According to wikipedia,

Sukiyaki in Laos takes the form of a bowl of bean thread noodles, various vegetables, thinly-sliced beef and other meats or seafood, sukiyaki sauce, and a raw egg in beef broth. The sukiyaki sauce is made from coconut, fermented tofu, tahini, peanut butter, sugar, garlic, lime and spices.

 

That’s a general explanation of it. My mom made the sauce with red curry, pickled garlic, fermented red bean curd, peanut butter, dried shrimp and love. It was my most favorite dish growing up. After we used up all the broth, we would also eat it this way.

When we found out that my mom didn’t have much longer to live, I realized I might not ever have her cooking again. Nor will my children get to taste how great their grandmother cooked. That’s when I decided I wanted to make a cookbook of Maman’s recipes and stories of the times I spent in the kitchen with her. That project has been worked on and off in the past 3 years. Still working on it.

I remember in the last couple weeks before my mom’s passing, she wanted to make suki yaki with me one last time. I couldn’t have asked for a better thing to do with her. Since it takes all day, it took a lot of energy out of her, so she did it with naps in between. I did everything, with her guidance. Now when I make it, I can picture us in my aunts kitchen, barefoot. Me in jeans, her in her pajamas. She was so frail and seemed smaller since the cancer was sucking the life out of her. But here she was, spending this time with me, telling me how to do everything her way.

I will forever be transported to that day whenever I cook this.