by Anthony Le | Sept 2024

This article was originally published in the Aqua Plums Substack with an audio reading. Subscribe to get new blogs sent to your email.

I spent 10 days in Chattanooga. Distractions left behind, ready to sit in the slow. I know too much about people on digital peripheries. Yet lifelong relationships seem to time travel. Face to face rewinding the tape.

It’s scary to make the first move and not feel like a creep. Can we talk about difficult things and fun things too? The magnitude of your refugee journey. The pressure I feel as the last name caboose. How hard and positive and not scary therapy’s been. 

Generosity has been previously shared. But when does the post-covid pining wear off? Maybe they’re ready or maybe I am. To share more than a checklist of successful life updates. Vulnerability builds a bridge to being ourselves again.

I asked mom to teach me Vietnamese recipes. Expected roles subtly established but thawing. Canh Chua, sour soup I feared as a child for fish head. Thit Kho Truong, an every day dish. Comfort food. The secret ingredient for her Cha Gio I’ll only tell loved ones.

Nail polish cracked the door open while we cooked.
What if people think you’re gay?
That doesn’t bother me, and I feel colorful still.
Do you know the difference between “gay” and “queer”?
Is it all about sex? No, there’s more.

Q&As volleyed like our backyard badminton games. An oversimplified diagram for her to study. Honesty invited questions she had been meaning to ask. 
Will you have children? Will you move back? Will things be like they were?
No, but we can try something different, possibly better.

The recipes below are what I documented from our cooking sessions. My mother made me promise not to give away her secret ingredient for eggrolls.