Food Traditions

Besides the usual Thanksgiving turkey and Chow Mein or Christmas ham with egg rolls, my family has traditional dinners for each of our birthdays and a special summer party annually. Sometimes you can tell the event by the menu. My wife always wants grilled Salmon. My oldest son wants Teriyaki steak, my middle son wants lasagna, my daughter loves meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy and I get Mostacolli salad with garlic chicken pizza. Each year we have a family and friends party with a specific themed pot luck meal. Last year’s Hawai’i theme brought way too many ways to prepare Spam. Teriyaki Spam is not as good as it sounds, and it doesn’t sound good. We also have a fire department BBQ each year at my house with hamburgers, hot dogs and teriyaki chicken and steaks.
The food is an important part of the festivities. No one has any idea why my daughter likes my meatloaf, but we know she’ll be disappointed if we don’t have it on her birthday. I only get Mostacolli salad with garlic chicken pizza on my birthday because it takes two days for my wife to prepare it. Believe me, no person would want to have to wait two years for that glorious feast. Skipping a year is out of the question. I should have put it in our wedding vows. We have steaks, meatloaf, Salmon and lasagna at other times of the year but the birthday meals are always a little more special. We use the good china and silverware for the birthday meals. Then there’s the cake and ice cream.
Many of my in-laws are of Asian descent so we have many Asian recipes for our meals. Fourth-of-July Hambows are the perfect complement to a hot dog. The summer parties are a favorite of mine. We experiment with foods we don’t normally eat. On the first Saturday of August each group has to learn and prepare a recipe in accordance with the theme. We’ve had Thai theme, Indian theme, Central American theme, Austrian theme and Mongolian dinners. We do this to “broaden our pallet” as my father, the originator of this tradition, would say. We also learn about other cultures while we’re researching our summer party recipe. However, I would have to say, after 2009’s party, I’ve had enough Spam for a lifetime.