Hi everyone
The crappy wild ride of this year has continued on; I’ll be glad when life settles to boring, normal, unsurprising, and above all – healthy. Leaving out details because it’s stressful to relive them, but thankfully mom’s back on the road to recovery again.
We had a busy two weeks of eating because my brother decided to coincide his visit with my latest trip and everyone wanted to feed him a year’s worth of food in two weeks, but at least it was a distraction from dwelling on the trainwreck that has been this year for our family.
Some of what we ate:
- Shami Kabab (twice-cooked finely-minced meat and channa dal / bengal gram kababs that are a family favorite – I know I’ve complained here before that it is one of the ironies of my life that I am the only one who doesn’t love them but also the only one other than my mother who can make them)
- Kid roast (annual mom special, twice-cooked lamb or goat leg; I followed her instructions to a T for a change, and - shockingly! - it turned out right hahaha)
- Fish curry (pomfret and indian salmon for different people)
- Beef (mutton) curry (beef or buffalo is a specialty order here and we forgot to order it in time, but the outcome was still delicious)
- Indian Chinese (hakka noodles, soya chili chicken, chicken manchurian, vegetable manchurian, chilli paneer, kung pao potato, crispy wontons, sichuan chicken lollipops, burnt garlic fried rice, young chow fried rice – this overload was a birthday celebration)
- Kheema aloo not once but twice, that’s how high it ranks on the list of family favorites
- Pan-roasted chicken and potatoes
Brother has been packed off (along with the shami kababs and kid roast in sandwiches plus various homemade treats for the kids), so now I am planning everything I want to eat before my uncle shows up to visit mom and it’s an all-Indian food fest again 
On the roster (some carried over from past weeks):
- Sushi bowls — by special request (smoked salmon, avocado, cabbage slaw for crunch, spicy mayo, and wasabi mayo)
- Viet Garlic Umami noodles with cabbage and lemongrass-brined chicken (cherry bombe via @sallyt)
- Japanese Salmon & Mushroom Clay Pot Rice or Oyako Donburi
- Yebeg alicha (Ethiopia cookbook) with improvised injera crepes
- Enchiladas verdes and mexican rice (riffing on this and somehow incorporating this if iI can)
- Ants climbing a tree
- Galbi, japchae, and bibimbap if we have galbi leftovers; possibly also the NYT gochujang butter noodles as a separate meal
- Lasagna, Malfatti, or Canneloni (waiting for mom’s tummy to settle before this)
