And the best part of the holiday was all the nice and simple food Grandmother and Uncle cooked. Occasionally we also were given treats by our other aunts in their kitchens in the big house or further in land in the other houses.
My thoughts are about Lak Tong today.
When we were young we did not know that Lak Tong was a Cantonese food product. And we thought Lak was for chillies or spicy taste. So Lak Tong was a sausage full of chillies and we were quite reluctant to eat them.
The Foochows in Nang Chong used Lak Tong to cook fried rice, make omelettes, or serve them fried or steamed (e.g. with belt fish). Another way of eating lak tong, Foochow style, in those days was to steam thin slices of the lak tong with bean sprouts, a very interesting dish.
It was until very much later in life that I learned that Lak meant WAXED. And that the Cantonese called it Lap Cheong.
Now I have two Cantonese sons-in-law. (50 years later) my daughters are not necessarily interested in eating Lak tong or lap cheong while I continue to love it as a delicacy and in small portions and using it in my cooking occasionally.
1 comment:
You have become my sweet potato relative by virtue of being a mother-in-law of two of my Cantonese boys.
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