Have always been a food junkie, since I was in my mother’s womb if you say so. However, I have also been a picky eater and my plate never had the greens. Being a school kid and tight on the pocket, I never had the chance to eat junk with friends and always had to have my lunch and dinner with my family – together on the same dining table.
You know – every teenager gets attracted to a way of life that our parents prevents us from leading. Like all teenagers, I too hated the idea of dining with my family and had a strong urge to leave my house and have an independent life.
Oh! The disgust of teenage life – Never knew they were the best times.
Post my schooling I got exposed to a different world altogether and started hanging out with my friends for most hours of the day. Being admitted to an afternoon college, there was no question of having lunch with my family. Additionally, I (most of the time) returned back home after having dinner with friends.
My mother’s upset face never struck me until one day –
I shifted to New York for professional reasons and stayed all by myself. Being unmarried, I had no one to share my dinner with. This is when I started to miss my days when my family and I shared laughter over lunch and dinner.
Ah! What days were those! My family made me feel complete!
Yet I neglected them with all my heart, just for some useless friends and some needless demands.
Fine dining with your family helps you create an unbreakable bond. I knew I could recreate or fix relationships with food but my professional life was not lenient enough to allow me to do so.
If you are one of those who have made a massive mistake as I have and now understands the luck and luxury of gathering around food with family every single day, here is what you can do to fix your relationship over food once you get back home (even if for a week) –
Cook for your Family:
You have been away from your family and hence you must know cooking. Use your culinary skills to impress your family. And if you do not know what ingredients go into the dish you want to cook, the internet is always there. Cook some unique or your parents’ favourite dish to make up for the blunders you have made.
Dine Outside:
You can take your family out for a luxurious and fine dining. You can take them out to an expensive restaurant for dinner or lunch. However, select your restaurant based on specific factors, such as –
Quality of service –
The quality of services holds high importance when you visit an eatery. Poor service can affect both your mood and experience and bring down the entire excitement of the day.
Ambience –
Make sure that the eatery you select holds a calm and house-like atmosphere to enjoy the desired at-home feeling.
Hygiene –
Cleanliness and maintenance of proper hygiene are essential when you eat outside. Maintenance of proper hygiene helps you avoid food poisoning or any health complications flickered by poor hygiene and wrongly cooked food .
Food –
You obviously go out to eat and hence the topmost priority is the food. While you select the restaurant for your fooding, evaluate them based on the taste, range of menu, etc.
In addition to the above mentioned 2 points, consider spending time with your family. Strengthen the relationship between food and you and your family over fine dining. Share the days you have spent all alone – missing the family dinners, make them feel special and acknowledge the extent to which you value them. Apologize for your behaviour and let them know that you love and value them and is grateful for all their contributions towards shaping your life.