TASTES LIKE MORE
Growing up in Bloemfontein, Ming-Cheau Lin associates Christmas with her dad having time off to cook. Now living in the US with her family, the holidays take on a whole new significance
SA author Ming-Cheau Lin’s new life in the USA means a new set of holiday traditions.
When I was a child growing up in Bloemfontein, Christmas never meant anything deep to me and my family. As Buddhists, we attended the local temple every Sunday and recited the chant before meals. But Christian holidays are unavoidable in a Westernised society and I remember suburban families adorning their homes with tinsel and lights. When we went out at night, my Papa would drive us through the wealthier neighbourhoods so that we could admire their festive decorations.
School played a major role in our perception of the December holidays. There was always a play, we’d sing carols, and our school hosted one of the busiest Christmas markets in Bloem. Some of our friends hosted Secret Santa parties where we received felt stockings containing mint-flavoured sweets. I participated in some of the gees, though it all seemed a tad odd.
But this was also the time of the year when Papa would be on leave and our menu at home would expand for a few weeks. He would make all his favourite foods, including some of the more complex dishes that my Mama didn’t know how to make. I remember there always being fresh mochi bites dipped in ground toasted peanuts and sugar, crunchy sweet potato puffs, poached lamb, cold noodles, and late-night instant ramen.
My Ahma (Papa’s mother) was a streetfood vendor and she taught him how to make a variety of the Taiwanese foods my siblings and I grew up eating. I’m eternally grateful for his time off during this period, which allowed me to learn some of these treasured techniques.
Come to think of it, all my family holidays have always centred around food: spring rolls, Pekin duck and dumplings on the lunar new year, glutinous rice dumplings over the winter solstice, mooncakes at mid-autumn festival, and zongzhi during the dragon boat festival were all symbolic dishes for a celebration. Now, as an adult, it has been an interesting journey to see what I have chosen to hold dear, what I’ve let go, and the new things I have begun.
When my sister Jasmine, who also loves to cook, and I lived together for a couple of years, we would often host guests for meals, all of which would inevitably end with a pie. I had fallen in love with making desserts while studying pâtisserie, and I made a pie with seasonal fruit and a ridiculously buttery shortcrust pastry that eventually became my signature contribution to these gatherings.
Food, especially braais, also played a central role in my partner, Kyle’s, family life. As a second-generation Dutch South African, he remembers that what would start out as a very Catholic and traditional Christmas eventually became a lekker kuier by the pool. There would always be a typical European spread of sorts: a potato dish, roast meat (usually chicken and lamb) and salad. His family separated while he was in high school, which meant Christmas Eve was spent with one side of the family and Christmas Day with the other.
We recently left South Africa for California, and the pandemic meant that Kyle, our daughter, Luna, and I ended up living in separate countries for much longer than we had planned. We are now having many conversations about how to raise her in our new home.
This will be our first winter Christmas and we’re looking forward to starting new traditions, combining elements of both our past holiday experiences to create something considerate of Luna, who will grow up in the States.
I have really had to think about what the concept of tradition means to me and, going forward, what we want out of it for our family. It’s a process.
But what I can say for sure is that food will play a central role. And, quite likely, there will be pie. In fact this year we’re thinking of hosting friends for a Christmas Pie Day – speculaas pumpkin, apple, gammon, roast chicken, served with sides and seasonal condiments. It could become our tradition!
“This will be our first winter Christmas and we’re looking forward to starting new traditions”
Ming-Cheau Lin is the author of Just Add Rice
(Quivertree 2018) and Yellow and Confused (Kwela 2019). Follow her on Instagram: @mingcheau