Susan LaffertyFavorite flavors and dishes multiply in the cross-cultural life. Leading to this, that, or the other taste of home.
Our grocery cart is often a wild mix. With differing ingredients for the week’s menus.
One day, I buy okra and chickpeas for Indian curry. Snow peas, lemongrass and baby bok choy for a Chinese stir-fry dish. And Japanese mochi. An afternoon snack or dessert.
Each cuisine serves up memories as well.
Ocean roar in winter. Loud. Waves cross. Crash. Deep blues and teals mixing. Mingling. Foaming white.
Gale-force winds whip through. Scattering sand. Tearing at the water. And me.
Power on display.
And I am a mere whisper. Hushed.
My mother’s response when things didn’t go as planned?
I can hear it now.
“The best-laid plans of mice and men…” her voice trails off. Not completing the quote from the poet, Robert Burns.
But I know. And the words run through my head.
“…often go awry.”
