Craving
In the winter months, I always crave hotpot/shabushabu/Da Bin Lou (打边炉). My parents don’t celebrate American holidays, but we like to eat. I always request hotpot when I visit my parents in the winter months. There’s a lot of prep work, but you cook what you like and eat what you like. Nowadays, I crave this the most in my 2nd trimester. Luckily, I can do this at home! I own a portable burner just for days like this. Sorry it’s not a pretty picture, but it’s super authentic to me! My husband gets thinly sliced beef brisket as his main protein, and I mostly eat soft tofu these days. I’ll still steal some of his meat! My dipping sauce is a mixture of tahini, mirin, soy sauce and rice vinegar, a little bit of savory and sweet. Husband prefers garlic paste as his dipping sauce, but I still can’t find a brand that I like for him to guzzle down. Open to any recommendations! What are your favorite winter cravings?
Recipes
Since the pandemic started, my friend, KK, and I tried to do cooking together via Zoom. With her aversion to touching animal protein, we tend to do more vegetarian and other vegan recipes. I didn’t have any issues with animal protein until I became pregnant. Everything pork-related lead to nausea in the last few months, which is very disheartening when much Asian cuisine is pork-based. It’s been great to learn more about plant-based alternatives. The one great thing about this pregnancy is that I’m temporarily lactose-tolerant again. I still mostly drink dairy-alternative milk since I prefer the flavors over cow milk, but it’s nice to sneak in ice cream now and then.
My favorite November zoom cooking session was where we did mainly desserts. We attempted the following recipes: Dairy-free Banana Pudding by mysequinedlife and replaced the Nilla wafers with Vegan shortbread cookies by lovingitvegan. KK and Husband are huge fans of both the classic version. Growing up Vietnamese, I’ve never tried Banana Pudding before.
I highly recommend the Dairy-Free Banana Pudding. The only adjustment I made was that I skipped almond milk and just added more coconut milk. I also didn’t leave in on the stove long enough, so it took a few days to set. My shortbread came out extra toasty, but it was a nice crunch to compliment the pudding. I still prefer Smitten Kitchen’s Twice-Baked shortbread, but this is an friendly alternative if you don’t want to do all the extra steps.
Purchase
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PET HEAD OATMEAL NATURAL PAW BUTTER – Douglas the Dog had very rough paws when we adopted him in July, which can hurt when he tries to paw you awake in the mornings or tells you when he needs to go outside. I purchased this from Amazon on October 7th, and we’ve been applying it to his little paws twice a week. Husband likes to apply it after his 6 mile runs with Douglas. After a few weeks of application, his little paws are very smooth now! His metacarpal pad was the scratchiest, but now they are so moisturized. I was worried about him leaving oily paw prints everywhere, but the balm absorbs pretty quickly if you only put a little bit on his pads. We use dog wipes on his paws after every walk, so this helps with returning some of the moisture to his paws. He smells like an oatmeal cookie after each treatment. I can see why it’s listed as the #1 best seller under “Dog Cologne” on Amazon. The fragrance is very intense but enjoyable. ☆☆☆☆☆
Read
GOOD TALK: A MEMOIR IN CONVERSTAIONS BY MIRA JACOBS – Graphic novels have always been a love of mine. I always assumed I would grow out of reading them after my 20s, but I feel like these books have also continued to evolve with the times. I began reading this graphic novel on a whim one night with no background about the topic or the author. What attracted me to the book was the summary. It was about a mom trying her best to answer questions her son asked about relating to the news and ongoing events related to Donald Trump’s candidacy and eventual win of the 2016 elections. As a mom-to-be, I wanted to hear another mom’s take on how she tried to answer these questions. How much do you choose to expose or protect your child from these topics?
As I read the book, I realized I had a lot in common with the author. I am a refugee child from the Vietnam War, born in America, but struggled with Asian and American identity. Now I am married to a Mexican/Italian American, waiting for our “mixed” child to come into this world. His parents are profoundly Republican, and my parents are deeply Democratic. The conversations with her in-laws were similar to my conversations with my in-laws. Even fresh after the 2020 Elections, they continue to support President Trump. But I also have Trump supporters within my own family. According to a survey by the 2020 Asian American Voter Survey, 48% of Vietnamese people favored Trump in the 2020 elections, while the majority of other Asian Americans favor Biden. The Vietnam War, which spanned over 5 presidencies, is still impacting us today. But that’s another post for another day. If you want to learn more, here is an article by Vox about “Support for Trump is tearing apart Vietnamese American families” .
Back to the book, Jacobs and I diverge a little with the parents I grew up with and the pressures they applied to me throughout the years. They never demanded me to get married or have kids, but only to get an education and make lots of money. My mom made sure that my validation is not based on any man and always ask any question. My father taught me to figure things out on my own. I think these childhood lessons helped me to learn to be more independent and critically think for myself. The questions Z asked made me asked myself how I would answer my child these questions. While I agreed with some of Jacob’s responses, I think I would try to tackle them differently. I hope that I teach and learn with my child about what motivates people and help them formulate their opinions based on critical thinking and not just what’s on the news/Google. One can hope. ☆☆☆☆
Until next time,
Diana L.
diana luong 