Maybe I should rephrase. I wonder if my kids are Vietnamese enough.
Over the weekend, our family went to Eden Center, a very large Vietnamese shopping center in Northern Virginia. We don't go there very often for a number of reasons, but we had to check out their Autumn Moon Festival celebration. Instead of sitting down in one of the restaurants for dinner, we grabbed food from one of the delis in the shopping center. I grabbed a variety pre-packaged foods for everyone to try.
Sophia took a teeny taste of everything, but only a one or two items passed muster to her. Jaxson is still at the age where he'll eat just about anything. Unless his sister hates it. Then he hates it too. I know I shouldn't complain about Sophia being a picky eater. Compared to some other kids her age, she's a great eater.
Then last night we had a banh mi showdown and she didn't want to try any of them. I had to convince her to try the Vietnamese sandwiches. My husband loves these sandwiches. I also made her tasted some Vietnamese charcuterie meats (sort of like ham). She made a face each time. She just stuck to eating her noodles with nuoc cham (a dipping sauce made of fish sauce, lemon juice, and sugar).
Cajoling her to taste the Vietnamese food and watching her make faces after each one made me sad. I feel like I've failed in handing down my Vietnamese culture to my kids. Food is such an integral part of any culture. Since I'm doing only a so-so job of passing along the Vietnamese language, the least I can do is to feed them Vietnamese food. Now I feel like I'm not doing a good job with that.
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| Look at all that good food! |
What kind of Vietnamese person doesn't like banh mi? I know she doesn't like sandwiches, but half of the food I bought over the weekend was spit out upon tasting.
Sure, Sophia loves pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and a handful of other Vietnamese dishes. The foods I bought from that deli were foods I grew up eating. Either at home or at my cousins' home. I remember a table cover in plate after plate of Vietnamese dishes. The kids would snack on them while the adults gossiped or played cards in the living room. It was every Sunday for us as kids.
Maybe I'm missing the large family gatherings. While I love living in the DC area, instances like this make me miss my family. My kids won't have fond memories of those family gatherings. They won't get to know their cousins while they chase each other around the back yard. They won't be able to sneak an eggroll and run back outside to finish their games.
Maybe it's a second generation thing? She's further removed from her Vietnamese ties. I'm the only here passing along the Vietnamese culture. I grew up speaking only Vietnamese until I was five years old. I had no idea another world besides my immigrant family existed until I started kindergarten.
I think it's time I pull out my Vietnamese cookbooks. Together with the kids, we'll add more Vietnamese dishes to our dinner repertoire. Then we can make new memories as we gather around the table with our chopsticks and our forks.
How do you pass along your family culture to your kids?
