Breaking bread

These last few days have been filled with food and friends/family.  It has led me to think about how intertwined those two things are and what it does for me as a person, and for the community at large.  Bringing people together through food is not a new topic.  Countless movies speak to that theme, and yet I wonder how often do we recognise its significance in our daily lives?

Over the weekend, I had my neighbours over for a potluck dinner and also invited a good friend to join us.  It was great sharing stories, laughs and anecdotes, and finding out more about them and the commonality that brings us to the table or to this city or even country.  The following day, I had lunch with my mother at this little Korean eatery after visiting this big Korean grocery store.  At this particular meal, we reminisced on our travels to Korea together and the kinds of food we encountered and how much I wanted to skate on the ice rink at the Lotte World shopping mall.  We were bonding and building bridges.  I hadn't seen my mother in over two weeks since I went to pick up my dying cat after having been away for five days on a motorcycle tour.  Yes, this was our way of mending fences... A meal has a way of doing that sometimes, non?

So here are some side dish goodies that we got at the Hanahreum Asian Mart (in Coquitlam):

(Left to Right, Top to Bottom)

sweet n spicy cuttlefish; potatoes in a sweet savory sauce; cucumber crab salad; sweet n spicy mini crabs; radish in a tangy vinagrette; seaweed salad

In case you didn't believe me about the sweet n spicy mini crabs that you EAT shell, claws and ALL.... here is a close-up.  After getting over the "ick" factor, this side dish is pretty tasty.  Just be careful that the inside of your mouth doesn't get nicked by those little claws!