One-upmanship
December 24th
Can be a good thing, for example, in cooking. I thought about it today while feasting on an amazing Christmas Eve meal prepared by my mom and her sister. They both learned cooking skills from her mother, who herself was an extraordinary cook. She had to — my grandmother, since she was 12, had to help her mother prepare food for her whole family. There was a father, five brothers (she was the youngest and the only girl), and four or five hired farmhands and cowherds who always ate together at the family table. They all did heavy manual labor and ate accordingly. My grandmother had to cook well, quickly, and in large quantities. I remember her from my childhood busy in the kitchen doing several things at once — tasting this, salting that, chopping this, stirring that, frying this, baking that. My mom and aunt learned well from her — they still cannot cook smaller meals just for a couple of people. They always do it like there is a huge company coming over.
I also noticed that as they (mom and her sister) are retired and are getting older — they become more adventurous as cooks. They constantly are trying new recipes, new cuisines. From classic French and Italian to Thai and Japanese and everything in between. Whatever they do, the food is always great, rather rich, but so, so tasty. They still compare themselves to her mother as their cooking skills go. I know that for whatever reason; they are trying to be better than her, to show her one-upmanship. Which is strange since my grandmother has been dead for six years. But I am not going to question that — I get to frequently eat stupendously good food and a great variety of it. Come to think about it — quantity is also always on the large side, but this is ok. I got a great thing going on here. I hope it will last for a long time.
