I can’t really think of a more satisfying way of living life than grabbing hot spicy crawfish for dinner with my family and drinking peach tea afterwards.

Since I am now studying in America, it’s hard for me to see my family in person, but the memories often come to me late at night. I miss the spicy taste of crawfish, I miss how Mom persuaded me to drink Pu er tea even though she failed, and I also miss the very first taste of the peach tea, which became my favorite drink later on.

I clearly remember when my family and I always went out late at night on weekends to the famous crawfish restaurant, which had tons of people lined up and waiting to be served, but we didn’t care because we really liked to eat crawfish. I was born and raised in Shanghai and never moved to another city not to mention another country. I know that it’s really not ubiquitous for Shanghainese to love spicy food as much as my family does.

Furthermore, my father once even gave me a full plate of spicy sauce to swallow in order to form my ability to eat really spicy food. With the influence of my family, I can’t have one meal without a spicy dish. However, my favorite spicy dish always remains the same---spicy crawfish.

The memory of three of us sitting around a table at night in summertime cracking the hot spicy crawfish is still vivid in my head. Mom would always put the cracked crawfish meat in my plate and keep telling me to be careful, because the meat was still very hot. I would always wait for Mom to drop the meat on my plate so I didn’t have to do the dangerous job of cracking the crawfish.

The hot spicy flavor of the crawfish stimulated every nerve in my brain and the touch of every single drop of sweat slipping down my cheeks when I eat too much spicy crawfish made me feel good. I guess it’s not only just about liking to eat the spicy crawfish, but also the familiar spicy taste and the hot crawfish meat, which reminds me a lot of those beautiful memories of my hometown and my family.

My mom always tells me to drink some Pu er tea after eating too much spicy crawfish even now, but I hate the bitter flavor so I never listen to her. She tells me to drink it for a reason. Pu er Tea is one kind of the Chinese tea that helps to clear away the heat and toxic material that spicy foods leave in one’s stomach. There is always a by-product that comes with the habit of eating something really spicy---acne always pops up on my face and it refuses to fade away. I don’t like to have too many red spots and flaws, especially at this age where I care about my appearance the most.

I did try to embrace the bitter taste once when Mom put the tea that she brewed in front of me and insisted that I should at least have a sip. However, I threw up.

Maybe it was Mom who put in too much tea which made the tea even more bitter, or maybe it was my tongue that was too sensitive to even sip the tea. Although Mom failed to force me to accept her choice of tea for me, she believed that I was going to obey her later or sooner.

I knew Mom wanted to do what was best for me, and I wasn’t trying to be rebellious by disliking the Pu er tea. I absolutely agreed with Mom that drinking tea after eating the spicy crawfish was necessary, but I just wanted to drink an effective tea that I liked since I can’t let Mom arrange every single piece for me in my life.

I would have to call my own shots after all, why not start from picking the tea that works for me now?

I choose to drink sweet tea because it floods the numb and spicy taste of the crawfish and leaves sweetness inside which cleanses the taste buds in my tongue, and sweetness always makes me feel happy. I remember once when we finished eating the spicy crawfish in a restaurant, I felt my stomach burning.

Mom ordered Pu er Tea for me, but I asked the waiter for something sweet to drink. That was the first time I didn’t do what Mom wanted me to do. The waiter brought me the very pinky wrapping with a line of highlighted English words saying "Authentic Peach Tea. ”Peaches have the function to moisten stomachs and intestines, which works the same as Pu er Tea.

Without any hesitations, I put the white plastic straw into the peach tea and started to taste it. The sweetness wasn’t that aggressive, but I could feel it flow down to my stomach and that burning feeling slowly faded away. Since then, when my family were done with spicy crawfish, I would always order the peach tea and enjoy the sweet flavor that surrounded me while Mom and Dad were sipping on their Pu er Tea to eliminate the hotness in their stomachs.

I felt so happy that Mom finally stopped trying to force me to drink Pu er tea and allowed me to choose what I like, even though this was a really tiny choice that could easily be ignored. However, I would always remember the joy that the very first taste of sweet peach tea brought to me because it also marked the happiness of Mom letting me make my very first choice.

In conclusion, spicy crawfish and peach tea make a perfect combination in my opinion, even though

my mom may think Pu er Tea is better for the crawfish.

I really want to find the familiar taste of the spicy crawfish here in the Bay Area, but it’s really not an easy job to do. However, I can see the same brand of peach tea that I had in Shanghai almost everywhere here in supermarkets. Therefore, I always recall my first success of doing what I like when I see peach tea and that feels awesome.

However, when a combination is missing the other, then it can’t perfect. Just like the scene I described at the very beginning, I am missing my Mom and Dad and it can’t be a perfect scene. I understand that missing someone is the feeling of being around family. I never felt alone and helpless when Mom and Dad were around me, I could feel their love so that I wasn’t afraid of anything.

Fortunately, I still have those memories that are preserved deep in my heart. The memories spring to my mind late at night give me courage to face another day; they remind me of growing up and being bold enough to choose what I think is right for me; they also remind me of happy and sweet times that I had with my family.