Recipe in the style of Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate


Chapter one
July
Steamed rice with egg

Ingredients:
½ bowl of rice
¼ bowl of water
1 egg
Vegetable oil and salt


Preparation:

Put a half-full bowl of rice in a quarter-full bowl of water and then steam it until all the water is vaporized. While the rice is being steamed, apply a small quantity of vegetable oil on a pan and heat it to cook the egg. Add some salt while the egg is forming a shell of grease to prevent its golden core from overflowing. Do not remove the leftover oil from the egg. Quickly put the egg on top of the bowl of rice, but in a gentle way to avoid breaking the shell. Each grain of rice will slowly inherit the egg’s tasty and salty grease. This is important as the rice will be shinier and tastier when mixed with the grease of the egg.

“Not a drop of vegetable oil should be wasted, as we might not have sufficient ingredients for tomorrow’s supper. I guess I’ve gotten used to this way of cooking.”

The whiteness of the rice reminded Nhuan of the first time he saw snow here in Canada. In Vietnam, there’s no snow, instead there’s noxious dusts. These dusts came from the dark clouds that hid the whole village from sunlight for weeks. All the crops, being in the shadow, just like the villagers, were weak and fragile. Before the war, Nhuan and his older brother would labor the crops everyday after school and bring back home tons of food for their seven other siblings. At night, they would study from books which were only available to the landowners. All these memories began to shatter when the dark dusty clouds took over the sky. Napalm bombs (1) were dropped burning everything that it encountered. Those who didn’t have a quick death such as their village’s people, suffered from the dark clouds of dioxin that the fire created, for weeks, months… maybe years too, he didn’t know. He ran away with his family, among other sixty thousands Vietnamese, to Canada.

He is use to eat those fancy dishes in Vietnam: spring rolls, bird’s nest vegetables, fried dumplings and beef’s bones soup; but it was that first time he ever tasted such a perfect meal, a simple cheap bowl of steamed rice with egg. The art of our necessities is strange, that can make vile things precious (2). It has been days since Nhuan haven’t eaten, leaving all that he gained to his two daughters and his pregnant wife, Xuan. They had to start all over again because the government didn’t accept Nhuan’s diploma for dentistry. Right after he got his first paycheck working in a hotel, he bought enough ingredients to cook a small bowl of steamed rice with eggs. Finally, Nhuan’s groaning stomach was satisfied.

On the 5th of July, Xuan gave birth to a son, who they named David. Today is David’s first birthday; some of his teeth have matured. They now have enough money to feed the whole family. You have to wait five minutes for that each grain of rice gets a share of the egg’s flavor. Since the grease is hot, flowing from the top to the bottom of the bowl of rice, it keeps the rice warm for a good fifteen minutes. From that day on, Nhuan will teach his son to finish his bowl completely, without wasting a grain of rice.

“I guess after many years of living in harshness, we have gotten used to this way of eating.”


To be continued…
Next month’s recipe:
Moon cakes (3)



1 Napalm bombs were dropped by U.S. bombers during the second phase of the Vietnam War
2 Cited from Shakespeare’s King Lear, stating that base things become treasures when we are in miseries
3 Chinese Moon Festival is celebrated on the 15th of August (Chinese calendar)