A few nights ago I found myself texting my Euro-Kid, due home this week. He was overseas for nearly nine months – a semester of school, a job, and visiting relatives a short flight away.
I asked how many bags he was traveling with (to gauge highway versus train to meet him), and then – I am, after all, a mother – I texted:
“So what would you like for dinner?”
His reply, to my surprise:
“Something American.”
Not only did I laugh, but immediately I thought of hotdogs and hamburgers. Aren’t they both quintessentially American?
So my shopping adventures included picking up burgers, dogs, dill pickles, and potato salad. I also bought the makings for chocolate chip cookies – and all the cold cuts he loves most, in case he changed his mind and asked for a sandwich.
Both of my sons insist that I make The Best Sandwiches Ever.
I couldn’t help but think of a recent post by Barb, The Empty Nest Mom, on the Sandwich.
Of course, Barb was reminding us of much more than the actual food, touching on the ways in which meals and tastes are imbued with memories of people and places, not to mention love. Isn’t it amazing how some of the simplest foods, served the way we experience them as kids, hold the power to make us feel warm and welcome?
Earlier this week, late at night, I was scrounging for a snack and found myself standing at the kitchen counter, munching on a few water crackers. Out of nowhere, I wanted cottage cheese and strawberry jelly on those crackers (I had neither), as I flashed to my grandmother eating exactly that – one of her favorite snacks.
In that moment, I felt her very much in my heart.
As for my son, who was for many years my most ardent fan, my most gregarious and constantly questioning companion, my empathic child with a gift for all things mechanical… When he landed and called me, I asked: “Hamburgers or hotdogs?”
“Hamburgers. With American cheese.”
I had bought Muenster. But then I recalled the last party and my nonstop production of grilled cheese sandwiches for the boys and their friends. Surely, there were still a few slices of American cheese in the back of the fridge.
“You got it,” I said.
Burgers and potato salad. A jar of dill pickles. Hardly tough duty!
As it turned out, last night was all about conversation – and my firstborn filling the house with his energy and travel tales, not to mention talk of murons, PMTs, cosmic signatures, and other elements of particle physics which I just may have to brush up on.
And might I mention that after requesting an espresso (to stay awake), he then asked for a sandwich after all?
Grilled cheese. Another American classic.
We’ll be having those burgers later today. Grass-fed and affordable, I might add!
For lunch.
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Barb says
Ahh, this is so sweet and reads so true for a boy, er, sorry, young man and his mom. Mom still wanting to feed them (do we ever stop) and son eating, course after course after course. The conversation and love were no doubt the best part of your joint feast!
Missy June says
It sounds like such a wonderful reunion!
Tammy L. (tammyluck) says
This reminds me of when my friend returned home from Spain after a year away. “What would you like?” I asked her in the car on the way home from the airport. “An AMERICAN breakfast!” So we stopped at Denny’s, and she was very pleased. Jetlagged, but pleased. I’m sure it would have been even better had her mom been there to make it for her.
BigLittleWolf says
🙂 That makes me smile, Tammy L.
labergerebasque says
The THING I miss most about the States are IN-and-OUT cheeseburgers in California.
They are the best (nothing compares) and it is the first and last meal I have when I visit LA or San Francisco!
I miss Mexican food too, especially home made tortillas…
BigLittleWolf says
Cheeseburgers and Mexican food… 🙂
Robin says
Nine months is such a long time. Homecoming and reunions are so sweet.
You make me miss the days when I would pick up my son at the airport and arrive home for long conversations and his favorite foods.
paul says
The memories of our childhood are strong in us, and for food this seems regardless of the healthiness or quality of the food. Around here, the ex-pats yearn for the Tastycakes of their youth, which are total junk food (as are most of our advertised brand-name hamburgers, hot dogs, and American cheeses – ask me for details). Maybe he was eating healthier food overseas and if so, let’s hope that eventually you will find that some of that has rubbed off onto him.
But I do remember missing a certain brand of peanut butter when living overseas (the additives were what made it so smooth and creamy and tasty, and it never separated). They only had “real” peanut butter in the Middle East. Now I go for peanut butter that’s just peanuts. We live and learn, even as the past remains strong in us. I’ve finally been dumping old letters and pictures from my past – about time, not easy, but feels so much better after it’s done. Slowly we all (or most of us, or some of us) grow up.
Wonderful that he’s back, safe and sound.
BigLittleWolf says
Ha! Peanut butter! Yes, I remember that, too, Paul. My first trip to France as a teenager. The food was wonderful (of course), but I missed peanut butter!
Dumping old letters and pictures? Not passing them along to the next generation, or they’ve already taken what they want?
Shelley says
I know it sounds stupid, but in my early days here in Britain I would get homesick. When that happened I headed for a McDonalds or a movie theatre.
BigLittleWolf says
Shelley, I admit to missing Big Macs on occasion as well when I was overseas…
Lisa says
Sounds like an Independence Day picnic! Sounds like you had a wonderful time together.
Wolf Pascoe says
I don’t know what stuff the hamburgers are made of in England and France, and I don’t think I want to know. What I do know is it’s not the same stuff as the ones over here are made of.