Bittersweet few days, as all firsts without my dad have been this year, but somehow this period has been the most intense yet. He’s been all around us in spirit, the feeling has been strong as we eat, play, listen to music, chat, pretty much everything.
Christmas is a secular holiday in our family, but one we’ve celebrated since childhood and continued down to my nephews. My dad was a big fan of Christmas music, the Crosby and Sinatra kind (and had an amazing voice, he always, always sang along), so listening to it while we decorated our little tree (which he loved to do with the kids) was almost too much, and yet also a happy remembrance.
My younger nephew has been a champ through the adults’ reminiscing with grief quietly seeping out between happy stories. He listens, asks questions, absorbs, and pops in with poignant and spot-on remarks that make us laugh more than we need to cry. He’s so much like my dad in every way, it’s uncanny (same fantastic pipes too).
And so it goes. Thanks for indulging the share. Onto the food.
We’ve somehow been eating all his favorites these past few days, because I guess they are our favorites too, and everyone is consciously and subconsciously choosing ways to remember him with joy.
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PRAWN CURRY AND RICE:
A popular Sunday lunch through childhood – after dad went to the fish market for fresh catch. The “large” prawns my sister got turned out to be bigger than jumbo. Fantastic!
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DIM SUM & FANCY CHINESE FEAST:
Our usual Christmas Day lunch out, ordered in because my nephew refused to leave his grandmother. We had har gow (I think these are better than anything I can get in nyc, plump and perfectly stuffed with shrimp, no fish paste in sight which was an unfortunate ingredient discovery I made once buying the frozen kind), young chow fried rice (as good as my nyc benchmark), sweet corn soup (chicken and veg), spring rolls (nephew says these are tied with his nyc fave, but he eats these 3-4 times a trip and those once or twice, so I call bs on that 
), blue butter rice, and Hong Kong style noodles.
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MALVANI SEAFOOD (and more) FEAST:
My mom insisted we go out without her for this, because my younger nephew had never been to the original location where my dad had “his table” (he took pretty much everyone we know there once he discovered it – and made it their favorite too: the owner and the manager remembered him today as “founding member and brand ambassador”, which was both sweet and funny). We had perfectly fried Bombay Duck (fish), tandoori fish tikka, two kinds of fish curry, two orders of my favorite Malvani chicken (Sukka – @Amandarama), and a sublime paneer makhanwala (not Malvani but sublime, as is their palak paneer, which we brought home) for my nephew.
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WHOLE MUTTON LEG ROAST:
There was some discussion of trying to sous vide this for a change, but no one did anything in enough time, so we did the usual method (pressure cook, drain the very rich broth to sip later, then brown the meat with caramelized onions and scant whole spices). I do the potatoes separately because the (vegetarian) kids love my mom’s pan-roasted potatoes (well, technically my great grandmother’s, but to them it’s my mom’s dish 
).
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BHAJIYA:
Potato, onion, green chillies in a gram flour batter. Just a small batch to fill the before-dinner gap yesterday 
. More tomorrow, most likely.
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GAJAR (CARROT) HALWA & JALEBI
I mean, what’s more to say here . Really good ghee-fried jalebis ordered in, soft and crunchy at the same time. Carrot halwa made at home – full fat milk, ghee, sugar (and a jaggery version for mom), that’s it. We like it a bit “caramelized” ie burnt at the bottom (which drives my mom batty because it kills the gorgeous red color of the winter carrots from Delhi ).
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). Red velvet cake from a local Chinese bakery (which makes their cakes not too sweet so even I enjoy them). Awful photos, good time. We watched “Jaws” that evening, which was Spring Onion’s choice because he received a Jaws-themed stocking stuffer from me (it’s one of my favorite flicks). He loved the movie and now gets the “crush it like Quint” reference.
