It was balmy today. My mom came up with a new dish. It was braised pork trotter or maybe ham hock, I couldn’t tell the difference. The ingredients were pretty complex, including cinnamon, star anise, sweet bean sauce, brown sugar, different kinds of vinegar, and a lot of spices I couldn’t recognize. The meat was so tender and moist, I could easily tear it off the bones with chopsticks, similar to cutting puddings. And the fat wasn’t greasy at all. It just melted in my mouth without chewing. My mum is a good cook, and I will learn to be a good cook too.

It was balmy today. My mom invented a new dish: braised pork trotter or maybe ham hock (I couldn’t tell the difference). The ingredients were pretty complex, including cinnamon, star anise, sweet bean sauce, brown sugar, various kinds of vinegar, and a lot of spices I couldn’t recognize. The meat was so tender and moist that I could easily rip it off the bones with chopsticks, as if cutting a pudding. And, the fat wasn’t greasy at all. It just melted in my mouth without chewing. My mum is a good cook, and I hope to learn to be a good cook too.