Catsup and Family History

I recently attended a women's conference at which a speaker extolled the virtues of blogging for family history. My journal, the paper paged, bound hardback book in which I scribble once a week or so, is a pretty good history of me already. And this blog tends to be focused on my opinions and thoughts a fair amount of the time as well. But my husband doesn't have a journal or blog to record HIS personal history. Sorry to rat you out, Husby. =)

Anyway, I'm going to start periodically recording here the fun memories he tells me. That way his legacy will be somewhere besides just in our heads.

Last night we had spaghetti for dinner. Jerry put catsup on his spaghetti noodles in place of spaghetti sauce. He asked if that was considered weird by American standards. I replied that it sorta had a "poor-starving-student" feel to it. Then Jerry started relating some childhood memories, and I wished I had a tape recorder. One of the memories is when his mom would take them out for dinner to a "Western" restaurant. I always laugh about the meals Chinese people consider "Western," just as they probably laugh about what I consider "Chinese food." Anyway, Jerry would order a meal consisting of french fries, half a roasted chicken (a chicken cut in half, not just a drumstick or two), and spaghetti noodles with catsup on them. He said the spaghetti he ate last night really brought back that childhood feeling for him.

A note on catsup. The Cantonese word for tomato is ke and sauce is jap--or is it ca and tsup--not sure if I got that pinyin correct. Anyway, it sounds like Catsup/Ketchup when Jerry says it. Catsup is a common ingredient in a fair amount of authentic Chinese cooking. Including tomato eggs, another favorite dish of Jerry's. But I'll save that for a later post...=)