And on the Seventh Day . . . .

We ate the special seventh-day soup, with seven vegetables yesterday: for us, American broccoli, Chinese broccoli, fresh bamboo shoots, celery, Chinese "celery," Napa cabbage, young leeks (though they looked like green onions). Plus a little soy sauce, Maggi, and pork bouillon (okay, so not strictly vegetarian). We also had noodles and a bit of a thin egg omelet. I'm told the vegetables have special meanings and that those are some of the ideal ones to use (I know she used parsnips and turnips one year too), but that in a pinch it just has to be seven vegetables.

And the kids ate the whole thing! More than one bowl each! With all that greenery! We couldn't believe it. Mama had put a bit of each vegetable on a plate to discuss the concept with the kids--this special ritual observation on the seventh day of the Chinese new year which, and this is my guess about the practicality of it, is a way to purge and purify the body after all the gorging you do those first few days!!!--and they each started grabbing different vegetables to try. My goodness, will they eat anything with soy sauce on it? Okay, sure, it's a good soup, but Sis usually limits eating her colors to "beige" or orange and Bud prefers fruit to anything else.

I'm now convinced that if I just say that all my beans, which they avoid like the plague, were Chinese--like Peking pintos or Beijing black eyes or something--that the kids would eat them. How do you think kidney or black beans would go with soy sauce?