![hays eggy challah hanukkah hays eggy challah hanukkah](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/65/b5/7a/65b57ab32b1aca4347db8f6708de9aea.jpg)
Fourth-century scholar Rava interpreted this to mean a seudat Purim, a meal in the late afternoon, to differentiate Purim from other days. In the Book of Esther, all we are told is that letters were sent to the Jews in the provinces, telling them to have days of feasting and gladness. While hamantashen are one of the most known Ashkenazi treats, many other foods are associated with Purim.
![hays eggy challah hanukkah hays eggy challah hanukkah](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4f/e3/61/4fe361010733d2f5bdf54e05d6f53bb4.jpg)
My mom and I have always loved this about this cake, that its components are familiar, but it still somehow has a distinct Chinese flavor.
![hays eggy challah hanukkah hays eggy challah hanukkah](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/01/b7/cb/01b7cbe14a494113fe7fc3c61ad82688.jpg)
![hays eggy challah hanukkah hays eggy challah hanukkah](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/57/27/d9/5727d9054ae4f64bc4edec9bf3792c7c.jpg)
All things that most people keep in their kitchens, staples of an ordinary American life. When I was nine, I carefully wrote a baker’s note in blue gel pen on the worn recipe card she kept in her little wooden box. I loved lifting the lid on the bamboo steamer and seeing the perfectly domed cake nestled in wax paper, releasing a fragrant, almond-scented cloud into the air.įlour. I would help my mom beat the egg whites into glossy peaks until my arms got tired, and sometimes she would let me add the tiny red dot of food coloring in the middle for good luck. Rather than being baked, this cake was steamed, which lent it a nice fluffy texture. The sponge cake was always a favorite of mine soft, pillowy, and lightly sweetened. But I would always eagerly await the end of the meal, which promised two things: the gifting of cash-filled red envelopes, and dessert. Our kitchen table proudly boasted my grandma’s hand-folded wontons, chicken marinated in soy sauce, and sticky rice. Out would come the giant silver wok, the wooden chopsticks, the flowered rice cooker. The only exception was once a year on Chinese New Year when, in order to maintain some pretense of cultural compliance, we would have Chinese food with the whole family. It wasn’t that our mom wasn’t a great cook we just weren’t interested in anything besides chicken nuggets and PB&J. At my parents’ wedding, my mother wore two dresses-the traditional white ‘80s Barbie-doll dress, and the red silk qipao, but the latter was mostly symbolic rather than superstitious.įood-wise, our tastes were rather one-dimensional. My exposure to Mandarin as a child was limited to the folk songs my grandma taught me phonetically, and a doll named Ling that spoke a couple of phrases when you squeezed her hand. I had both a Red Egg party and a sweet 16. I was given a Chinese name at birth, but I still feel self-conscious trying to pronounce it. I was born in San Francisco to parents who had never been to China themselves. This piece turned out to be deeply personal to me, and this is one of my favorite desserts (and still the only cake I'll eat to this day), so I'm very grateful for the opportunity to share it with all of you! I'm very in favor of anything that allows people to evaluate their relationship with their heritage, but to connect them through family recipes and traditions is brilliant. Just like each person and family is unique, so too are the family recipes that create the flavor of our childhoods and home. There is so much unspoken emotion connected to food that is related to heritage, love, pride, and identity. We want to explore the relationship to family through food, specifically through recipes that have been passed down from member to member. HAVE YOU EATEN YET? is a collaborative zine for femme and non-binary POC. A couple of months ago, when my friend Elyse asked me to contribute to HAVE YOU EATEN YET?, a project she and her friend started as a collection of family recipes and stories, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about.