Tonight’s menu item is not for the squeamish

Family tradition is for us to have a Christmas gathering for the extended family a couple of days after Christmas, and this year is no exception. It’ll be all aunts, uncles, cousins and close family friends at my parents’ place tonight, gathered for dinner, followed by a gift exchange and then…the jam-and-karaoke session. Mom and cousin Anna will take turns on the piano, uncle Jorge will break out his acoustic guitar and amp, cousin Kara will bring her flute, brother-in-law Richard and sister Eileen will try the new Yamaha keyboard I got them for Christmas and I’ll be playing you-know-what. That will probably be followed by karaoke. True to Asian stereotype, Mom has not one, but two karaoke devices, both capable of displaying lyrics on a video monitor.

(Also true to Asian strereotype, I have a karaoke machine in my house; I inherited mom’s old karaoke box. It’s so old that it takes eight-track cassettes.)

Of course, the point of this posting is to announce that tonight’s main course is one of my favoutire dishes, lengua. That’s beef tongue in mushroom sauce. Mmm…tongue…