One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is to see a large silver-tiered steam pot on the stove cooking a Filipino classic dessert, leche flan. Leche flan is made with a can of condensed and evaporated milk, topped with caramelized sugar. It must be handled quickly due to temperature playing a variable in the outcome, and takes time to make all together. While it is sold in stores ready to eat, not a single one will ever compare to what my father makes. Every bite is put together with love.My father always had a desire to make leche flan ever since he was a teenager, but he was incapable due to his family’s financial situation. Around age twenty he met my mother and her mother taught him how to make it. He fulfilled his dream and now it is one of his favorite things to make.It has always been a shock to assimilate into American culture for my parents. Their stories often make me wonder what our lives would have been like if we stayed in the Philippines. Even though I wonder about the possibilities, a part of my culture will always stay with me in a dish. Leche flan has always been one of my favorite dishes but has grown to be meaningful to me learning about why my father makes them. One day, inside a large silver-tiered steam pot on the stove, will be my leche flan to make my father proud.

– Chloe

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant