Hello and Happy Day after Christmas from my family to yours!
I’m going to keep this very very short because you’re either chillaxing or doing something utterly.
First — a little housekeeping: Midweek Gems will pause for two weeks (I’ll be back on January 16!) due to my travel and work schedule. The Sunday Specials will continue!
💎 Family: Not-so-model minority
A kind stranger at the cemetery took this photo. We went there to visit my dad’s grave. He passed away at the end of 2021 — conveniently after his 91st birthday and Christmas. So, nowadays, when we get together for the holidays, we also celebrate my dad with a Viet tradition known as đám giỗ (death anniversary).
It’s nothing fancy — no incense, no going to church, no saying the rosary the way my parents used to. It’s just getting together to be family. My mom did not expect much aside from the ginormous meal that she and I organized. She worried that my always-late oldest sister would be late or at the last minute, decide to not show.
To distract my mom, I suggested we visit my dad’s grave after eating. She was thrilled. “Bố (Dad) will we very happy that we thought of him!” she said.
Above in that photo, my mom stands extra proud with all of her five children, two of her four sons-in-laws, and two of her eleven grandchildren gathered for the holidays.
My mom used to critique our hair and clothing choices but she’s finally mellowed. My oldest sister Yenchi and her family got into the spirit with ugly Christmas sweaters and green and red articles of clothing. My mom said nothing.
My sister Tasha is wearing cat eye sunglasses that look like they could emit harmful rays. I’m flanked by my brother Dang and sister Linh. My niece Nikita (far left, by Rory, the lone white guy) and my nephew Daniel (center, behind my mom) are proof that second generations in America can and will tower over the first generation.
Our clothes aren’t pressed and our hair not coifed.
We’re not a Hallmark perfect family but my siblings and I did all manage to gather at the same time for Christmas and our dad’s đám giỗ. In Viet tradition, the death anniversaries are like mini-holidays. For our family, Christmas is now a double whammy.
My mom worries that after she’s gone, no one will be take charge to remember my dad and her. If the living don’t commemorate you, how positive was your life?
This year, perhaps because the grief has mostly passed, we all actually had a good time. My wayward sister arrived on time and was cheerful. The food and jokes were great, lots of festive dishes and vegetables to balance out the calorie splurges. No one misbehaved.
I hope we delivered hope and assurance to my mom. She’ll be remembered.
💎 How did you holiday? What was on your menu?
We all celebrate differently and I’m turning the noun holiday into a verb. How did you holiday? What did you do, cook, eat?
Below are pics from my family’s spread. I love the green tablecloth my mom laid out this year because the food looks extra festive. She said her white cotton embroidered tablecloth was hellish to wash and iron. After nearly 40 years of being fancy and proper, she switched to easy washing polyester.
A few notes for your cooking consideration:
Hydration for the sticky rice, chestnut, and shiitake dressing — I made 1.5x the recipe used my mom’s microwave. In doing so, I realized that I had a little bit too much hydration happening for the rice. I tweaked the recipe a touch to lower the hydration level. Grab the updated sticky rice recipe, available in text and PDF.
Timing-wise, the dressing was made the day before, put into a 9x13-inch Pyrex pan, and refrigerated. Then I baked it off before putting the spatchcocked chickens in to roast. After the chickens were done, they rested and I slid the dressing back into the oven to refresh and reheat before serving.
Spatchcocking chickens is a cinch when you keep these butchering pointers in mind. These two birds got seasoned with salt, pepper, lime zest, Chinese-five spice, and touch of sugar. The mixture went all over, including under the skin. The chickens air-dried overnight and then roasted at 425F until the skin was crisp.
My mom got upset that her imperial rolls were softening after deep-frying. I’m trying to persuade her to my oven-frying method in Ever-Green Vietnamese; the rolls stay crispy crunchy with little fat involved and you can freeze to cook whenever.
She’s coming around, though. She adores EVG’s super crispy sweet potato and shrimp fritters (bánh tôm) to the point that she cooked up a triple batch for us when we arrived at her house last week! She cleverly made bookmarks with the ingredients in double and triple quantities.
💎 Seasonal: Fried onions + puff pastry
While not as good as fried shallots, fried onions from the Netherlands (Holland) are quite good — much better than French’s. I think it’s a colonial thing, seeing as how the Dutch controlled parts of Southeast Asia from 1602 to 1798.
Right now, you’ll see brands like Lars and Trader Joe’s around. Grab one package for the year to come! And while you’re at TJ, another seasonal item to remember is the frozen all-butter puff pastry; it’s good quality at an amazing price. I like it for treats such as the mushroom pate puffs (bánh patê sô) on page 53 of Vietnamese Food Any Day.
💎 Reads
Next time you hear Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Holly Jolly Christmas, think of the song’s writer, Johnny Marks, a hitmaker and smart publisher. His profile was in NYT recently (gift article link expires in 3 weeks).
We’re also in tamale season. For many years, my dad’s former ESL student and work colleague, Mr. Cruz, used to bring us a warm bagful of his family’s Christmas tamales. I thought of them while reading the Los Angeles Times newsletter dispatch featuring tamale-making stories and cooking tips.
Behind the paywall for this upcoming Sunday Special is an easy, elegant appetizer to celebrate New Year’s. Join us, if you like!
Yes, the Dutch fried onions are one of the less poisonous legacies from our colonising Indonesia; as are the excellent Koningsvogel sambals. I've been to the island Java quite a few times on month-long visits and I absolutely love the sambals they make fresh there. Store bought will never be that good but Koningsvogel is the best I've come upon.
As for Christmas. Our family was always very small and not that into official holidays. It's now just me and my sister and her son, and we live in different countries.
I always wish others to have the kind of holidays and special days they love the most but I prefer to ignore them. So I spent this Christmas home alone with the cat, doing everyday things - and that is my idea of a perfect holiday.
I hope all who read this will have had the Christmas they really wanted to have.
Getting ready to host Rena and her family here in Tokyo for an old-fashioned Oshogatsu (New Year). Lots of food from oden (fish sausage stew) https://tasteofculture.com/2021/01/12/oden-part-one-vegan-vegetarian-options/ and https://tasteofculture.com/2021/01/12/oden-part-two/ ... to osechi https://tasteofculture.com/2023/12/11/project-osechi-making/ best wishes for the year to come...