japanese food is my new yoga

i got home 15 minutes before "mom" crashed through the door and straight into the kitchen, arms loaded with market bags and a sense of excitement. i have never met anyone who loves to cook as much as her. i'm smelling onions, broth, and appetizer comes for me to eat while she constructs another meal, totally concentrated, almost posessed, complete intensity. she brings imported french pate. i just say "oui oui" as she responds with a giggling "oui!" i brought home a bottle of cotes du rhone, which was kind of synchronistic. how did i know the meal would be french inspired? and with a naughty expression, she takes out a tiny glass & accepts some vino.

she works all day, yet has tons of energy to create kitchen masterpieces and watch korean dramas, sleeping very little. i don't know how she does it. i'm tired all the time here & i don't do half as much work.

since she has a thing for all things korea, yesterdays dinner is followed with some of the best kimchee i've ever had, picked turnips (love those), julienne tofu salad, never ending bowls of kombu (she knows i love that-she originally is from osaka, where seaweed is very popular), rice, & a creamy delicious okra soup. the presentation is stupendous. the house still smells good today. i search for leftover soup, alas, we killed it all.
must import mom!

this is the first time the 3 of us sit down to a meal together. to my delight, emi pulls out super old bollywood film score music-a fan of raj kapoor & meena kumari-i am thrilled, because i am also a huge fan of old bollywood-as in 50's & 60's. this is hard to come by outside of india, heck, even within india most only like the new stuff. but since she has spent lots of time over there & in pakistan, she has developed a serious habit. we spend the night discussing our common love for india and all things indian, things only visitors there can understand. everyone i have ever met always has a wonderful collection of stories about that place, it's always fun to share.

and we sigh......ahhh...india....
next year.