Mom in Ninh Binh

I wake up with the sound of "cock-a-doodle-doo" every morning. By the time I get out from my bed, everybody in the house is already up. Mom starts preparing breakfast. Usually we each eat breakfast separately as we wake up. After the breakfast, sometimes Mom goes to the market and buy fresh vegetables, meat, and sometimes fish, but she often uses her own chickens, eggs, herbs, veggies, and leaves from the back yard. I've never seen her rushing nor just sitting except for a nap after lunch for an hour. She spends most of her time cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner. First I wondered how can she spend all her time cooking, but I've realized everything she does, she does it with care and spends enough time for details. Also, she does most of her cooking from scratch (including food for chicken). For example, if she wants to use ground chicken for her cooking, she just makes the ground chicken as a part of her cooking process. "Buying" the meat that is already grounded probably never occurs to her. She put a piece of chicken that she has raised on a cutting board and starts chopping. She keeps chopping till it gets grounded. I know it sounds so simple, but it just never occur to me that ground meat can be made in this way as well. She also made a soup out of freshwater crab that she got from the market in the morning. She crushed them in a millstone and poured water. Then she strained it with her hands several times to take out the any waste to make the broth. At the end she put chives that she picked from her garden and cooked with it. There is nothing wasteful. Food she makes is delicious, and I try everything. More I see how much time she spends for cooking for the family, my appreciation for her and food gets increased. She probably doesn't even consider what she does is special. This is the everyday life for her as each life is the daily life for everyone.

毎朝「コケコッコー」の声で目が覚める。私が起きる頃にはもう既に家中の皆が起きている。お母さんは朝ごはんの支度にすぐにとりかかる。朝ご飯は大体起きた人順に別々で食べることが多い。食事が済むと、時々お母さんはマーケットに買い物に行き、野菜、肉、魚などを買うが、自分の飼っている鶏や卵、庭に少しある野菜、ハーブ、裏庭の木の葉などをよく使ったりもする。お母さんの急いでいる姿を私は見た事がないが、だからと言ってゆっくり椅子に座っている姿も見た事がない。お母さんはほとんどの１日の時間を朝食、昼食、夜食に費やしている。最初私は、お母さんがどうやったらそこまで料理だけに時間をかけられるんだろうと思っていたが、観察すると、本当に一つ一つの行動が丁寧なのだ。しかも、大体の物は元から作る。例えば、鶏のひき肉。自分で裁いた鶏肉の残りをまな板の上でみじん切りにする。とにかくずーっと叩き続ける。ただそれだけの事なのだけど、あ、そうだよね、こうやってひき肉になるんだよね、と納得させられる。もう一つは、マーケットでまだ生きてるサワガニを購入し、それを臼の中で叩き、出汁をとってスープにしたもの。カニが完全に叩きつぶされたら、臼に水を入れ、手でクズを取って絞っていく。それを何回か繰り返して、カニの出汁と肉（というかカニみそ）ができて、それにニラなどを入れてスープにする。とにかく何に対しても無駄がない。お母さんの家族のために作る料理の仕方を見れば見るほど、お母さんへと食への感謝が深まる。多分、お母さんは自分の毎日やっている事が特別とは思わないだろう。それぞれ皆に日常があるように、これがお母さんの日常なのだ。