Mmm. Christmas break has finally arrived and I was lucky enough to spend some quality time with my grandma this week! She is one of my idols! She makes the best Vietnamese food in the world. There is only a little bias in that last statement...
We spent two afternoons chatting and drying persimmons together. She is gracious enough to speak French and Vietnamese exclusively when I'm around so that I have someone to practice with and to keep from forgetting. It's winter in California and for our family that means our persimmon trees are full. My grandmother has two persimmon trees on the side of her house and my parents also have one in our backyard. They are all huge and brimming with lovely fruit but there are so many that there would be no way to eat them all!
(Sorry, I got a little excited about the light.)
So to save them all for future enjoyment, my grandmother dehydrates them and sends them along with anyone that danes to drop by. My dad has a particular love for the dried ones, I prefer them fresh and crunchy.
Anyways, so my grandmother regularly dries at least two paper bags full of persimmons every day that they are in season. They then travel worldwide to reach cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles and friends.
The process is simple. These guys right here. Firm, crunchy and fantastic are peeled and placed into a solution of water and salt to soak.
My grandma and I worked our way through a bunch of these. She does it with such finesse.
They are then cut into slices and placed on a multi tiered food dehydrator.
Make sure that none of those edges are touching.
I told her to smile for the picture. I showed it to her and she said that she looked old.
Silly, grandma.
Did I mention that my grandma is the green-thumb of the family? This is her menagerie of orchids. She has now requested that people stop giving them to her because she has literally no more room to store them.
This is a panda candle that I found hidden away on top of a dusty bookshelf.
See that gorgeous woman and that little BOY on her lap? That's my momma and my angelic looking oldest brother. Looking. Not acting.
Before I left she decided to go through a few of her bags of scarves that she had made in her free time and told me to pick some out. SCORE! Finally some new scarves for the broke college kid!
Alright, alright already. I know there were a lot of pictures in this post. I'm just trying to make up for lost time. Just wait until I load all of the pictures from the SLR... Oh man.
Let me share this final picture of one of my favorite objects in my grandma's house.
She is very proud of it.
Merry Christmas Eve, from a girl with one of the most Christmasy names in the world.
<3 Noelle Ho
