My mother, had taken me and my brother down to Upper Darby when we were children. where we would meet our babysitter, Sodsee. Our mother wanted us to learn how to cook her recipes. She had no clue of how making the Asian food. My mother was never interested in other cultures of food. She was only into her heritage of food and never wanted to go outside of whatever she had a taste for.
Our mother pulled off to say a goodbye, Sodee’s exterior was small and bush of vegetables growing in the front of her house. The exterior didn’t have much else besides the rotting plaster on the exterior walls. We entered the interior of her house, it was very minimalist, old, and somewhat decaying. nothing on the walls besides some pictures of elephants. The textures of her walls felt bumpy and rough. I entered her place for the first time with Nicholas, My brother. He had loved her cooking as much as I did. I’d enter her damp unrenovated kitchen with my brother and I. would help her cut up some of the ingredients. Like Scallions’ and peppers. We’d help her make a dish called “Thai pork” with rice. She had many ingredients that I haven’t seen before. A lot of those ingredients were from her marketplace, she was running a supermarket that she had built with her family’s inheritance. She had this special siracha that tasted completely different from the one you’d usually get from the grocery store. The secret though, was the extra garlic that gave the dish its bold spicy flavor. The dish goes as follows. You start with heating a large saucepan and add the spring and coriander stalks then cook for 1 min. You add the pork next, but it was her twist. the pork which was already cooked but with fish, garlic and black pepper. We then stir her special curry paste, the stuff you’d only find in Thailand. We still have her recipes that she written down from a long time ago. They’re old, but the quality of the paper holds up, it sits on the refrigerator like it was yesterday. Untouched, yellowed and dry. But I could never make it like she did. She was excellent at cooking. But I was terrible. But keep in mind, I was about 10 years old. I wanted to explore cooking as much as my brother did. This had led us to introduce us to other tastes of culture to our family. We finished cooking and sat down, I was starving, Like a Camel in the Sahara. So, I dived right in, and the taste of the pork was spicy, sweet and tangy. The rice, was sticky, it sticks to the roof of your mouth. Some of it can stay on your clothes if you’re a slob. This food wasn’t something you’d taste at one of those Asian American restaurants. No, it was truly the authentic cuisine! and I had looked around all’s I see besides the empty space. No materialist items. Such as a TV, computer, car and phone. I had asked; “Don’t you have a TV or computer I could use?” I asked; “No, “Sodsee replied I wondered why she doesn’t even bother to have a TV or a computer? Is this woman living in the 21st century? I would think Most people would have these items. “Why don’t you have a computer or a television?” She gets up a takes a breath. And says; “Because materials have no value to us” “Do you care to explain?” She explained a specific term in Buddhism called “Taṇhā” Which refers to Thirst,desire and longing. Which then is an extension of “Dukkha” which is the meaning of “un-satisfactoriness”.the Term “Dukkha” is what we all have in ourselves. Everybody experiences Dukkha, either they go through the pain of lost loved one, or the suffering of debts. for some people, are what I describe as Taṇhā. Our Desires can leave us unsatisfied.”I reply;“What about Christmas! People buy presents they feel happy!” Sodsee Replies;“That is where both “Dukkha” and “Tanha” come in, those people will eventually be unsatisfied with what they are given. then will keep wanting more to satisfy themselves. She was also extremely poor when she came here.She only had a few thousand dollars and had Which she had told me later on when we finished eating. Sodsee was raised a Buddhist. She was more invested then I was in religion. Her parents had introduced her to a temple at a very young age. She had grown a liking to what the monks had told her. in contrast of me with Christianity. Christmas, had lost its true meaning of celebration and turned into a capitalist buy-fest on the first week of black Friday. This doesn’t mean some people don’t purely celebrate Christmas on tradition. It just means that Christmas cannot be truly celebrated when all you’re asking for is presents and money. It made no sense to me at first. The terms itself are hard to pronounce since I don’t speak Sanskrit. But as I began to think deeper and as time went on. All of what she was saying made absolute sense of why she had nothing in her house. Lots of people have attached to items that have no meaning. Often feeling unsatisfied with what they’re handed of course. most of us have leaned onto items for happiness like a TV. Unless it can give you a meaning. After I had left that day, what Sodsee had told those days had stuck in my mind for a long time. Those teachings were branches to lead me on a different path. Reading practices from not only Buddhism, but its other branch Hinduism and other religions. I was raised a catholic my entire life. It had changed my perspective on the world.But it also taught me something different in a way. A tradition of some sort. It had given the basis of how to cook. In which, my mother had been pushed me to learn, because it is important to know how to cook, because you can save a lot of money The home that she had lived in, was rundown. So, we never could go back there for quite some time. She moved back to Thailand and sold her house to support her supermarket she owned. I missed her house, the contents were nothing but old newspapers and plants. How I feel about this place is different from my real home that I’d live in. The space made me move around more and clear my mind. Even though the color of the interior wasn’t my forte. I hope to visit her exact home in Bangkok, Thailand one day. One of my true goals was to get into a university in Thailand and visit her. She had truly inspired me.
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Here is where I blog for our English Composition class. I am a student at DCCC and is 22 years old.
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