Branching Out

Sometimes being married to an Asian is a little interesting. I love it, but it has definitely broadened a few of my horizons, that is for sure. I remember our second week of dating Nathan took me to eat a typical Vietnamese dish--Pho. I had never had it before, but it was really good. We left the restaurant, and he kindly informed my that I had passed his test--if I couldn't handle a little Vietnamese food, I wasn't a keeper. I even tried the tripe floating around in his bowl of Pho--bonus points. But then there was the time when we were in Philadelphia with his family, and we went to eat Chinese Dim Sum... I still tried many things, but definitely was not a favorite of mine. 

So Saturday morning we had a hot date to the Asian supermarket. Nathan had mentioned earlier in the week that he needed to go, and I told him to wait because I wanted to go with him. I hadn't been to an Asian market, and as soon as we walked in, I started asking a million questions. "Babe, what does this say?" "Babe, what is bean curd used for?" "Babe, why do we only use these types of noodles--look how many there are." Nathan never really had any good answers to my questions. I told him I'm now convinced he's not that Asian--probably only knew the two classic dishes he cooked all the time. Nathan just laughed, but claimed it's because the store had things from all over Asia, not just Vietnam. 

Anyways, we checkout--had our curry powder, big sack of Jasmine rice, shrimp balls, and hoisin sauce, and we were on our way. But we can't forget the husband's favorite snack: 

Squid shreds. Nothing like watching your husband pull apart dried squid and eat it like candy. And then want to kiss you. Um, no thanks. Brush your teeth first, babe. 

Anyways, so we had my parents over for dinner on Saturday night. They hadn't ever been over to our place, so it was nice to have them over and for them to see where I was now :) And Dad got to meet Rohan, our great dane, which he was pretty excited about. Nathan prepared everything for Vietnamese spring rolls for us, and we taught my parents to roll them. Mom was a little bit skeptical, but Dad was excited--Dad will try anything. Mom always has been the picky one, but she did pretty well--she rolled and ate three of them. She loves lettuce wrap type foods, so these were pretty similar, except for she was a little weirded out by the rice paper wrapper. 

 Dad with Rohan, who was VERY happy to have lots of extra attention

 Mom and Dad rolling their first spring rolls 

So yeah, I've enjoyed the new experiences I've had with Nathan and I've enjoyed getting to know his culture more and more. And I'm excited for all of the things he will cook me in the future :)