, the rain poured down, suddenly, I miss my mother's cooking even more, miss the meal she waited for me. Truly, the greatest blessing in life is to still have my mother...

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/xa-hoi/202510/ve-voi-me-9391159/