Monday, May 4, 2020

Family recipes

I could have sworn that my mother told me this story, but when I asked her where she read it from, she told me that I was the one who told it to her...so, unfortunately, I won't be able to quote the source this time (I will do some research when I can and update this post if I find the source of the story). 

This post was inspired by a comment that Toyer M. made in the chat of TestBash Home's during the session "Panel: Leadership. With Shey Crompton, Nicola Sedgwick, Alessandra Moreira and the awesome host Jenna Charlton).


 I wanted to tell him this story, but I thought the chat wasn't the right place to do it.

The story
Once upon a time, there was a child who received an assignment at school. She had to find a family recipe and write it down, step by step. She didn't have to think too much about it, whenever she thought of a family recipe, "pan-fried fish" sprung to mind. 

She came home after school and asked her mom to write down the steps for her:
1. Buy fish
2. Clean it and cut it in half
3. Heat up a pan, drizzle some olive oil, place the fish in the pan and let it sizzle. 

Girl: Mom, why do you cut the fish in half?
Mother: I don't know, mom always made it that way. Ask her. 

The girl ran upstairs and asked grandma the same question.
Girl: Gran, you know our family pan-fried fish recipe? Why do you cut the fish in half?
Grandma: Hm...I don't know...ask Aunt Susan, it's her recipe. 

The girl called Aunt Susan on the phone. 
Girl: Auntie, I'm working on a school assignment and they asked me to write down a family recipe. I chose pan-fried fish! 
Aunt Susan: That's great!! So what do you want to know about it?
Girl: Well, my mom said I had to cut the fish in half...I asked grandma and she told me the same thing. But why?
Aunt Susan: When I got the recipe from my mom, I know she used to cut it in half, but only because her pan was so small! I got a bigger pan now and I no longer cut it in half. 

Asking questions is always a good exercise. The reasons why things are a certain way is purely based on the context.


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