We celebrated my mom’s sixty-sixth birthday during our visit to California this summer.  In our family, along with many others from the Shanghai/Yangtze Delta region of China, the sixty-sixth has always been cause for major celebration since, by traditional standards, it is a milestone for a long, full life.  Legend has it that the guardian of the after-life will come calling soon after a person reaches this milestone.  To ward off this unwanted visit, a person has to eat sixty-six pieces of meat.  Somehow, this mass consumption of meat renders the person undesirable.

So, in the spirit of preservation, my sister and I both prepared dishes with sixty-six pieces of meat.  Mine was  紅燒, or soy sauce braised (a very traditional Shanghai method) while my sister sliced a grilled steak into sixty-six pieces.  With all the meat consumed, let’s hope my mother lives a doubly-long life!