Mời cả nhà ăn cơm!

Recently, because I’m pregnant, my father told me, “okay, don’t eat raw papaya or papaya leaves because this is what was used in the villages as an abortion medicine.” My elders share knowledge that isn’t generally talked a lot about. Though, nowadays there are a lot of books on Traditional Chinese Medicine and the medicinal benefits of how healthy it is to eat particular things during different seasons.

Most of my cooking memories as a child were wrapping chả giò. We’d wrap for the whole day with all my cousins and aunties. And my mum would guide my hands on how to do this. As I got older, my father taught me how to make more elaborate things like doughs for traditional dumplings–how to get the consistency right and how to balance flavors, and tricks on how to make things tender.

Ich finde es genauso wichtig, einfach nur Community Care zu betreiben und zu schauen, was die Narrative sind, was die Punkte sind, die uns guttun. Denn ich denke, wenn man Vorwissen hat, spricht man immer mit einer anderen Selbstverständlichkeit über die Themen. Und wenn wir untereinander, also việt-deutsche Menschen, miteinander sprechen, dann ist das doch auch schön. Das schafft vielleicht einen anderen Raum der Selbstverständlichkeit, als wenn man immer mit dem Akt der Wissensvermittlung an Außenstehende herangehen muss.