One Woman Revival

Floating along in a post-vacation reverie after a long weekend off, I reminisce about lazy days on the shores of Lake Michigan watching fireworks and making smores. There were also dinners with my partner’s extended family when everyone gathered around a long table made from a maple tree that had been felled right where their cottage sits now. Many of us in San Francisco live far from our families or have become estranged from them in other ways. Perhaps that explains the growing popularity of the dinner party among elder millennials as we yearn for a grandmother to just make us a plate of lasagna. 

Before leaving for my sojourn in the midwest, I was a last-minute addition to a cookbook party in the Sunset hosted by a friend of a friend. Their concept was that everyone makes different dishes from the same cookbook and brings them to a potluck. The selected text for this gathering was Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation. I had brought hibiscus kombucha and warned our host that I had not prepared food to bring. I also confessed this multiple times unprompted to the other guests but was assured that they needed plenty of people to eat as well. So after some initial cautious nibbling, I fully surrendered to trying the assorted delights everyone had prepared. 

I cannot recall everything I sampled but among them was a seafood stew in a bread roll, sesame noodles, pickled eggs and soup dumplings. Somehow the hibiscus kombucha felt overpowering with all these other flavors so I paired everything with a splash of red wine that I kept replenishing. It was also a pleasure to chat with the other guests who were easy going and down to earth despite their culinary talents. 

I have been fortunate to attend a few such dinner parties including being welcomed into my partner’s family gathering. On all these occasions, I hid my ineptitude at cooking and turned up the charm in hopes that I could contribute entertainment. But I have learned that forging long-term bonds requires at least an attempt at participation in the meal. For my partner’s family, I made a round of hot chocolate one afternoon (I told you my cooking skills were minimal) and maybe for the next cookbook party will attempt to whip up a soup.