Delicacy

When the chicken was taken from the onion-filled frying pan, and the water in the rice was just about all absorbed, Mother would announce “dinner’s ready!” And Daddy, reading, would look up and shout back, “but is it really?” Mother wouldn’t answer and instead hurried to finish setting the table and filling the water glasses. Meanwhile the onions still sat, frying, getting crispier. When dinner was truly ready, we would line up at the counter and serve ourselves, “cafeteria style”. After the rice, chicken and gravy were dolloped onto our plates, we would reach our favorite delicacy, the blackened onions.