I made this again.
After years of not making this and then suddenly making it again in July, I somehow can’t stop making it. 😆
The creamy quail eggs, vegetables and shrimp that somehow keep finding their way back to my table.
I wrote about this dish recently, and about how it reminds me of something my mom used to cook when I was younger. There is a little bit of childhood tucked into it for me: vegetables, shrimp, something warm poured over rice.
This time, though, it gave me a different kind of memory.
There was some left in the refrigerator.
One night, I was tired. It was late, and normally this is exactly the sort of moment when reaching for my phone and ordering something sounds very appealing.
But strangely, I wasn’t craving fast food.
I was craving this.
So instead of scrolling through delivery menus, I went to the kitchen and reheated the leftovers.
A bowl of rice. Plenty of shrimp. Quail eggs. Vegetables. That thick, savory sauce soaking into everything.
And that was dinner.
There was something unexpectedly satisfying about realizing that the food I wanted when I was tired was something I had already made for myself.
Not because I was trying to make a healthier choice.
Not because I was being disciplined.
I simply wanted it more.
Maybe that’s one of the nicest things about cooking at home often enough.
Every now and then, the thing waiting in your refrigerator becomes more tempting than anything that could arrive at your door.
Years ago, a similar dish reminded me of opening my lunchbox at school and finding something my mom had cooked.
Now I’ve made my own version often enough that I’m beginning to build another memory around it.
This time, it is a quiet kitchen late at night, a reheated bowl of something familiar, and the small pleasure of realizing:
I already had exactly what I was craving.
——
I’ll set the table again soon.
Lady E
Founder, Lady E Eats
Where food becomes story, and every table holds a moment
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