Remembering my late parents over dinner

Today was the dinner where my uncle got me, my cousin, and my aunt together for Korean tofu, my late father’s favorite food.

We talked about how he was always the only one getting the hot barley tea in his rice bowl for the hard dried rice soup. And we also talked about my late mother, how she used to say call broccoli in a cutesy way in Chinese, “花菜菜”, making make think broccoli in Chinese was 花菜 instead of 花椰菜.

Nobody ever said this dinner was for remembering my dad, whose birthday is next month, when I’ll be away in Asia. And maybe it isn’t. But I understood it to possibly be.

My uncle made is seem like it was for trying out BCD tofu, since the other tofu place nearby had a new owner and was declining in quality.

Either way, we did remember both of my parents tonight in small ways. And it was sweet.

Even these subtle moments, initiated by my uncle who can be very thoughtful, I appreciate. I didn’t super show it at all.

We’re all running our own internal dialogues probably.

But these things make life pretty sweet. And i’m thankful.