Have you experienced chit-chatting with friends, and somehow the conversation ended up about your favourite childhood dishes/games. And you get very excited about it?

I was having lunch with a group of ladies yesterday and was sharing my story about the game of the 7 stones or 5 stones. It goes something like this – you throw all the stones. While throwing a stone up in the air, you have to pick up 1 stone and catch the stone in the air before it falls to the ground. The first throw is to catch 1 stone, the second throw is to catch 2 stones and the third throw is to catch 3 stones. The sequence has to be 1, 2 and 3.

One of the ladies joined in the conversation, and with much enthusiasm shared that she too (from another Asian country) played a similar game while growing up? We were both quite excited about it. It is like reigniting our happy memories, our history; it reconnects to a part of WHO we are – our identity – our values and beliefs.

I am enthusiastic about encouraging you to share your cultural dishes/childhood dishes with your family.

Why?

Because it is about:

Sharing your culture 

When you share your favourite childhood dishes with your children, you are sharing a part of who you are with them. They then get to know you better.

It is more important if you are living away from your birth country. When you share your cultural dishes and traditional rituals, such as steamboat on Chinese New Year’s eve, you are opening up opportunities to enable your children to understand their roots and their identity through you, even though their own cultural identities are been established in the country where they now live.

Healthy and wise 

When you cook your own food, you have full control of which ingredients you add to your dishes and how you would like to prepare it.

On top of that, your childhood dishes were mostly dishes that were passed down from your ancestors. Those were the food that nourished our ancestors for generations, based on whole food that was available in their surroundings. So if they were nutritional for your ancestors, I am sure it would nourishing for your family as well.

As the saying goes, when you cook for someone you love, you share your love through the dishes you serve. Create opportunities to connect and have fun with your children in the kitchen and make one meal time a FAMILY time!

What wisdom are you sharing at your Long Table today?